On Saturday, December 6, a few hours before Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals buried their Metropolitan Division rivals the New Jersey Devils 4-1, Ovechkin’s equine namesake became a millionaire in the last race of his seven-year career. Eighttofasttocatch was purchased in 2007 for $47,000 by former Capitals co-owner Arnold Heft, who died earlier this year. Heft…
Looking for a gift for the equine (or feline, or canine) lover in your life? Want your gift to do some good? Hoping for something with a little personal touch, that’s not too expensive and that you can buy from home? Animal Tales may have just what you’re looking for. The latest product from the…
The New York Race Track Chaplaincy, which is based at Belmont Park and provides a variety of services to the backstretch workers of Belmont, Aqueduct, and Saratoga, is once again offering its “Adopt A Family” Program for Christmas. Last month, the Chaplaincy provided turkeys and other supplies so that backstretch workers could prepare Thanksgiving dinner;…
If you listen to local news radio in New York City, you might have caught the following advertisement over the last few weeks, in which a man who says he’s a resident of Elmont, one of the towns that borders Belmont Park, voices his concern about New York State “making the right decisions about developing…
When California Chrome headed to Belmont Park in early June, he looked like a lock for, if not the Triple Crown, at least an Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old, and maybe Horse of the Year. But after a fourth-place finish in the Belmont, California Chrome went winless in his next two races, finishing sixth in…
Last Wednesday, the children and the teachers at Anna House celebrated Thanksgiving. Taking a break from their usual lessons and activities, they paused to give thanks, the day before most of us celebrated the holiday. And on Thursday morning, as many of us slept late or cooked for our loved ones, Anna House opened at…
When Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California closed forever last December, it left a hole in the Southern California racing calendar. Hollywood’s racing schedule typically ran from April to mid-July, when Thoroughbred racing headed south to Del Mar for the boutique summer meet, then resumed in November and December. And while Del Mar is known for…
A film festival that originated near Chicago will makes its New York City debut at The MIST in Harlem this weekend. Founded by horsewoman Lisa Diersen, the Equus Film Festival began last year with the Festival of the Horse and Drum, a multicultural equine festival with Native American themes that Diersen describes as “kind of…
In the first of a series of quarterly meetings, executives from the New York Racing Association took questions from customers in an hour-long question-and-answer session Nov. 15 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Located in Longshots, the simulcast facility that opened in April, the meeting provided an opportunity for Chris Kay, NYRA president and CEO, to present the…
A grim winter at Aqueduct In late 2011 and early 2012, horses racing at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York died in alarming numbers: 21 of them between Nov. 30, 2011 and March 18, 2012, nearly double the number that suffered catastrophic injuries in the same period the previous year. It was a time of…
Brooklyn Backstretch 