Visitors to Aqueduct were greeted with this winter wonderland… …and Marines collecting donations for Toys for Tots. (But no menorah?) Snow on the Belmont backstretch this morning… …and around the turf course, rails splintered and on the ground, like so many discarded white matchsticks, waiting to be re-assembled in three months. Five Nine more New…
On July 23rd, 1914, it was good to be James Butler. Six years earlier, he’d finally won his battle with the Jockey Club, and his Empire City race track in Yonkers, NY was given dates on the New York racing calendar. Now, in 1914, his own race track was running a race named after his…
Don’t forget: Toys for Tots at Aqueduct on Saturday! Marines will be on the first floor of the clubhouse accepting unwrapped toys from noon to 2 pm. You can also donate cash; make checks payable to Toys for Tots. And odds be damned, I’ll be rooting for Gary Contessa’s five entries on Saturday, as he’s…
Saratoga Russell is back! This colt was my winter/spring crush until his dismal performance in the fog-enshrouded Gotham, and he underwent a myectomy shortly thereafter. According to a backstretch report at Saratoga, Saratoga Russell then went to Kentucky for treatment of some other maladies, and I was told that his trip to Kentucky was a…
Thus was my writing characterized recently by a succinct, eloquent, and of course anonymous commenter. Maudlin crap? Maudlin: Etymology: alteration of Mary Magdalene; from her depiction as a weepingpenitentDate: 15091 : drunk enough to be emotionally silly Oh, dear: “drunk enough to be emotionally silly”? That commenter might be on to something… Crap: 1a usually…
If you’re a fan of Richard Migliore, there’s no dearth of recent news out there about him. He was interviewed by Jan Rushton a couple of weeks ago on Thoroughbred Weekly; Keith at Triple Dead Heat talked to him at Aqueduct just before Thanksgiving, and this week, NYRA has yet another interview with him, this…
Among the sadness at Aqueduct on Saturday was some good news; between the third and the fourth races, NYRA presented a $5,000 check to the Exceller Fund; Exceller Fund board members photographer Barbara Livingston and writer Steve Haskin accepted the donation. Exceller, who beat two Triple Crown winners, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, in the 1978…
There might be a lot of rationalization in this post. Last Saturday, I was standing at the paddock with a friend just before the second race went off. I’d gotten to Aqueduct late, and thus didn’t know that Bruce Levine’s Big Love Bill had broken down in the first race until my friend told me,…
Saturday’s Demoiselle offers any number of memorable renewals, won by any number of memorable fillies: broodmare extraordinaire Better than Honour’s win in 1989; Triple Tiara winner Chris Evert’s victory in 1973; Derby winner Genuine Risk’s triumph in 1979. Preceding generations likely have their own memories of the winners of this race, which was run for…
A year ago, I offered thanks for the racing gifts of 2007. It was the year of Street Sense, Curlin, and Hard Spun, and of Rags to Riches; a year of writing about racing and reading about racing and friends made at the racetrack. In some ways, 2007 was a more memorable racing year than…
Brooklyn Backstretch 