Another day, another graded stakes, another track record, another perfect weather day (OK, so that’s not something we can take for granted). Welcome to the Spa. The fifth race was for well-bred two-year-old fillies, and it featured Dale Romans’s Tapitsfly (Tapit – Flying Marlin (Marlin)). Romans is the one who last year introduced me to…
Day 6 at the Spa dawned cool, dry, sunny, and beautiful; running past the Oklahoma this morning, I watched horses working out in the kind of light foggy sunlight that so many people have captured in photographs of Saratoga. It was sublime. And in my second breeze for the Fasig-Tipton 5K run on August 15th,…
“There’s nothing quite like watching a true champion win a grand old race at Saratoga,” wrote Steve Crist on Saturday afternoon, perfectly and simply summing up the experience of watching Forever Together in the 71st running of the Diana. A year ago on the first Saturday of the meet, Spa visitors were treated to one…
In Roman mythology, Diana is the goddess of the hunt; she is swift, she is chaste, and she is deadly. When the youth Actaeon saw her bathing naked, she transformed him into a stag and turned loose his own hunting dogs to kill him. Since 1939, fillies and mares have contested the Diana, often at…
I’m happy to say that Brian will continue handicapping the Saturday Pick 4, now guaranteed at $500,000 for Saratoga. At least, he’ll be doing it as long as his primary responsibilities at the Saratoga Special permit…if you’re in Saratoga, make sure to pick up your free daily copy of the Special for an in-depth look…
A day at the races offers any number of interesting storylines, opening day at Saratoga more than usual. We could talk about the weather (yes, of course, it rained, but as one NYRA employee said to me after the first race, “Hey, it’s already better than last year—we got a turf race in!”); we could…
“Saratoga to-day is as full of transient visitors as a hive is of bees just before swarming time.” (New York Times, August 8, 1865) To get to Saratoga, Red Smith famously said, go to exit 14 of the Northway, turn left on Union Avenue, and go back 100 years. Though speaking of the racetrack, the…
It was standing room only in the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing last night; I arrived about ten minutes before the 7:00 start time, and Museum staff were scurrying to find extra chairs to bring in. Last evening’s guests at the annual Saratoga meeting preview were NYRA president Charlie Hayward; racing…
In some ways, my weekend trip to Woodbine was ill-timed: the opening of Saratoga in two days leaves too little time to discuss Woodbine in the detail it deserves; I couldn’t stay for Sunday’s Nijinsky, featuring local favorite Rahy’s Attorney; and it poured nearly constantly on Saturday afternoon, confining us to the indoors for most…
Today’s Belmont feature is the 93rd running of the venerable Coaching Club American Oaks. Though this Grade I race has undoubtedly lost some of its luster (true of so many of American’s great races), its history merits an acknowledgment of its notable runnings. It is the third leg of the Triple Tiara, won by such…
Brooklyn Backstretch 