If you were paying attention to racing a hundred years ago this month, some things would look familiar: racing in New York shifted from Aqueduct to Belmont; the Metropolitan Handicap was run at Belmont Park; a former racehorse met a sad end in his post-racing life. The details, of course, were different. Aqueduct ran its…
Today at Belmont, eight fillies and mares will take to the turf for the 57th renewal of the Sheepshead Bay (GII). Sheepshead Bay is a small body of water in the southernmost part of Brooklyn, between the “mainland” and the long, slim jut of land on which Coney Island sits to the west and Brighton…
Over the last couple of years, the Shuvee Handicap at Belmont has offered the occasion to consider the magnificent horse who, en route to winning handicap mare honors in 1970 and 1971, twice won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, back when it was a two-mile race. In 2008, we could talk about Shuvee in the…
Regular followers of New York racing might expect to see the Peter Pan, a traditional prep for the Belmont Stakes, this week; instead, they’ll be seeing the Grade II Dwyer. Because neither the State of New York nor New York City Off-Track Betting has managed to meet its financial obligations to the New York Racing…
I wrote this a year and a half ago, shortly before the 2008 Breeders’ Cup. I recalled it this weekend, during so many conversations about Zenyatta, the Breeders’ Cup, Personal Ensign…and this race. It originally appeared at The Blood-Horse. What agony to be a fan of the distaff side in November of 1988. Root for…
There is no sound more exciting to the racetrack customer than the trenchant, nasal exclamation of “They’re off!” by Fred Capossela. With this brief expression, the New York track announcer sums up the promise of clamorous jockeys, flailing whips and eager-to-race horses springing from the starting gate. (Tuite) Capossela was NYRA’s track announcer for 37…
Nearly daily since last summer, some element of the behavior of Zenyatta, Rachel Alexander Alexandra, John Shirreffs, Steve Asmussen, the Mosses and/or Jess Jackson has been the subject of some article, some blog post, some Twitter comment. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the connections and the horses are superstars of the sport, and in our…
I came to racing too late to make it to Hialeah to see Thoroughbreds; the shuttered track has been presented to me as a Shangri-La, the epitome of all that was good and right and beautiful about racing. I mourned that I never got to see it. But I lucked out: Hialeah would be open…
In 2009, Rachel Alexandra became at least the fourth three-year-old filly to beat older males when she won the Woodward at Saratoga, an accomplishment that in the minds of many cemented her claim to Horse of the Year honors. That victory provided the opportunity to recall Twilight Tear and Busher, three-year-old fillies who also beat older…
Some oft-told stories bear repeating, and as we head to a stakes-laden Fourth of July card at Belmont, the 1920 Dwyer comes to mind as one of those races whose story deserves to be told, yet again. On July 10th, 1920, Samuel Riddle’s once-beaten Man o’ War faced off against the only colt said to…
Brooklyn Backstretch 