Yes, that’s right, August Belmont and Edith Wharton. Belmont the Jewish immigrant financier arriviste, he who changed his name from the German Schonberg to the French/Italian-flavored Belmont, the parvenu who married into the establishment, taking as his wife Carolyn Slidell Perry, daughter of the Commodore. Wharton the descendant of the great old Dutch New York…
It’s difficult for contemporary racing fans to see August Belmont as anything other than the namesake of the stakes race first and then the racetrack, but when he died in 1890, his very long New York Times obituary doesn’t even mention racing until the thirtieth (!) paragraph. A native of Germany, Belmont was born August…
Alex Waldrop’s May 22nd post on his blog at the NTRA site is a sunshiny look at the state of horse racing, pointing out some recent bright spots and offering an optimistic view of the state of the game. At the end of the post, he asks for reader input on next steps, and, predictably,…
Thanks to everyone who wrote with good wishes and comments about my little radio gig yesterday. It was fun and less nerve-wracking than anticipated, likely due to the presence of John “Poppa Fink” Loscalzo, the epitome of a classic racing fan. Poppa Fink was brought by his father to the old Jamaica track when he…
Be warned: this whole post is rather a series of promotions; charitably, one could also characterize them as news. I’ve been invited to be a guest on the Homer Fink Show on internet radio today at 4:00, to talk about the Belmont Stakes, the state of racing in New York, and other racing issues. You…
For many New York racing fans who came of age too late for Secretariat in 1973, Easy Goer’s victory in the 1989 Belmont Stakes was the sweetest moment ever spent at a racetrack. I came across these words a few weeks ago in Joe Drape’s To the Swift: Classic Triple Crown Horses and Their Race for Glory.…
7:00 am, Saturday morning. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and it’s gorgeous. I meet up with Jessica Chapel of Railbird and Raceday 360; we stock up on bagels, coffee, and water; we jump in the car, and head south: Garden State Parkway, Jersey Shore, here we come. A perusal of the car will yield no sunscreen,…
How could I spend ten+ hours at the racetrack and not come up with a story? I arrived at Belmont at approximately 8:30 am and left around 6:45 pm. The time flew, and I was one of happy crowd of about 10,000 that came out on a gorgeous spring day to fill the picnic areas…
One hundred and three years ago this month, Belmont Park opened. Described by racing historian William H.P. Robertson as “by far the most magnificent establishment of its kind in America,” the new track hosted the Metropolitan Handicap on opening day, the race having been transferred from its original home at the Morris Park track in…
Arguably the most important one-turn race in the U.S., the Met Mile has brought us some spectacular Memorial Day performances over the years. From Holy Bull and Honour And Glory as 3-year-olds to Ghostzapper’s remarkable comeback run as a 5-year-old, the race tests the stamina of a sprinter and the versatility of a router. While…
Brooklyn Backstretch 