“Is Mr. Schwartz around?” I ask a stablehand, having no idea what the trainer looks like. He looks at me skeptically. “Not here right now,” he says. “Be back in a few minutes. In a pink cart.” A pink cart? OK. That should make it easy. I get a cup of coffee, and when I…
On Saturday, the weather was gorgeous (it may have been only the second day since before July 20th that it didn’t rain); the Old Spa was packed; and the card featured full-field, frequently good betting races with some competitive finishes. And if you weren’t happy with the product in front of you, you could turn…
On Monday morning, I sat in the upper level of the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion and watched as three humans and three horses were inducted into the Hall of Fame. I was touched, as I wrote on Tuesday, by the humanity and the humility of the event; as several publications have noted, the unplanned theme…
Jessica Chapel of Railbird and I have been invited to appear on Call to the Post with Seth Merrow of Equidaily tomorrow (Monday) at 9:45 am on the Capital OTB channel. Capital Region residents can watch on Time Warner cable channel 12; those outside the region can view the program (and all other Capital OTB…
Sunday’s feature at Saratoga is the Fourstardave Handicap, a Grade II race at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf for three year olds and up. It’s named for one of Saratoga’s most beloved equine citizens, the gelding who won stakes races here for five consecutive years and who won a race every year…
Ed Fountaine in today’s New York Post reports that Godolphin is considering running Music Note in the Travers on August 23rd. While I have written here repeatedly that I have no trouble with fillies running against colts, I don’t see why you’d make this move. (Railbird has a different opinion.) In a development that I…
Panel #4: Jockeys Participants: Richard Migliore, John Velazquez, Javier Castellano Richard Migliore, who’s been riding in California for the last few years, dominated much of this conversation because he’s had more experience than the other two jockeys. Migliore spoke about the initial adjustments at Del Mar, given the way it was playing in the afternoon…
Panel #3: Trainers Participants: Todd Pletcher, Nick Zito, Mark Casse, Dale Romans Each participant began by talking about his experience training on synthetic surfaces. Casse, who is based at Woodbine, obviously had the most, and he is an unequivocal fan of synthetics, particularly because he can keep his horses in training without regard to the…
I first began to pay significant attention to synthetic surfaces two years ago in Saratoga, when I attended a panel at the National Museum of Racing at which several participants expressed concern about the possible respiratory effects of prolonged exposure to artificial racing surfaces. Before that, when I heard about synthetics, I thought that anything…
I’m here at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion at the all-day forum on synthetic surfaces. The first two panels were track execs and vets; the first was informative, interesting, and at times lively; the second less so, which disappointed me, as vets are the ones who can go beyond anecdotal information to provide real data about…
Brooklyn Backstretch 