When it comes to career choices, Kim Schaumburg hasn’t exactly taken the easy road. Her first job as an adult was as an exercise rider, then a jockey. When an injury ended that phase of her life, she got her commercial pilot’s license for single engine floatplanes, and on September 11, 2001, she was stranded…
We’re not supposed to fall in love with horses. We’re not supposed to cheer in the press box. We’re not supposed to root in the winner’s circle. These are the rules. Racing gives us a lot to cheer for: favorite horses, a winning bet. It also offers plenty to lament: the bad beat, the injury,…
The female Fourstardave. Dave’s Pal. Tough and dependable. So was Irish Linnet described during her six-year racing career, a career that saw her win at Saratoga for six consecutive years, including five straight wins in the Yaddo. She won her first race at Saratoga as a two-year-old in 1990. It was the third start of…
In the days before racing took over my life, I couldn’t wait for the end of August. Yeah, sure, it meant that summer was almost over, and school was going to start soon…but it also meant the U.S. Open. My friend Susan’s family had had an Open subscription for decades, and beginning in 1999, I…
That’s what I heard, over and over, the night of the Belmont Child Care Association benefit last month, and in the days following. “That was so much FUN!” First-timers and veterans gathered for adult lemonades amid an array of silent auction items before entering the dining room at the Gideon Putnam, bedecked to resemble a…
It’s over. It’s OVER. And while there are plenty of folks out there happy to see the Spa meet come to an end, I will respectfully submit that they are out of their minds, because there is, simply, no better place to be. Though sentimental temptation infused my ride back to Saratoga last Friday, it’s…
Though the Woodward has been run at Saratoga only since 2006, Mr. William Woodward was no stranger to the old Spa. Owner and breeder extraordinaire from his Maryland farm, Woodward was a New Yorker: he was born in New York City in 1876, and he died there in 1953. His horses won five Belmont Stakes.…
On Monday, I got a release informing me that today, NYRA would unveil its proposed capital improvements for Saratoga Race Course, and that tonight, it would hold a community forum to get public opinion on the proposals. Really? Really? On one of the FOUR days of the whole meet that I won’t be there? Really?…
School obligations led me southward earlier this week, away from Saratoga and back to Brooklyn, which looks remarkably verdant and beautiful after two months’ absence. I am happy to be home…I will also be happy to make my way north tomorrow, back for closing weekend at the Spa. Among the many things to look forward…
My Travers weekend started like this. Friday morning, out on the Oklahoma to meet an early interview, and I got blessed with one of Saratoga’s perfect mornings. For the first time since 2000, I wasn’t at Saratoga to see the sun rise on Travers morning; I missed the day’s first race, the annual sprint for…
Brooklyn Backstretch 