You knew it was coming, right? You knew that I couldn’t let the historic Met Mile go by without delving a little—or a lot—into its history? The Met Mile (official name: Metropolitan Handicap) is the first Grade I of the year at Belmont, and it was inaugurated in 1891, when it was won by a…
Today’s feature race at Belmont is the Grade II Sheepshead Bay Handicap, run on the turf at a mile and three-eighths for fillies and mares, three and up. A neighborhood in Brooklyn, Sheepshead Bay was home to a racetrack from 1884 – 1910. In 1911, horse racing was declared illegal in New York State, and…
So Mr. or Ms. Anonymous has started a little conversation with his declaration that Allen Jerkens uses steroids on his horses. Fellow TBA writer Frank of That’s Amore Stable confirms this practice with a link to a 2007 New York Times article, written by Bill Finley, in which Jerkens explains his use of steroids on…
Good news for fans of New Yorkers Spooky Mulder and Naughty New Yorker. Though bred in Kentucky, Spooky Mulder’s spent a good deal of his racing life in New York. After being claimed by Scott Lake in February of 2007, Spooky moved to the Mid-Atlantic circuit, but David Jacobson claimed him in his last start,…
Following the Native Dancer brouhaha begun with this article in the Wall Street Journal and continued by Eight Belles’ breakdown, a reader e-mailed this piece from the Baltimore Sun, which takes issue with the assertion that today’s horses who trace to Native Dancer are more fragile than horses from other sire lines. As someone who…
Having grown up in Saratoga, I see racing and history intertwined; my little town (OK, not so little anymore) takes great pride in its 1864 clubhouse, and its status as the oldest sporting venue in the country, home to the oldest sporting event, the Travers Stakes. When my interest in racing was renewed in 2000,…
Over the last week, I’ve been reading Great Breeders and Their Methods: Leslie Combs II and Spendthrift Farm, by Mary Marshall; it’s been sitting on my shelf for about a month as I’ve made my way through other reading, and it’s been interesting reading it now, when discussions of breeding in general, of the bloodlines…
…as viewed from home in Brooklyn: How cringingly uncomfortable were we all when Jerry Bailey kept calling Big Brown “Barbaro”? I scared my cats off the couch when I yelled out loud, “Stop, Jerry, stop!” In a related note: I continue to grumble over the re-naming of the Sir Barton. It seems historically unjust for…
Note: This post is up over at The Rail. Come on by for a visit… Two weeks ago today, the conversation that began with Rags to Riches a year ago continued when Eight Belles broke down in the Derby, and her connections were pilloried for having the audacity and bad judgment to run her against…
Evening Attire at Saratoga, summer 07 Evening Attire is in my DRF watch list, so I know when he’s working out, and I know when he’s entered, and each time he races, I think, “I’m not going to write about him this time.” I write about him all the time, and the story is so…
Brooklyn Backstretch 