A major digression…

…with your indulgence, I hope. I had all good intentions of coming home after the last Rangers’ regular season home game (we made the playoffs! Yippee!) to dig into Saturday’s Carter, a race first run in 1895 and offering all kinds of tempting possibilities for exploration, not limited to that famous triple dead heat in…

Back in Brooklyn

As March comes to an end, so does my spring break road trip. I’m back at school today, back in Brooklyn for good, and Lexington is in the rearview mirror. Fortunately, there’s one last Kentucky thread to tie up, and that’s the story of my day at Turfway Park; hoping it falls into the “better…

Visiting Three Chimneys

I can’t imagine that my visit to Three Chimneys was all that different from anyone else’s; as with most elements of the breeding industry, the place is a smooth-running machine, with the touring part of the business in the very capable hands of Ann Hayes, our wonderful tour guide. We got a little lucky: the…

Friday in Lexington

Lexington, KY Lexington, KY: In what may be seen as the height of laziness and self-referentialism, I am turning to the mailbag for today’s post. Actually, I am hoping that it will be read as an act of utter appreciation, as I was happy to receive the comments/suggestions on yesterday’s post and want to make…

Spring break in Lexington

Lexington, KY For the last half a dozen or so years, I’ve devoted my spring break to visiting family in southwest Florida. It’s the epitome of relaxation: I read a ton of books; I spend hours at the beach; I take naps; I go running in the sunshine; I go to the races or watch…

Spitzer Day at the Big A

I’m not particularly inclined to discourse much about the shenanigans of the Honorable Eliot Spitzer, but in perusing today’s Aqueduct entries, we have: Race 1: Divorce Court Race 2: Fast Million and E Z Dollar Race 3: All Night Labor Race 4: Skipping Class Race 5: Mister Alimony Race 6: Yes It’s the Truth Race…

A summer morning with Kiaran McLaughlin

On Monday night I attended the Sampras/Federer exhibition match. Had Sampras won, I’d have been certain that it was fixed; Federer won in a third set tiebreak, so I’m only 99% sure. My tickets said 7:00; the match maddeningly started at 8:30, and I got home far too late to generate anything new, so herewith,…

The weekend recap

I didn’t get to Aqueduct until the fourth race on Saturday, and after watching the first race on television, I nearly decided not to head out. Poor John Imbriale—the horses broke, and unable to see anything through the dense fog, he pretty much stayed quiet until the horses were nearly at the finish line. Even…

Sliding through history

Aqueduct offers the best of two racing worlds this afternoon, the present and the historical. We’ve got the Grade III Gotham, for three-year-olds with Derby aspirations. The race was first run in 1953 at the Jamaica racecourse and named for the city in which the track was situated, another in a line of races honoring…