On Tuesday Santa Anita announced that it will completely overhaul its track surface, replacing its current Cushion track with Pro-Ride, the first track in this country, I believe, to use the Pro-Ride surface. The Paulick Report links to the Santa Anita press release and reports its own research (in slightly less detail than I’d like–you…
The challenge of biographies is to make the subjects more than the sum of their accomplishments, of the events that make up their lives. The best biographies convey the inner lives of their subjects, as revealed through behavior and conversation and the artifacts of their lives: the letters they wrote, the art they created, the…
The first piece of news I heard this morning was that George Carlin had died. This is not ordinarily something that would catch my attention, but it did today, because thanks to the comments of a few regular readers, it seems that my generally PG-rated blog turned into a porn site in my absence yesterday.…
A few thoughts on the mind of Brooklyn Backstretch this summer weekend: The feature race on Friday at Presque Isle Downs was the Willy Wank. Yep, the Willy Wank. Google that and see what, ahem, comes up. I did; the only surprise was that the fourth result actually had to do with racing. According to…
Today’s feature at Belmont is the Grade II New York Handicap, currently run at a mile and a quarter on the turf, for fillies and mares, three years old and up. It has not been ever thus; first run in 1940, the race was originally open to both sexes and was run on the dirt,…
Both the Daily News and the Paulick Report live-blogged yesterday’s Congressional hearing, the latter with more detail and panache, for which I was particularly grateful as I was following the hearing during a marathon seven and a half hour faculty meeting. I’ve yet to watch the hearings, but both Dana at Green but Game and…
Follow my post yesterday about Tiger Woods and Big Brown, and the subsequent announcement about Tiger Woods’ season-ending injury, Valerie from Foolish Pleasure commented, “And, in true thoroughbred fashion, Tiger is now out for the rest of the year.” Citing the specifics of the injury and of Tiger’s swing, Rick Reilly of ESPN said that…
Hmm, not exactly, as one won and the other didn’t. But on Monday, with only a shot or two different, Rocco Mediate might have been Da’ Tara. For two consecutive weekends, America’s sporting attention was riveted by major events with surprising similarities. Both the US Open and the Belmont represent milestones in their respective sports.…
Joe Drape in Sunday’s New York Times reported on racing fatality statistics provided to Congress by the Association of Racing Commissioners International. My post yesterday focused on the more dismaying elements of racing as a result of Jeffrey McMurray’s AP report published in the Washington Post; Drape’s piece presents a more measured view, and thanks…
Barring a successful run at a Triple Crown, the middle of June isn’t usually a particularly hot time in the world of Thoroughbred racing. Yes, we’ve got some good races on the calendar, and even some Grade I’s, but mostly, mid-June is a time to take a deep breath, recover from the Triple Crown races,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 