Earlier this week, I posted on Twitter and Facebook the ad below for this year’s Belmont Stakes. I wrote, “I love this ad. And I know that it’s stuff like this that makes non-New Yorkers hate us…but I still love it.” The responses to the ad were all favorable…perhaps because those who don’t like it…
I met her in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs. I’d been assigned to cover the Eight Belles on Oaks Day, a race in which my focus was on Arienza, Azeri’s first foal who’d won her first two starts before losing to the dominant Joyful Victory in the Fantasy Stakes. Watching from the rail, disappointed…
It’s Belmont week! As usual, Belmont is dark today and tomorrow, but the mornings on the backstretch will be busy, as shippers arrive and those horses on the ground continue to work towards this weekend’s races. In addition to the racing action, several racing organizations are taking advantage of the focus on Belmont to raise…
A few weeks ago, as I was writing about Morine’s Victory, the 10-year-old son of Victory Gallop who had been rescued from an auction, I knew what the reaction would be. I knew that racing fans, outraged and horrified, their compassion stirred, would publicly criticize the horse’s last racing connections. As I learned the details…
Dark clouds and torrential rain gave way to blazing sun and a glorious Met Mile day at Belmont, exactly the sort of day to kick off summer racing with one of New York’s historic races. The Grade 2 Sands Point for three-year-old fillies was the day’s co-feature; inaugurated in 1995, the race is named for…
On May 30, 1913, Belmont Park threw open its doors for the first time in three years. Racing had been suspended in New York due to the state’s anti-gambling laws, and racing-starved patrons flocked to Belmont in what was reportedly the second-biggest crowd in the track’s history. The featured race that day was the Metropolitan…
Not long after the Kentucky Derby, I was putting together a post about jockey John Velazquez, and, in search of embeddable video of the race, I went to YouTube, expecting to find an official version made available by NBC, by Churchill Downs, or by the NTRA. In some ways, I’ve gotten spoiled: the NTRA, Breeders’…
I first heard Paddy O’Prado’s name on August 5, 2009, the day that Saratoga Race Course was celebrating midsummer St. Patrick’s Day. The aptly named two-year-old, owned by Donegal Racing, was entered in the fourth race, a maiden special weight at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf. He finished second by a neck…
Pimlico: The Grade I, $1 million Preakness at 1 3/16 miles #1 Astrology (15-1 ML): Beautifully bred son of A.P. Indy has progressed nicely this year and enters on the upswing off a one-turn run in the sloppy Jerome. However, up to this point he’s never been true GI quality, nor has he ever run…
2004-2005 was the first year that I paid attention to horse racing year round. I’d spent much of the summer of 2004 at Saratoga, and I developed my first major horse crush, on Afleet Alex. I was there for his Sanford. I think I bet him, but in memories like this, we always do, don’t…
Brooklyn Backstretch 