With an eye toward a possible proposal to change New York’s rules on the race-day medication furosemide, the state’s Gaming Commission met in Saratoga Springs Aug. 25 to solicit opinions about the medication. The Gaming Commission is staffed by members who requested the forum be held, admitting that they have no background in horse racing…
Happy Travers week! The biggest week of the summer got even bigger when Zayat Stables announced on Sunday that American Pharoah would be coming to the Mid-Summer Derby to try to become only the second horse in history to win the Triple Crown and the Travers Stakes. Will he join Whirlaway, who did it in…
Saturday, August 8 was a pretty big day at Saratoga Race Course. The inaugural Whitney Racing Festival featured five stakes races, three of them graded, the centerpiece the 88th running of the Whitney Stakes. Kendrick Carmouche had mounts in three of those races. He finished last in the first one, on Joint Return in the…
At a meeting of the NYRA board of directors on Wednesday, August 12, board chair Michael Del Giudice announced that the last vacancy on the board had been filled by Chris Mara, the senior vice president of the New York Giants and a Thoroughbred owner. Over the last year, three board members have resigned, including…
We saw a heck of a horse race on opening weekend with the Coaching Club American Oaks, when I’m a Chatterbox and Stopchargingmaria duked it out to the wire. I’m a Chatterbox got there first but was disqualified…will we see a rematch in this Saturday’s historic Alabama Stakes? We’ve also got the popular umbrella giveaway,…
Early Saturday afternoon near the backstretch recreation center, just across Union Avenue from the clubhouse turn, hotwalker Eduardo Alarcon slipped his feet into a new pair of shoes. A grin broke over his face, and he jogged energetically in place. “They feel great!” he exulted. Alarcon was one of several dozen backstretch workers who received…
Four years ago August 4, David Jacobson claimed a horse at Saratoga. Nothing terribly unusual about that, nor about the fact that Jacobson ran the horse, who had finished fifth, back 21 days later, nor that the trainer bumped the bay gelding way up in class for that next start, nor that Jacobson won with…
In the aftermath of hosting the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 and three weeks into a Saratoga Race Course meet that is showing significant gains in reported attendance and pari-mutuel handle, the board of directors of the New York Racing Association met Aug. 12 and for the most part celebrated the accomplishments. But the…
A panel at the Saratoga Institute for Equine, Racing, and Gaming Law on Aug. 11 discussed New York’s need for a law to protect sponsors or organizers of public equine activities, such as racetracks and breeding farms. New York is one of five states that lack an equine liability statute, according to Karin Bump, a…
On Sunday afternoon at the Gideon Putnam, The Jockey Club held its 63rd annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing. The event was presided over by Stuart Janney, newly elected as chair of the organization following the resignation of Ogden Mills Phipps, who had served as chair since 1983. The man at the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 