Outright thievery

Not much in the way of original thinking in tonight’s post, so I’m lucky that there’s a lot of news out there worth sharing: Handride and an anonymous commenter share some cool intersections between language, New York City, and horse racing. Brooklyn blogger that I am, I feel entitled—nay, compelled—to steal the stuff and post…

The Noble Animals

Lyrical Ballad bookshop, on Phila Street in Saratoga, is one of the town’s most priceless jewels. It’s been there for thirty years, an independent bookshop on a little side street, with new but mostly used books: so many books, in so many rooms, that I really got lost there last summer, and sometimes I think…

Quick Picks

If you haven’t recently visited the homepage of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, take a minute and check it out. It features the final 2007 standings, according to the TBA rankings; we’ll see how they compare to the Eclipse Awards in a few weeks. You’ll also get news of the annual TBA donation to Old Friends.…

Einstein and The Affectionately

As noted by Superfecta, Einstein returned to the races on Friday, ending an eight-month layoff caused by an injury in the Dixie Handicap on the Preakness undercard. In an ugly incident, Mending Fences fatally broke down, and Einstein, right behind him, stumbled, throwing Robby Albarado, who came back a few races later to win the…

A trio of treys and an eight (year old)

What’s up with Numaany? I haven’t read anything about him in a while, but in the last two days, I’ve gotten 60+ hits here from people searching for him. This site still comes up first in the list of his search results, so it doesn’t appear that he’s on one of the numerous Derby lists…

A Trip to Tampa Bay Downs

I annually travel to southwest Florida to visit my aunt; while I log plenty of beach/pool hours, I also generally vary the daily lazy activity by taking in some sort of sporting event, often the Nasdaq tennis tournament on Key Biscayne (which I highly recommend) or a hockey game in Sunrise, home of the Panthers…

Tuesday evening random thoughts

Just back from another disappointing and frustrating night at the Garden—the ineptitude of the Rangers on the ice makes my forays at the betting windows look successful by comparison. Ugh. So a few random notes: My DRF watch list informs me that Evening Attire worked four furlongs in :47.80 over the Belmont training track, the…

Tale of the Cat (horse)

As Madison and Floyd have noted, first with relief and then with umbrage, there’s a real dearth of feline equines around these parts these days. What’s a poor hunch bettor to do? Like much of the NY racing community, look southward. While at Tampa Bay Downs last Friday, I picked up programs for Aqueduct and…

Random Notes upon Re-entry

Vacations are great. Vacations in warm places with beautiful beaches are even greater. And vacations in warm places with beautiful beaches that are relatively near racetracks verge on the sublime. Approximately 2500 miles, eleven days, four stops, and eight states later, I’m back in the borough of churches. The cats are thrilled to see me,…

Racing Resolutions, 2008

For me, September is really the beginning of the new year, so I am not much given to New Year’s resolutions…but September seems a foolish time to make racing resolutions. Actually, any time seems a foolish time to make racing resolutions, but I won’t let that deter me. Anything I’ve read about resolutions says that…