Horsemen in New York had little to be thankful for this year; in Thursday’s Saratogian, Paul Post reported that with the future of NY racing up in the air–STILL!—trainers are looking for stalls elsewhere. Trainer Rick Violette, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, is quoted extensively, saying, “Getting the Legislature back, even for…
In a few hours I’ll be heading up to Saratoga to spend Thanksgiving with my family and indulge in a few traditions, one of which takes place on Saturday, when my father and my brother and I, along with a few Saratoga friends, spend the day at the harness track, watching and betting on the…
On the subway to Aqueduct on Saturday morning, I brought along Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop, a Christmas gift from my mother several years ago. Each winter I read at least one big old Victorian novel (Trollope is a favorite), and this year I pulled the Dickens off the shelf, a little earlier in the…
A day at the races is great; a day at the races with a couple of TBA members is even better. Took the A train (with a slight detour due to track work) out to the Big A today to meet up with Alan of Left at the Gate and Jessica of Railbird; though I…
Congratulations to Michael Dubb and, by extension, Anna House, on All Expenses Paid’s victory in Friday’s third race. Saada, about whom I wrote favorably last time, was second, and once again I didn’t take my own advice, so I missed the $16.40 winner and $87.00 exacta. My bet on the winner would have been strictly…
So clearly there is little point in my trying to craft interesting, timely reflections about horse racing. All I have to do is pray for one of the cats to hit a bomb, note it online…and voilá! Record traffic; multiple comments; links from esteemed websites; and lotsa e-mail. I kid you not–more people came to…
It was bound to happen: my cat picked a huge winner and I didn’t. I recognize that the presence of my felines on the left might lend a note of frivolity to my endeavors here; when I first began thinking about the blog, a fellow felinophile friend who has spent many hours at the races…
You might recall that those are the words that Jay Privman of ESPN and Daily Racing Form used to describe the synthetic surfaces in California during an ESPN telecast in early October. Recently, a commenter on the discussion boards at Alex Brown Racing posted this article from the New Haven Register regarding toxins in the…
As Ed Fountaine notes in Monday’s NY Post, there are thirty racing days left in 2007, and still no word on who will be running New York racing on the first day of 2008. The mind boggles; when this process began literally years ago, it was inconceivable that we’d be in this position at this…
A few days ago I wrote about horses who somehow get into your imagination; you see them race once, and for some reason, they make an impression. Be Bullish is one, though unfortunately he’s not done much that’s interesting; he was perplexingly last in a field of four at Aqueduct last week, taking down a…
Brooklyn Backstretch 