Race 8: $55,000 MSW for 2-year-olds going 6 ½ furlongs. 1. Discreetly Mine: Somewhat alarming that Discreet Cat’s little brother is still a maiden after two starts and he gets no favor from the rail draw today. Blinkers come off in an attempt to get him to settle early, but if he breaks slowly from…
Yesterday was the Women’s Expo at Saratoga; out in the backyard near the Big Red Spring, a variety of vendors set up tables to offer their services to the female fans who, according to NYRA, “comprise nearly half the fan base at Saratoga Race Course.” A stroll around the tent revealed an unofficial count of…
Week 3 brought the first real dose of Saratoga summer weather: little rain, but oppressively hot & humid days. The track was baked, the times were fast, and more than one person referred to the turf courses as “rock hard.” One of Saratoga’s epic thunderstorms passed through early Tuesday evening, but it likely did little…
I came out of the race fine; I’ve eaten up my various feed tubs since; and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result. As predicted, I finished solidly in the middle of the pack: 112th out of 239, with a final time of 26:42, a pace of 8:36. That’s faster than I’ve ever run…
It is now post time. My Saratoga training began well: like many summer runners, I made the transition from Belmont to Saratoga well, with a series of works showing steady improvement. I familiarized myself with the course, adjusting to the different upstate running route, learning the configuration, the potential challenges, benefitting from the cool Saratoga…
Race 8: $30,000 claimer for 3&up on the inner turf at 1-mile (claiming price $35,000). 1. Ninth Client: We saw on Thursday with Fast Draw that when Lukas drops them in for a tag, they usually run well. This guy has been running against some top competition and now makes his first start for a…
Last month, I wrote briefly about Sabellina, the New York-bred mare who was a favorite of mine; Matt Lyons, general manager of Woodford Thoroughbreds in Versailles, Kentucky, commented on the post to let us know that Sabellina was at his farm in Kentucky and that her first foal would go through the ring during this…
Week 3 begins today; a third of the meet is gone; prevailing mood is a combination of fatigue and regret. “I can’t believe that only four weeks are left…” In no particular order… Week 2 was a good one for the felines, with three winners… Scottkeith’s Kitten Dean’s Kitten And our favorite, Crazy Catlady…The theme…
Despite a card of good races, Sunday felt like a letdown. The expectations around Saturday’s Whitney; the double carryover; the incredible weather; the nearly 40,000 spectators—no question that Saturday at the Spa was a Big Racing Day. Sunday started chilly and grey and humid, and ended warm and grey and humid. We got a little…
The happy ending was supposed to come in the 10th race, not the 9th. Commentator was supposed to win the 83rd Whitney, to join Kelso and Discovery as the only horses to win the Whitney three times. He was supposed to cruise to victory and sail off into the Saratoga sunset, retired at age eight…
Brooklyn Backstretch 