Brooklyn is looking northward, both literally and figuratively, as we head into this MassCap weekend; a former denizen of Boston and its environs, I’m making my maiden voyage to Suffolk Downs this weekend, feeling slightly guilty for making my first visit on a Big Race Day. Railbird and I had all good intentions of an…
While a Big Brown-Music Note showdown on the racetrack might be a tantalizing idea, Big Brown won the PR battle hands down today…even though he was 70 miles away. Grade I races are a crowd magnet in the paddock: connections, friends, family, journalists, staff, executives…all turn out to see the cream of the crop warm…
Over at That’s Amore Stable, Frank is disheartened. In addition to all of racing’s other ills, he’s worried about impropriety, the appearance of it and the genuine article. It’s a good thing that he wasn’t around in 1899. That year, Indian Fairy became the first filly to win the Matron; initiated in 1892, for its…
Not everyone thinks that “distaff” is a dirty word. From this week’s New Yorker: Juliana Hatfield, a fixture on the independent-pop scene for more than a decade, specializes in distinctly distaff songs that range from mopey to angry, and she bolsters her tales of angst and ennui with some fine guitar playing. (emphasis mine) An…
What, exactly, is it that makes a racing meet “boutique”? We hear the term all the time, usually referring to Saratoga, Del Mar, and Keeneland, meets known for their brevity, the quality of the racing, and their popularity. Recently, bettors have come out in full voice decrying the diminished quality of racing at Saratoga (too…
I was last at Belmont on July 18th and 19th, and on those days, the backyard didn’t look too much different from Saratoga: groups of friends with coolers of beer; families with kids hanging out by the playground; a crowded apron of punters lustily cheering home their horses. The place was alive, even if the…
Weather permitting, the Ruffian will be run at Belmont this afternoon. With fresh flowers on Ruffian’s grave in the infield, nine fillies will go to the post to contest the mile and a sixteenth race on the dirt. The race used to be the second in the Belmont fall filly series, the first the Maskette…
And so our eyes swing eastward, out to Elmont and Big Sandy, as the Belmont Fall Championship Meet opens. They’ll be racing at Belmont beginning today and ending on October 26th, and in between, we’ll see thirty-six stakes races, twenty-three of them graded. Unfortunately, opening weekend of the Belmont meet is not supposed to be…
This may be the longest good-bye in the history of Saratoga. I know, I know, it ended three days ago, and I’ve already posted twice about it, but there are so many notes and overheards and photos and images that I kept meaning to write about and didn’t quite get to…so I swear, this is…
What a good idea to have the Spinaway and the Hopeful on closing weekend; as we resist acknowledging that our days at the Spa are coming to end, we are given something to look forward to, the promise of two-year-olds of whom we hope we will see much more in the coming months. In week…
Brooklyn Backstretch 