It’s Monday morning, 5:22 a.m. 7 degrees here in Brooklyn. The Jets lost. If I had any sense at all, I’d still be cranky. I might even be crankier. But the weekend offered perspective. Hours of research into the weekend post on the Toboggan – its history, the horses and connections who’ve won it, the…
It’s time for a return of the Racing Curmudgeon, with a hat tip to Frank Deford’s Sports Curmudgeon (who doesn’t seem to have made an appearance recently…another reason to be cranky). I’m cranky because Ron Franklin, the guy who harassed Jeannine Edwards at ESPN and subsequently got fired for it, is now suing ESPN for…
On June 17, 1899, the Suburban Handicap was won, in its 16th running, for the first time by a filly or mare. She set a stakes record (2:04 4/5), and she won by two lengths, in a field of 13. Her name was Imp. Imp was bred in Ohio by Daniel R. Harness, the man…
Shortly after Rachel Alexandra won the Haskell last summer and speculation bubbled about her next start, the conversations began: Suppose she goes in the Woodward? Is she Horse of the Year now, with wins in the Preakness and the Haskell? Has a three-year-old filly ever beaten older males? The answer to the last question was…
Late Saturday afternoon, I stood on the A train platform at Aqueduct for the last time until this fall. I wore a sleeveless shirt, sandals, and a skirt, no tights. No hat, no gloves, no scarf, no coat, no boots. I don’t think that that’s EVER happened. It’s spring, all right, and with the last…
Perhaps in acknowledgement of all of those freezing winter weekends spent at the Big A, the racing gods smiled on me on Saturday morning. For the first time in a week, I felt well enough to think that I could actually manage a few hours outside of the apartment, and mid-afternoon, I ventured to Aqueduct,…
I am intrigued by this race horse, born in 1888, owned by J.A. and A.H. Morris (of the Morris Park track in the Bronx). She’s got a race named after her, to be run today at Aqueduct, and Pedigree Query calls her “the best sprint mare of her day.” But Pedigree Query’s usually extensive race…
Aqueduct offers the best of two racing worlds this afternoon, the present and the historical. We’ve got the Grade III Gotham, for three-year-olds with Derby aspirations. The race was first run in 1953 at the Jamaica racecourse and named for the city in which the track was situated, another in a line of races honoring…
Brooklyn Backstretch 