So we’re just about there: Eclipse Award ballots are due tomorrow, and in a few weeks the seemingly endless, acrimonious debates about Horse of the Year will be over…all except the shouting, which will not, I suspect, subside when the winner is announced. Fervent dissent about the Eclipse Awards isn’t limited to who has earned…
Happy new year! And for the third consecutive year, I’m kicking off my year at a racetrack. In 2009, I welcomed the new year on the Fair Grounds backstretch; last year, it was Calder; and finally, this year, I’m making it to my first New Year’s Day at the Big A, getting my NYRA calendar…
As I think about my 2010 racing memories, I am struck by how few of them actually happened on the racetrack. Few races stand out to me; few horses left durable impressions. I am surprised by that. That’s not to say, though, that 2010 ends devoid of lingering recollections; there are plenty of them, and…
At 5:30 this morning, I was awakened by the wind howling down my block and around my building, fresh off the river. It was still dark out, but the streetlights showed that the snow had mostly stopped. I thought about my 8:30 appointment this morning, the one that I would certainly cancel, heeding the oft-repeated…
It’s 7:30 am, and I’m already behind. Not a single present is wrapped, and in fact, there are a couple still to be purchased…and located, so efficiently did I store the few that I’d purchased early. Christmas cards? Ha! Holiday cards this year – New Year’s, or maybe even Valentine’s Day. But the caponata is…
Ah, library day. After a few days of shopping for Christmas, visiting farms, and seeing friends, Tuesday was the day set aside for spoiling myself at the Keeneland Library, for delving into racing’s past, for exploring the Library’s precious collections, for reading and writing and taking notes. After calling on the unparalleled knowledge of librarian…
The envelope for the key to my room tells me that my hotel “sits on some of Lexington’s oldest thoroughbred farm land. It spans some 1300 acres, and was once an integral part of the Madden Family’s (sic) ‘Hamburg Place Farm.’” John Madden named his farm after his champion two-year-old colt; according to Maryjean Wall,…
My first post on synthetic racing surfaces was on September 26, 2007, nine days after this site was launched. I suppose that I can rightly be called a synthetic skeptic; while heartened at the possibility of a surface that would decrease injuries, I found hasty, and perhaps even dangerous, the quick adoption of synthetics without…
Who says New York racing conversations can’t be interesting in freezing mid-December? Who said anything about the racing doldrums? Maybe we should thank NYC-OTB and our dear elected representatives 200 miles to the north for giving us so much fodder for chatter in this holiday season. The New York Racing Association has been widely pilloried…
On Saturday morning, the immense stillness of Belmont Park in December echoed with sounds of happy children. Having outgrown its usual home at Anna House, the ninth Belmont Child Care Association holiday party took over the Belmont Café, on the ground floor of the clubhouse, so that the children of the backstretch workers could select…
Brooklyn Backstretch 