Update: Triple Tiara

As I wrote here last week following my post on the Triple Tiara, the information that NYRA provided about this racing series didn’t quite match up. The website page about the Mother Goose indicated that the original configuration of the race (Acorn, Mother Goose, Coaching Club American Oaks) had been changed in 2003, with the…

Ogygian: 1986 Dwyer winner

It’s tempting this morning, the day of the Dwyer Stakes for three-year-olds at Belmont, to hearken back to the epic 1920 running of the race, in which John P. Grier challenged Man O’ War for the lead, headed him at the eighth pole, and eventually gave way in what the New York Times then called…

July 4th racing news

Happy Fourth of July! Across the country, we will spend today grilling; watching baseball; drinking beer; going to the beach; sitting in traffic; watching fireworks. Some of us will be working; some might make it to the racetrack. We’ll see friends and family. If you live in New York, you’ll enjoy the blissful emptiness and…

Above All Odds

Sometimes, being third feels like winning the Kentucky Derby. Or so it seemed to me, as I watched the connections of Above All Odds exult when he crossed the wire a nose in front of Crafty CJ, six lengths behind the winner. The people around us (all twelve of them, at Belmont on a Wednesday…

Lucky To Cope

No, that’s not a description of how I’m feeling these days (though this upcoming long weekend is a welcome prospect). No, Lucky To Cope is a six-year-old Florida-bred gelding whose “acquaintance” I made on March 3rd, 2007, courtesy of simulcasting at the Meadowlands. My sister-in-law was throwing a surprise party for my brother there that…

Tuesday morning quick picks

Especially in the aftermath of the Belmont bathroom debacle, NYRA has gotten a lot of criticism about its customer service. Now I recognize that an answered e-mail is not quite the same as a flushing toilet, but I commend the organization for its responsiveness. For the third time, an e-mail that I sent with a…

On the Contrary

Another Grade I at Belmont, another win for the longest shot on the board. Didn’t have this one, unfortunately, though I’m a little mad that I didn’t, as my eyes kept going back to Frost Giant in the program, and I dismissed my interest. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…but not nearly as bad poor Patrick’s day. I…

The Handicap Triple

Today’s 115th running of the Suburban Handicap at Belmont is the last leg of the Handicap Triple Crown, a concept with which I’ve become enamored over the last few months and that is largely ignored by the rest of the racing world. It’s not as if trainers circle the dates of the Handicap Triple Crown…

Some good racing news

What with the trifecta of bad racing news over the last couple of days, (the Jeremy Rose suspension and the Dutrow/Asmussen violations), I’m going to focus on some good racing news. As both the NY Daily News and Green but Game reported earlier this month, Casino Drive and his connections developed quite a relationship with…

Santa Anita’s new surface

On Tuesday Santa Anita announced that it will completely overhaul its track surface, replacing its current Cushion track with Pro-Ride, the first track in this country, I believe, to use the Pro-Ride surface. The Paulick Report links to the Santa Anita press release and reports its own research (in slightly less detail than I’d like–you…