Shortly before 6:20 tomorrow evening, nine horses and jockeys will head towards the starting gate at Pimlico Race Course. The noise of more than 100,000 people will accompany them as they step into small metal stalls, standing patiently until the gates are sprung and they take their first strides in an attempt to win the…
Pimlico: The GI, $1 million Preakness at 1 3/16 miles #1 Orb: Kentucky Derby hero made it five in a row in Louisville when he sat off a suicidal pace in the slop, rallied wide and rolled home as tons the best and will look to take the next step towards racing immortality in Baltimore.…
Let’s get this out of the way: Michelle Beadle blocked me on Kentucky Oaks day, after this exchange (you can click to enlarge): It seems a little mild to warrant being blocked, but Beadle can hardly be blamed for having an itchy block finger, given some of the abuse that she has to put…
While no one would suggest that making money on the Kentucky Derby is an easy proposition, at least the big field offers a variety of ways in which to cash a juicy ticket. The Preakness, on the other hand, offers a different kind of wagering challenge. Orb, this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, is the morning…
It’s Saturday afternoon, and Shug McGaughey sits placidly in a chair in the shedrow of barn 20. Intent on his Blackberry, he seems pleasantly oblivious: to approaching visitors; to an impending storm making itself known in stirring winds and scudding clouds; to a tempest of another kind, one created by the media as he gets…
The Preakness is Maryland’s race: it’s “Maryland, My Maryland” and black-eyed Susans and blue crabs. It’s so important to the state that when financial difficulties threatened racing in Maryland,the governor stepped in to make sure that the Preakness would stay in Baltimore. But 120 years ago, when financial woes imperiled the racing industry in Maryland, nothing…
It all started at Aqueduct, on a Saturday afternoon in January of 2005. It was the day of the Sunshine Millions: a horse named Lava Man was racing at Gulfstream, and an undefeated Florida-bred, California-based sprinter had shipped east to make his third start. Lost in the Fog won that day by four and a…
On Sunday afternoon, a bouquet of roses lay outside barn 20 on the Belmont backstretch, their colors nearly matching the red paint on the sign identifying the barn as the home of the Phipps Stable. The bouquet wasn’t quite as imposing as the blanket of roses that had been presented the day before, its meaning…
An archaeologist by training, Lucas Rubin has spent a good deal of his life immersed in the past. He also loves cities, and he loves sports. In his book, Brooklyn’s Sportsmen’s Row: Politics, Society & the Sporting Life on Northern Eighth Avenue, he indulges his passion for all three. Read more at Brooklyn Bugle about an exquisite…
On Sunday afternoon, Atlantic City Race Course broke a 37-year attendance record when 13,528 people showed up for its six-race card at the little track in Mays Landing, New Jersey. If by “boutique meet,” you mean short, then Atlantic City is the most boutique of the boutiques, racing for only six days every year.…
Brooklyn Backstretch 