Bless me, readers, for I have sinned. Nothing, unfortunately, along the titillating lines of St. Augustine…but my Catholic upbringing does, on occasion, lead me to unburden that which is weighing on my soul. I can only hope that you will find my sins venial as opposed to mortal, and assign me penance and grant me…
Sitting home, Monday night, not watching the Eclipse Awards because Time Warner Cable in Brooklyn doesn’t offer TVG, not even for a price, and because I live in a co-op, a satellite dish is a non-starter. Thanks to Ray Paulick, though, I’m keeping up. I follow racing on the New York City OTB racing channel,…
An avowed fan of winter racing in New York, I’ve frequently mentioned (including yesterday) that while I understand the logic of a few months off, I’d really miss the opportunity to trek out to the Big A in the depths of winter. That was before yesterday, when it seemed impossible to get—and stay—warm if one…
While thousands of massed onlookers vented their excitement in outcries whichmerged into a prolonged roar, five lightning-hoofed throughbreds (sic) flashedover the finish line in the Paumonok Handicap at Jamaica yesterday clustered ina compact group. (New York Times) It was last year’s Paumonok that led to my discovery of the wealth of racing writing in the…
Thanks to everyone who sent both private and public get-well wishes for Madison—as of this morning, she seems to be feeling a lot better. She’s not quite back to her old self, but she felt well enough to put in a pick for today, and she’s much perkier than she’s been over the last few…
For a variety of reasons, the last week or so has been a tough one around the Backstretch household. An unexpected death in one of my communities has left many of us shaken, and it’s not every day that a jet lands in the water just a few miles from my home. Though that outcome…
A slight cat-astrophe delayed my arrival at the Big A on Monday, and when I got off the train at Aqueduct, I was fairly surprised to see it snowing. I didn’t recall seeing anything in the forecast about snow today, and I soon realized that I wasn’t alone: I don’t think many of us expected…
“The sport of horse racing is the only instance where the participation of blacks stopped almost completely while the sport itself continued—a sad commentary on American life…Isaac Murphy, so highly admired during his time for his skills and character, would have been ashamed of his sport.” –Arthur Ashe, quoted in Hotaling. Today, on the day…
Though the remarkable Searching was not a Jacobs homebred, her daughter Affectionately was, the product of the successful racing relationship between trainer Hirsch Jacobs and owner Isador Bieber. Unlike her mother, who raced twenty times without winning, Affectionately won nine of her first ten races, including three stakes races as a two-year-old, and in 1962,…
Searching wins the Correction Handicap of 1956 ©Keeneland-Morgan, credit to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Yesterday I wrote about the Hirsch Jacobs family, U.S. racing royalty. Though the Jacobs family frequently bred horses, one of their best stories is a filly purchased from Ogden Phipps in 1955. Searching (War Admiral –…
Brooklyn Backstretch 