“No man in the country was more widely esteemed by racing men.” David Dunham Withers was born in 1822 in New York City; he and his family lived downtown on Greene Street, now in fashionable Soho. When his parents married, the couple was given a cottage by the bride’s father as a wedding present. According…
Aqueduct: The Grade III, $250,000 Withers at 1 1/16 miles by Brian Nadeau #1 Classy Class (2-1): Tricky read starts his 3yo campaign as a bit of a wildcard as he looked great winning his bow sprinting, then didn’t fire when a modest fourth over a highly speed-favoring track when stretching out in the local…
It wasn’t supposed to happen again. After that devastating winter three years ago, after Governor Cuomo called for a task force, after an investigation and dozens of recommendations, we weren’t supposed to be sitting here wondering why so many horses are breaking down at Aqueduct, again. But we are. In the 20 days since Aqueduct’s…
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…
The agenda for the Nov. 12 meeting of the board of the New York Racing Association was short and sweet: to discuss a re-privatization plan for the organization due next spring to the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. And while board chair David Skorton cautioned that no decisions would be made at the…
Aqueduct looks great. I never thought that it looked quite as bad as many people said, but the improvements over the last few years have resulted in a track that is, yes, attractive. The murals on the main floor debuted about a year ago; eye-catching, intriguing, they are ubiquitous, and while the Big A regulars…
Optimism was evident May 28 as the board of directors of the New York Racing Association heard Chris Kay, president and CEO, detail a number of improvements customers can expect on what could be an historic Belmont Stakes (gr. I) day.Also fueling the optimism was the realization of a number of capital projects at Aqueduct Racetrack.…
Last Friday night, the local Time Warner News NY1 aired a report about fatalities at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, linking horse racing with the contentious Central Park carriage horse issue. On the face of it, it’s not a stretch to consider the issues together; both, after all, raise issues of equine welfare; both have made…
By the time the Gotham was run last Saturday afternoon, Aqueduct might have been at its raw, freezing, wintry worst, but that didn’t seem to matter to the people who braved the elements and were rewarded with a heck of a horse race for their efforts. It was nice to see the old track—which saw…
On this weekend when a “New York” Super Bowl will be played in New Jersey, it seems only fitting that a race named for a man whose racing life was based in the Garden State will be run at Aqueduct. David Withers got his start in New York and lived here for most of his…
Brooklyn Backstretch 