Horse racing found itself in the spotlight on Saturday afternoon but not quite in the way that it wanted to. The day was supposed to be about the 141st running of the Preakness Stakes, about the undefeated Nyquist trying to keep his record intact, about the possibility of another Triple Crown run at Belmont in…
The weather forecast for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes may be dismal, but the outlook for Nyquist to become the fourth horse in five years to nab the first two legs of the Triple Crown is much more auspicious. Impressive on the track Thursday morning in a brisk gallop, the Kentucky Derby winner has given every indication…
by Brian Nadeau of Horseplayer Now and Capital OTB TV. Pimlico: The GI, $1.5 million Preakness at 1 ¼ miles #1 Cherry Wine (20-1): Deep closer used the race flow to muck up for third in the GI Blue Grass at Keeneland and will need an epic pace meltdown to have any kind of chance in the second…
Ten years ago this week, the racing world watched in horror as shortly after the start of the Preakness Stakes, jockey Edgar Prado pulled Barbaro up with a catastrophic injury to his right hind leg. Stricken with a shattered leg that in almost any other case would have led to immediate euthanasia, Barbaro was transported…
The mint juleps were flowing, and the music, supplied by a jazz trio tucked into the dining room, was southern and sweet. Women in elaborately designed hats and men in snappy fedoras selected from a menu in which bourbon played a featured role, their Derby-best attire not deterring them from digging into the ribs…
by Brian Nadeau of Horseplayer Now and Capital OTB TV. Churchill Downs: The GI, $2 million Kentucky Derby at 1 1/4 miles #1 Trojan Nation (50-1): Gigantic longshot almost blew up the board at 81-1 when he came up the inside in Aqueduct’s muddy GI Wood Memorial to run second, beaten just a head by fellow rival Outwork,…
On Saturday at about 6:30 pm, 20 horses will line up to run for the roses in the Grade I, $2 million Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands. Post positions and morning line odds were announced yesterday, and with the publication last night of past performances, handicappers began putting the final phase of making selections…
“How great is this?” asked Ed Stanco, standing near the winner’s circle at Aqueduct Racetrack on February 27. Despite the 30-degree (Fahrenheit) temperature and the wind coming off nearby Jamaica Bay, and despite the unglamorous setting — Aqueduct plays third fiddle to its sexier New York Racing Association cousins, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course…
She’s as closely associated with Churchill Downs as the twin spires, but though she’s been a proud resident of the bluegrass for decades, Jill Byrne is a product of Virginia, her childhood spent at one of the Mid-Atlantic’s premier racing facilities, the pedigree of which might even challenge that of the historic track in Louisville…
In early March, Emily Daignault-Salvaggio logged onto Facebook and saw that her friend Bev Strauss, the co-founder and president of Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue, had tagged her in a post. When she clicked on it, her heart sank. Staring at her from the screen was a familiar face, a chestnut horse that she had, months earlier,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 