While thousands of massed onlookers vented their excitement in outcries whichmerged into a prolonged roar, five lightning-hoofed throughbreds (sic) flashedover the finish line in the Paumonok Handicap at Jamaica yesterday clustered ina compact group. (New York Times) It was last year’s Paumonok that led to my discovery of the wealth of racing writing in the…
For a variety of reasons, the last week or so has been a tough one around the Backstretch household. An unexpected death in one of my communities has left many of us shaken, and it’s not every day that a jet lands in the water just a few miles from my home. Though that outcome…
“The sport of horse racing is the only instance where the participation of blacks stopped almost completely while the sport itself continued—a sad commentary on American life…Isaac Murphy, so highly admired during his time for his skills and character, would have been ashamed of his sport.” –Arthur Ashe, quoted in Hotaling. Today, on the day…
Though the remarkable Searching was not a Jacobs homebred, her daughter Affectionately was, the product of the successful racing relationship between trainer Hirsch Jacobs and owner Isador Bieber. Unlike her mother, who raced twenty times without winning, Affectionately won nine of her first ten races, including three stakes races as a two-year-old, and in 1962,…
The three-day holiday weekend means Monday racing at Aqueduct—perhaps not something to which to look forward, given the forecast, but with stakes races each day, it’s not going to be hard to be convinced to head out there…provided, of course, that the weekend cards don’t go the way of today’s, which is to say, out…
I have a new favorite out-of-town track. I really liked Tampa Bay Downs when I was there a year ago, and I still think it’s terrific, but Fair Grounds is Tampa Bay Downs with good food and history, so it’s got the edge. It may be the cleanest race track I’ve ever been to—the place…
Early in the morning, the empty paddock, being readied for the day… Larry Jones working out one of his horses (check out that sweatshirt!) in the morning… …and saddling one in the afternoon… As seen on NYC OTB channel 71, John Dooley and Jessica Pacheco on the morning handicapping show… And Jessica in the paddock,…
Happy 2009! I walked home from New Year’s Eve dinner in relatively balmy temperatures in the fifties, wearing just a light jacket, and turned on the television to watch the brave? foolish? insane? revelers back home in New York shivering in single-digit temperatures. Much as I love home, I can’t say that I was sorry…
I’m glad that even the folks who work at Old Friends admit that they’ve got favorites among their dozens of retirees; in a recent message announcing the death of Ruhlmann, Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen wrote: I really like all of our retirees but each one of us at Old Friends develop special…
I’ve rarely met a highway I didn’t like, and thus, with Christmas festivities behind me (we had a terrific holiday in the Backstretch household, including Christmas Eve dinner two tables away from Eli Manning, perhaps my best ever celeb sighting), I hit the road on Boxing Day to head south and west. After a brief…
Brooklyn Backstretch 