The annals of the Kentucky Derby are full of winners whose names ring with grandeur: Lord Murphy, Kingman, His Eminence, Animal Kingdom, Monarchos, Charismatic, Proud Clarion. They’re also full of horses whose names suggest that their owners were not thinking “pinnacle of the sport” when they were named: Vagrant, Super Saver, Mine That Bird, Funny…
The horses are entered, the post positions assigned, and the betting account topped off. At about 6:24 pm Eastern time on Saturday, the gates will spring open, and 20 horses will try to get to the finish line first, to win nearly $1.5 million, a blanket of roses, and a place in racing history. Whether…
Churchill Downs: The GI, $2 million Kentucky Derby at 1 ¼ miles #1 Black Onyx (50-1 morning line): Streaking runner has won both starts this year, on turf at Gulfstream Park in February and in the GIII Spiral on the Polytrack at Turfway Park in March, and tries the dirt for the first time since…
You can play. With these three words, a unprecedented movement of inclusiveness was started a year ago, and earlier this month, the You Can Play Project and the National Hockey League announced a ground-breaking partnership “to make the NHL the most inclusive professional sports league in the world,” according to a league release. The You Can…
At a hastily called meeting April 29, the New York Racing Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to install an interim management team, effective May 1. The interim management team is comprised of three people all currently working in executive positions at NYRA: Glen Kozak, vice-president of facilities and racing surfaces; David O’Rourke, vice-president of…
Churchill Downs: The Grade III, $175,000 Derby Trial at 1 mile #1 Officer Alex: Versatile sprinter kicks off the final race that offers points for next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby and looms an intriguing price player for Whiting, who won the Run for the Roses in 1992 with Lil E. Tee. If you toss his two-turn…
The Kentucky Derby is less than two weeks away, and for months, the sport has focused obsessively on the three-year-old male horses that will run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, in the event often referred to as the only horse race most Americans care about. Lost in the hoopla can be…
“He alone made it what it is today.” So began a 1949 New York Times article by Arthur Daley on the passing of Matt Winn. The article was called “The Passing of a Legend,” and what he “made” is the Kentucky Derby. Matt Winn, a racing impresario if ever there was one, worked at a dozen or…
Between August 15, 2009 and March 8, 2012, Saginaw won seven races. He raced 22 times, most of them for the man who bred him, Ted Taylor, earning $277,690, mostly in optional claimers. By pretty much any measure, he was a racing success. Last year, though, Saginaw became a star. In March 2012, Drawing Away…
Maryland-bred Bold Affair, repeat winner last month of the Primonetta Stakes at Pimlico, has been retired, according to her owner Charles Reed. Reed owns and co-bred the Two Punch mare in partnership with Mike Zanella. The five-year-old Bold Affair is out of Hunka Hunka Lori Z (Colonial Affair), purchased by Reed as a yearling at…
Brooklyn Backstretch 