Last week a Twitter follower asked me, in service of settling a bet, if I knew when the saddling area at Saratoga moved from under the backyard trees to its current location. I’ve asked: Andy Serling. Nick Zito. Allen Jerkens. Marshall Cassidy. My brother. Steve Crist. And so far, folks, we’ve got about a ten-year…
I watched the Jockey Club Gold Cup from the winner’s circle at Belmont Park on Saturday. It’s an ideal spot for about five seconds, the last five seconds of the race. The race started on the clubhouse turn, so most of us had to rely on the infield screen to see what was happening. I…
I didn’t think that I would write about Rachel Alexandra’s retirement. What was I going to say? That I was surprised? (I wasn’t.) That I found it odd? (I didn’t.) That I disagree with the decision? (I don’t.) That I’m disappointed? (I’m not.) Panegyrics have appropriately flooded the media, lauding the first three-year-old filly Horse…
He worked in New York racing for nearly 60 years. He wrote a seminal book on horse racing, American Racing, 1866-1921. He created the Experimental Free Handicap. But finding information on Walter S. Vosburgh is about as easy as tracking down a race chart from 1953. He’s got his own race, the Vosburgh, run since…
In January of 2007, I went to Philadelphia Park for the first time. I don’t recall that it was particularly cold, but it was gray, and the place had a desolate feel. We sat in the restaurant on the fifth floor; it was perfectly pleasant, but the horses seemed awfully far away: it was tough…
Last October, I was sitting on the second floor of the Keeneland clubhouse. A friend and I had taken a break from the races for a little sustenance, and we settled ourselves in chairs near the windows, bread pudding and bourbon in hand. The Belmont races were being simulcast on a big screen above us;…
Trainer W.J. (Buddy) Hirsch lauded Gallant Bloom as ‘the most consistent and honest mare’ that he has raced in 30 years as a trainer. The New York Times reported this quotation in March of 1970, after Hirsch’s filly Gallant Bloom had won the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap. Gallant Bloom was four then; she made only…
Unlike racing (at least in New York), hockey has an off-season. Which is not to say that hockey news stops between the hoisting of the Stanley Cup in June and the opening of training camps in September: salary cap management, off-season trades, and players’ union peccadilloes all get their share of ink as we impatiently…
Saturday was one of those days when I wondered why I was going to the track. Had a lot of work to do—writing, cleaning, prepping, planning—and it was hard to thing that a day at Belmont would be the best use of my time. But at 7:40-something on Saturday morning, I was on the Long…
“…Belmont Park was built for the future as well as for the present…” Those words were written in May of 1905, on opening day of Belmont Park. The new racetrack garnered a staggering number of column inches by today’s standards; while commentary on the new track was somewhat mixed – concerns were raised about the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 