Greetings from South Florida! With Christmas safely in the rear view mirror, I set off on Boxing Day on the latest Backstretch road trip, arriving yesterday in time to make the third at Calder. This trip is another whirlwind, so posting may well be light over the next few days, but just because there really…
…from all of us at the Backstretch. Teresa, Madison, Floyd, Furlong, & Imp wish you a safe, happy, peaceful holiday. Card: “Winter’s Circle” by Karin Vollkommer
“…grey is not a coat. Then what is it? It can only be a strange pigmentation disease…” Federico Tesio A study of genetics focusing on horses’ colors resulted in Tesio’s mid-20th century declaration. Aesthetic observation brings Barbara Livingston, fortunately, to a different conclusion. “Before I started the book, I knew little about the science of…
Joe Drape describes himself on his Twitter page as “New York Times reporter, author, horseplayer.” “My dad taught me how to read the Form when I was a kid. I’m from Kansas City, and once or twice a year, I’d go with him to Ak-sar-ben or Oaklawn. I went to college in Dallas, and I’d…
Dear Racing Santa, With just a few days left before you head out on the big worldwide trek, I figured that it was time that I got my list in to you. I know that you’ve got an awful lot to think about, and there should be plenty of people before me on your list,…
May 2008 brought news that caused much consternation in the Backstretch household. “Storm Cat Pensioned,” read the headline in the Blood-Horse. Storm Cat pensioned? Good-bye to generations of Cat horses? Good-bye to nearly unlimited hunch betting? Feline brows furrowed. Fast forward just about a year…and all of a sudden, signs of feline fecundity were everywhere.…
Given that I generally still refer to the Patrick Division and the Campbell Conference, one would correctly surmise that I’m not a big fan of eviscerating history in the name of modernization. It seems silly to me that a huge banner in the clubhouse at Saratoga reads “The Go For Wand Est. 1954” when the…
On Friday at about 6:30 am, the temperature in Brooklyn was 22 degrees; the wind made it feel like it was in the single digits, and it likely felt much colder on the backstretches of Belmont and Aqueduct. The men and women who take care of the horses had already been at work for several…
Two years ago, in a generally moribund racing month, winter racing in New York got a blast of attention when 9-year-old Evening Attire won the Queens County on a cold December afternoon. It was his second victory in the race; he’d also won in 2001, at the tender age of 3. Four horses in total…
There’s racing this week in New York, Kentucky, Florida, and California, but the eyes and attention of many in the racing world are turned southwest, to Tucson, Arizona and the annual symposium of the Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona. Those unlucky enough to be tethered elsewhere and missing this event can…
Brooklyn Backstretch 