Having grown up in Saratoga, I see racing and history intertwined; my little town (OK, not so little anymore) takes great pride in its 1864 clubhouse, and its status as the oldest sporting venue in the country, home to the oldest sporting event, the Travers Stakes. When my interest in racing was renewed in 2000,…
Over the last week, I’ve been reading Great Breeders and Their Methods: Leslie Combs II and Spendthrift Farm, by Mary Marshall; it’s been sitting on my shelf for about a month as I’ve made my way through other reading, and it’s been interesting reading it now, when discussions of breeding in general, of the bloodlines…
…as viewed from home in Brooklyn: How cringingly uncomfortable were we all when Jerry Bailey kept calling Big Brown “Barbaro”? I scared my cats off the couch when I yelled out loud, “Stop, Jerry, stop!” In a related note: I continue to grumble over the re-naming of the Sir Barton. It seems historically unjust for…
Note: This post is up over at The Rail. Come on by for a visit… Two weeks ago today, the conversation that began with Rags to Riches a year ago continued when Eight Belles broke down in the Derby, and her connections were pilloried for having the audacity and bad judgment to run her against…
Evening Attire at Saratoga, summer 07 Evening Attire is in my DRF watch list, so I know when he’s working out, and I know when he’s entered, and each time he races, I think, “I’m not going to write about him this time.” I write about him all the time, and the story is so…
A few weekends ago, I made my third visit to Delaware Park; I’d intended to post this then, but then the Derby happened…and then the Derby aftermath happened. My previous visits were on closing day in November of 2006 and on a Saturday in April of 2007. Each time, I was impressed with various elements…
Earlier this week, the Schenectady Gazette ran a story about the ways in which B.E.S.T. (Backstretch Employees Service Team) will work on behalf of the Saratoga backstretch workers this spring and summer (thanks, Equidaily, for the link to this story). B.E.S.T., located on the backstretch at Belmont, began as a drug and alcohol treatment program…
Following my post last week about synthetic surfaces, I saw links at both Thorough Blog and Equidaily to this article by Art Wilson on the debate in California over the safety of synthetic tracks. Notable quotation: “I’ve had nine horses put down in 40 years, and five of them have been since the synthetics” (trainer…
Photo credit Adam Coglianese I’ve referred often to my night-time visit to the Middleburg Training Center last fall, and the acquaintance I was fortunate to make of a woman connected to the training center and the horses who live there. Some of them are babies in training; some are horses resting after a season’s racing;…
Sunday morning workout on the Oklahoma Obliging horses and riders from the James Bond stable on the main track
Brooklyn Backstretch 