In a June 21 op-ed in The Saratogian, New York Racing Association (NYRA) president and CEO Chris Kay chided those who cite attendance as a measure of success of the summer racing meet. “The questionable pursuit of trying to gauge the popularity of Saratoga using attendance as the metric should be apparent,” he wrote. “A…
When Jack O Liam left New York in March, the 3-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky was a maiden. A veteran of six races in which he’d never been better than third, he started his career in the barn of Gary Contessa, who shipped him south to run at Laurel after a string of New…
At Sunday’s fan forum presented by the New York State Gaming Commission’s Fan Advisory Council, one of the first speakers was a man who was introduced to horse racing by his fiancée’s family, which is from this area. “They said, ‘We’re going to take you to a horse race,’” recounted Bill Sullivan of Beverly, MA.…
The last time a horse won the Triple Crown, cable television didn’t exist, much less social media like Twitter and Facebook. When Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakesin 1978, he was the third horse to do so in six years. Secretariat had broken the 25-year drought in 1973, and Seattle…
If you need someone to run your barn, to do some legs, or to run a horse for you, on the flat or over jumps, you might want to give Tiffany Webb a call. You could also call her if you need a little legal advice, or if you need someone to build a racecar…
Happy Travers week! The biggest week of the summer got even bigger when Zayat Stables announced on Sunday that American Pharoah would be coming to the Mid-Summer Derby to try to become only the second horse in history to win the Triple Crown and the Travers Stakes. Will he join Whirlaway, who did it in…
Saturday, August 8 was a pretty big day at Saratoga Race Course. The inaugural Whitney Racing Festival featured five stakes races, three of them graded, the centerpiece the 88th running of the Whitney Stakes. Kendrick Carmouche had mounts in three of those races. He finished last in the first one, on Joint Return in the…
She is one of the faces of New York racing, on-screen every racing day, in the paddock pre-race offering analysis of horses’ appearance, in the winner’s circle post-race interviewing happy connections. But the woman so closely identified with the tracks on the NYRA circuit is a product of generations of mid-Atlantic racing, and she didn’t…
On Saturday morning during training hours, Jackson N Leonard broke down during a breeze on the main track. Vanned off and later euthanized, he was one of three fatalities at Saratoga that day, two during training, one during racing, the first ones of this year’s racing meeting. New York Racing Association staff, the horse’s trainer…
On the first really hot day of the summer, Arch Kingsley had wrapped up morning training and chores a little before noon at his barn near the old Sanford complex, across Nelson Avenue from Clare Court. After a few months stabled at the main track before the meet opened, Kingsley and his 19 horses moved…
Brooklyn Backstretch 