‘Tis the season of giving, and plenty was being given away on Saturday at Aqueduct. The Marines were at the Big A, collecting toys and cash donations; as I wrote last week, NYRA had pledged to match whatever money was collected; Gary Contessa was donating 10% of any earnings on December 5th, with a minimum…
Yesterday NYRA released its 2010 stakes schedule…well, sort of. According to NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward, In the current economic climate and with other racing jurisdictions reducingracing days and adjusting their stakes schedule, we feel that it is prudent tomake the decision on the Aqueduct Stakes program only at this time. Weplan to monitor…
So it seems that there’s some money to be made in adultery, and not only by the Florida PD, the wronged woman, and those accepting checks for selling their stories. A quick run-down of Wednesday’s Tiger picks, with thanks to those who posted their own in the comments. Brooklyn Backstretch Aqueduct picks Race 2: Smokey…
For those of you looking for a little, ahem, action, you might try these hunch bets today at Aqueduct: In race 1, you’d have lost had you bet the Believe in Love/Virtues Under Fire exacta. Clearly, betting on Believe in Love is a losing proposition. But there are plenty of other opportunities to, um, score……
And today, we take a turn towards the frivolous. The former foster kittens are firmly ensconced in the Backstretch household; they made the Thanksgiving trip to Saratoga, and they are now six month old adolescents, engaging in charmingly maddening teenage behavior. Furlong and Ruffian are happy and healthy and friendly and playful. They are perfect.…
So it’s official: It’s holiday shopping season. Black Friday has come and gone; today is Cyber Monday, when, according to people who pay attention to such things, many, many work hours are lost by those taking advantage of their office computers to do a little online shopping. You likely have plenty of gift options for…
According to Matt Winn, she made the Derby “an American institution” (Hotaling). According to a New York Times writer in 1914, her entry in the Sanford “caused something of a panic among the others who had starters” (“Whitney Horses”). She made only 11 lifetime starts, but the mark that she left on racing is indelible,…
At the risk of scratching Teresa’s Aqueduct itch the wrong way, the Saturday after Thanksgiving usually signals the end of meaningful racing in New York until the Gotham rolls around the following March. The good news is that it always goes out with a bang, and this Saturday is no different. The traditional Aqueduct fixtures,…
The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweepthrough the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in everyhour, some heavenly blessings! ~Henry Ward Beecher* I am fortunate, particularly in an uncertain and trying time, that blessings are not hard for me to find. I have a…
A maxim of authorship, it is said, is to write what you know. And there may well be no turf writer who knows trainers better than Karen M. Johnson, author of The Training Game: An Inside Look at American Racing’s Top Trainers. The daughter of trainer P.G. Johnson, who died in August of 2004, Karen…
Brooklyn Backstretch 