Brian Nadeau of Horseplayer Now offers his regular analysis of the 2014 road to the Kentucky Derby with a look at the Grade III, $250,000 Withers on Saturday at Aqueduct at 1 1/6 miles. #1 Uncle Sigh: Romping New York-bred MSW winner sure looked good when stretching to two turns last time in a breakthrough…
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…
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,…
Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens is the last racetrack in New York City. Across the Belt Parkway from Kennedy Airport, it has its own stop on the subway, and virtually from the day of its opening 1894, it has been disparaged, the down-market cousin of the upscale tracks that used to populate New…
It was a good weekend for brothers. The highest profile brother act took place on the gridiron, when siblings Jim and John Harbaugh coached their respective terms to Super Bowl berths. Jim’s San Francisco 49ers overcame a halftime deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24, while John’s Baltimore Ravens beat the New England Patriots, 28-13. The February 3 showdown will be…
Though most of the New York racing world’s attention is focused upstate at Saratoga, the good folks at the New York Times are making sure that we don’t forget about our cousin in Ozone Park, where the slot machines continue to whirr, even though racing has left the Big A for the summer. On July…
The racing season of New York State, and thus of the Eastern turf, was opened at the Aqueduct race course yesterday in the presence of a crowd that astonished the track managers even more than it did the patrons of racing who come under the head of “regulars” and professionals. A great attendance was expected…
An atmosphere of edgy grimness pervaded Aqueduct last Saturday. The weight of the week’s bad news lay heavy; nearly every conversation included references to the cancellation of Luck in the aftermath of a third horse death or to the growing list of equine mortality at the track over the last few months. Races were watched…
Seven years ago this weekend, I went to Aqueduct for the first time. I had spent more of the previous summer at the races in Saratoga than ever before, and having made my maiden voyage to Belmont in the fall of 2003, it was time to venture to Ozone Park. My friend Jonathan, who had…
Saturday was closing day at Aqueduct, and by the time that last race is run, most people who have spent the winter in Ozone Park are unashamedly declaring their enthusiasm to get back to Belmont. The grittiness of Aqueduct, the lack of aesthetically pleasing outdoor space, the long weeks of (charitably) mediocre racing have taken…
Brooklyn Backstretch 