Tomorrow at Aqueduct the Discovery Handicap, named for Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s magnificent colt, will be run for the 66th time. A look at its past winners shows two horses whose victories came a generation apart but to whom American racing fans formed a profound attachment that may have reached its pinnacle on October 15, 1983.…
I never met Bobby Frankel. Never said a word to him, though as he came and went from the racing office at Saratoga, from which he often watched his horses race, it was always sort of temping to say, “Hi, Bobby,” as if we were old friends. He was ubiquitous, and so familiar that it…
The Christmas carols were blasting jovially from speakers throughout the Woodbury Commons outlets on Saturday; beyond the annoyance of the inundation when Thanksgiving was still ten days away, I felt a frisson of guilt with every reference to the joy of giving, as I was shopping pretty much exclusively for myself. Sometimes, though, an early…
Hockey season is about a month old now, and there’s been nary a syllable written in this space about the Rangers. I’ve gone to fewer games than usual, and after a torrid beginning, the Rangers have settled comfortably into their usual mediocrity. Sean Avery won again the other day—not the one who wears the blue…
Named for a major historical figure and won by Man o’War, Riva Ridge, Fit to Fight, and Seattle Slew, the Stuyvesant has suffered an awful lot of indignity, deemed to have been unnecessary in so many of the years since its inception. First run at Jamaica, the Stuyvesant was originally a race for three-year-olds, and…
In response to the commenter who inquired about which writing award Claire Novak had won: In 2008, she won an award from the Louisville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The award, for sports writing in the magazine division, was for an article entitled “The Ecstacy (sic) and Agony of Edgar Prado,” published in…
On the Belmont backstretch on Monday morning, a blissful unawareness of the calendar might have led one to think that it was spring. Trainers, exercise riders, spectators—all gradually shed layers as the sun rose higher. “It’s HOT!” was overheard more than once. A lone horse trained on the turf course. But instead of the blue…
A brief look at how the dirt horses did over the weekend. Given the number of variables at play, it would be folly to try to draw definitive conclusions from these results; race records of individual horses on the various surfaces, including the different types of synthetics, would also need to be taken into consideration,…
The Backstretch method did better than it could have hoped yesterday, cashing on the exacta and winner in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Let’s see how it works today. Juvenile Turf: Kera’s Kitten is out in favor of Becky’s Kitten (poor Kera—she travelled all the way from Kentucky to see her namesake race! Check out Grening’s…
Game over, Breeders’ Cup Day 1. I left school at the earliest possible moment and managed to get home in time to see all of the filly/mare races, to place wagers, and to end up in the black for about $60. For a $2 bettor like me, that’s a profit about which to be happy.…
Brooklyn Backstretch 