A look at the week that was in Derby preps, by Brian Nadeau With little in the way of Derby prep races this weekend we’ll just take a look back at the trio of stakes that were run last weekend, as well as an important allowance Thursday at Gulfstream. We saw the reemergence of the…
So the first week of Road to the Roses is in the books, and I’m still in the realm of respectable. The standings: Tied for first: Triple Crown73 Stable, The Aspiring Horseplayer Redux, Grevelis Racing Stable, Big Dreams Stable 5th: Blake Griffin For President Tied for 6th: Vision Stable and Tripledeadheat Tied for 8th: Brooklyn…
It was in 2008 that I first made the historical acquaintance of Hollie Hughes, a man who devoted himself to and made a life in horse racing, a man as closely linked to one of racing’s first families as anyone could be. In 2008, I wrote of Hughes and of Sanford Farm, the place where…
A year ago, I first made the acquaintance of Hollie Hughes, a man who devoted himself to and made a life in horse racing, who is as closely linked to one of racing’s first families as anyone could be—and of whom most racing fans have never heard. A year ago, I wrote of Hughes and…
Monday at Aqueduct, before the fifth race: A journalism student, covering the Big A for a school assignment, looking bored and utterly uninterested in the goings-on below, asks a veteran turf writer: “So what are you writing about today?” Turf Writer explains that he’s likely going to be focusing on out-of-town racing, given the stakes…
In news that is only tangentially related to racing, I noticed this item in Filip Bondy’s column in the New York Daily News: Shahar Peer was supposed to play a first-round match Sunday in Dubai against Anna Chakvetadze, but that isn’t going to happen now. The Israeli tennis player wasn’t granted an entry visa by…
Preview of the Southwest Stakes – Grade III, $250,000 – Oaklawn Park – 1 Mileby Brian Nadeau Well, the Kentucky Derby Trail really gets going here, as we see the return of Old Fashioned, who many view as the horse to beat (is there such a thing three months out?) as of now. He meets…
Preview of the San Vicente Stakes – Santa Anita Park – Grade II, $150,000 – 7 FurlongsBy Brian Nadeau Well, we might as well get this out of the way early. I really have no feel for the fake stuff in terms of handicapping and I’m not a fan of it in the least overall.…
Guest analysis by Brian Nadeau: The Sam F. Davis Stakes – Tampa Bay Downs – Grade III, $225,000 – 1 1/16 miles Question: What do Bluegrass Cat and Any Given Saturday have in common? Answer: The obvious is that they were both Grade I-winning 3-year-olds trained by Todd Pletcher who were major players on the…
Yeah, yeah, I know that I “sent” this card last year…but that’s just a mark of my fidelity, and it’s just too good to sit in a drawer…Happy Valentine’s day, everyone!
Brooklyn Backstretch 