On December 11, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance announced its first significant round of accreditations, giving its stamp of approval to 20 organizations across the country. Among them were four Mid-Atlantic facilities: Angel Acres Horse Haven in Pennsylvania, Virginia’s ReRun, and MidAtlantic Horse Rescue and Thoroughbred Placement Resources, both in Maryland. Though applicants characterized the process…
Earlier this week, perhaps in anticipation of this afternoon’s Spooky Mulder Stakes at Aqueduct, Barbara Livingston posted a photo of Spooky himself, dueling with fellow game gelding Callmetony at Saratoga in 2006. Tony was a spritely five-year-old back then, Spooky an older, wiser eight-year-old. The race was Spooky’s 66th; Tony had raced in exactly half…
As the inner track opens for the 2013 winter meet, a look back into the archives, for how this unique racing surface came to be: It was nearly 70 degrees in New York yesterday; warmer temperatures and delayed darkness have many of us thinking spring. And for New York racing fans, there is no surer…
Horse lovers and auction owners make strange bedfellows. Oh, not those high-end, Keeneland/Fasig-Tipton/Lexington/Saratoga auctions, where well-bred babies are sold for hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars, before their careers even begin, before anyone knows whether they can run. Horse lovers, even the poor ones, flock to those auctions: we stand at the bar, we…
Last Wednesday, the Reorganization Board of the New York Racing Association approved a 2014 budget that included hikes in admission fees at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, from $3 to $5 for the grandstand, and from $5 to $8 for the clubhouse. The increase is designed to offset an expected $1.8 million deficit caused…
Public outcry against the proposed and approved increased admission prices at Belmont and Saratoga has been loud and sustained since the budget for the New York Racing Association was made public this week. Having attended this week’s board meeting, this long-time English teacher is now (perhaps dangerously) armed with all kinds of new financial expertise…
The reorganization board of the New York Racing Association met for the first time a year ago, but it wasn’t until its eighth meeting Dec. 4 that its members offered any significant disagreement to a proposal made by board chairman David Skorton. On the agenda was NYRA’s 2014 budget, one of the most contentious elements…
Last Friday afternoon, as I was out shopping for the Belmont Child Care Association’s holiday party, this landed in my inbox: “If you know who is responsible for the NYRA/NYS Gaming Commission’s equine injury and death database, could you please alert them to this entry for 11/20/2013. Something seems amiss.” Amiss, indeed. Over the weekend, the…
Mainstream media’s attention to horse-racing ended with the Breeders’ Cup earlier this month, but Thoroughbred racing—and important Thoroughbred racing—continues this weekend, with significant races with championship implications happen today and tomorrow at Churchill Downs and Aqueduct respectively. While the value of an Eclipse Award is debatable, the honor is nonetheless coveted by owners and breeders,…
During his playing days, it was hard to find someone with an unkind thing to say about Marty Biron. His quick sense of humor and affable naure made him a favorite with both fans and teammates, and his retirement announcement earlier this month elicited kudos from fans, and predictions from hockey professionals, including Toronto Sun…
Brooklyn Backstretch 