Oh, how I miss Aqueduct! I can understand why folks think it would be good for New York racing to take a few months off in the winter, though the economic ramifications would, I think, be pretty significant at both the individual and municipal levels. But from a strictly personal standpoint: I have the rare…
Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance colleague Patrick Patten at Handride reminded us once again this week that he’s not a big fan of Equidaily. He argued that it makes no sense for readers to rely on one site for racing news, and he pointed out that the site has included links to a variety of Thoroughbred Bloggers…
Last September I wrote a post about ways to market to fans and get them to bet; I suggested then that it might be worthwhile to figure about how much tracks would like fans/visitors to bet per visit, and create marketing strategies/programs designed to meet the goal. I also wrote then that racing is in…
The holiday break couldn’t have come at a better time for NYRA or New York racing fans, given the events at Aqueduct on Sunday. In the fifth race, Routine Addendum went down at the top of the stretch. Did he clip heels? Did he break down? Various perspectives offered various answers. As the jockey Sheldon…
I live in a city that takes unabashed glee in the evisceration of its physical history. Tourist and natives alike are hard-pressed to discover any remnants of the Dutch and British settlements that settled Manhattan; little is left of the glory of the Gilded Age; and even the more recent bohemian period is barely discernible…
A friend recently told me about a local numbers game in Washington Heights, the neighborhood in northern Manhattan in which he grew up. As a kid, he worked at one of the local bodegas, and folks from the neighborhood would come in daily to lay down a few dollars on that day’s numbers. The winning…
Three horses break down at Aqueduct over the last week, but over two tracks—what does that mean? RIP, Megadiva; Yes She’s a Lady appeared to be OK after unseating Rajiv Maragh in the collision; both he and Winston Thompson were uninjured. Decided in the paddock: put a great sports bar at the Big A. Good…
Visitors to Aqueduct were greeted with this winter wonderland… …and Marines collecting donations for Toys for Tots. (But no menorah?) Snow on the Belmont backstretch this morning… …and around the turf course, rails splintered and on the ground, like so many discarded white matchsticks, waiting to be re-assembled in three months. Five Nine more New…
On July 23rd, 1914, it was good to be James Butler. Six years earlier, he’d finally won his battle with the Jockey Club, and his Empire City race track in Yonkers, NY was given dates on the New York racing calendar. Now, in 1914, his own race track was running a race named after his…
Thus was my writing characterized recently by a succinct, eloquent, and of course anonymous commenter. Maudlin crap? Maudlin: Etymology: alteration of Mary Magdalene; from her depiction as a weepingpenitentDate: 15091 : drunk enough to be emotionally silly Oh, dear: “drunk enough to be emotionally silly”? That commenter might be on to something… Crap: 1a usually…
Brooklyn Backstretch 