Brooklyn Backstretch is going a little random as the school year comes to a close. In an example of bad timing, I head out of town this morning for four days of community service with our senior class—fun and rewarding, a great way to end the year, but not the best way to stay on…
Thanks to the folks at The Rail, for featuring this post along with those of other TBA bloggers in today’s Blog Roll feature. Today’s feature at Belmont is the Sands Point, upgraded to a Grade II this year, at a mile and an eighth on the turf for three year old fillies. Sands Point is…
I’ve been writing for weeks about the major BEST fundraiser last night, always with a tinge of envy, knowing that the ticket price was out of my reach, regretful that I wouldn’t be able to attend. Around midday on Wednesday, I got a call from the folks at the Belmont Child Care Association, who told…
Brooklyn Backstretch is taking it easy this morning, having received yesterday a late-breaking invitation to the BEST benefit on Long Island last night, at which Allen Jerkens received a Lifetime Outstanding Trainer award. The New York Racing Association hosted the event at the gorgeous Hempstead House in Sands Point, Long Island, which is a long…
I arrived at 8:45 to watch workouts and meet up with friends. We missed Evening Attire’s workout Monday morning, but caught Funny Cide with Barclay Tagg aboard, as Tagg supervised his horses working out. Maybe one of these horses waiting patiently to work is Tale of Ekati, who posted an official workout Monday morning? And…
You knew it was coming, right? You knew that I couldn’t let the historic Met Mile go by without delving a little—or a lot—into its history? The Met Mile (official name: Metropolitan Handicap) is the first Grade I of the year at Belmont, and it was inaugurated in 1891, when it was won by a…
Today’s feature race at Belmont is the Grade II Sheepshead Bay Handicap, run on the turf at a mile and three-eighths for fillies and mares, three and up. A neighborhood in Brooklyn, Sheepshead Bay was home to a racetrack from 1884 – 1910. In 1911, horse racing was declared illegal in New York State, and…
So Mr. or Ms. Anonymous has started a little conversation with his declaration that Allen Jerkens uses steroids on his horses. Fellow TBA writer Frank of That’s Amore Stable confirms this practice with a link to a 2007 New York Times article, written by Bill Finley, in which Jerkens explains his use of steroids on…
Good news for fans of New Yorkers Spooky Mulder and Naughty New Yorker. Though bred in Kentucky, Spooky Mulder’s spent a good deal of his racing life in New York. After being claimed by Scott Lake in February of 2007, Spooky moved to the Mid-Atlantic circuit, but David Jacobson claimed him in his last start,…
Following the Native Dancer brouhaha begun with this article in the Wall Street Journal and continued by Eight Belles’ breakdown, a reader e-mailed this piece from the Baltimore Sun, which takes issue with the assertion that today’s horses who trace to Native Dancer are more fragile than horses from other sire lines. As someone who…
Brooklyn Backstretch 