7:15 a.m., Oklahoma training track. Picture perfect: the sun has burned away the early morning fog; the predicted 90 degree heat has yet to descend. As usual, I [inadvertently] time my arrival to coincide with the break, so there’s time to chat before training resumes. Some of these folks have been here since 5:30, to…
Racing Equipment & Safety Keeneland president and CEO Nick Nicholson talked about racing in relationship to other sports that have an “admitted, inherent risk”; those sports, he said, promote the idea that they are doing everything possible to make the sport safe for the participants. Racing has, he said, a “moral responsibility to fans to…
Equine Injury Database This presentation is the one that has garnered the most attention and coverage, given its preliminary findings about equine injuries. Dr. Mary Scollay, a veterinarian and equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, presented the timeline for the Equine Injury Database: October 2006: Proposal for tracking injuries at the Safety…
On June 17, 1899, the Suburban Handicap was won, in its 16th running, for the first time by a filly or mare. She set a stakes record (2:04 4/5), and she won by two lengths, in a field of 13. Her name was Imp. Imp was bred in Ohio by Daniel R. Harness, the man…
NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance Update Mike Ziegler, executive director of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance, began his presentation by noting that the Alliance had accredited 18 tracks in 15 months. 17 of those tracks were fully accredited; one was provisionally accredited. Ziegler said that the accredited tracks accounted for more than 60% of…
Old Friends is a regular stop on my trips to Kentucky; each time I visit the Bluegrass, I try to say hello to my favorites (Williamstown, Will’s Way, Ogygian, Commentator) and to meet some of the new residents. Michael Blowen and the Old Friends volunteers are incredibly generous with their time, and it’s easy to…
Racing Medication and Testing Consortium Update I offer this report, truth to be told, with more than a little trepidation–my knowledge of the uses and effects of these drugs is close to nil. I am simply passing on what was said, though, in the hope that some of you find it interesting/useful, and that I…
When I left Brooklyn 12 days, 2,500 miles, and 10 states ago, I knew that I’d visit two racetracks, see lots of friends, meet many horses, research not enough, and, probably, write very little. I didn’t know that I’d spend two days in the Keeneland sales pavilion listening to panels of industry folks talk about…
In the summer of 2008, I sat with Dale Romans at Saratoga as he watched Robby Albarado work an unraced two-year-old filly on the main track. Back at the barn, Albarado got off the horse and said to the trainer, “She could win first time out.” Her name was Sara Louise. The jockey didn’t get…
I lived in the mid-Atlantic for seven years, and I logged more hours than I care to remember on I-95, making my way home to friends and family in New York and Saratoga. When I left the area in 1995, I vowed I’d never again live anywhere that required regular travel on 95. I was…
Brooklyn Backstretch 