The Friday feature at Brooklyn Backstretch is generally devoted to New York racing’s past, but today we’re looking south, to the great racing state of Maryland as Laurel Park celebrates 100 years of racing. For five years in the early 90’s, I lived in Maryland, just north of Baltimore, smack dab in the middle of…
Rules of the race, 4035.2: Foul riding penalized. (b) A horse crossing another may be disqualified, if in the judgment of the stewards, it interferes with, impedes or intimidates another horse, or the foul altered the finish of the race, regardless of whether the foul was accidental, willful, or the result of careless riding. The…
It is, they say, better to be lucky than good. My Miss Aurelia is both. She won her first start, at Saratoga on opening day. And when her connections went back to the barn that afternoon, waiting for them was the tiniest of little black kittens, curled up in the shedrow, not more than a…
Among the trio of Grade 1 races on Saturday at Belmont is the Jamaica, named for Jamaica, Queens, for 56 years the home of Jamaica Racetrack. Opened in 1903, Jamaica was the odd track out in 1959, when management of racing here consolidated under the New York Racing Association, first known as the Greater New…
A year ago was Breeders’ Cup Friday; a month from today will be Breeders’ Cup Saturday. Like the BC or hate it, it’s inarguably a Racing Event, and whether you celebrate the gathering of world class talent or bemoan its effects on the racing calendar, you’ll be paying attention, particularly if you’ve got a…
On Saturday at Belmont, Life At Ten finished last by almost 21 lengths in the race that she won last year by two. She was part of what made that Belmont Saturday super in 2010, and that Beldame was the last time she was in the winner’s circle. I’m sure that I saw Life At…
“More than any other racing country, America has had its share of great geldings…” claimed William H.P. Robertson in 1964. And Kelso, he said, was “the most successful gelding of all.” It’s nearly impossible to think about the Jockey Club Gold Cup without thinking about Kelso, the horse who won the race five times, all…
It’s hard to believe that it was just three weeks ago this past Monday that we were still racing at the Spa. The opening of school is as absorbing and all-consuming as racing at Saratoga, and it’s easy for memories of summer to dissipate as quickly as the fog over the Oklahoma on a warm…
Hockey season started a week ago today, and already the NHL has dished out five suspensions for illegal play. And it’s still only the pre-season. Following a season in which the sport’s highest profile player was sidelined in January after a hit to the head that resulted in a concussion, hockey has spent a lot…
In September of 1905, a mere 106 years ago, the New York racing world had not yet returned to Belmont; its fall meet that year, the first year of the big track’s existence, would begin on October 2. And as opening day approached, rumors abounded about a possible rematch of Sysonsby and Artful, who had…
Brooklyn Backstretch 