On Thursday, NYRA announced that beginning tonight, Aqueduct and the Belmont Café will stay open until approximately 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Those who decide to hang out will be able to wager on Penn National Race Course, Turfway Park, Delta Downs Racetrack, Charles Town Races, and Sam Houston Race Park. I can’t decide…
A quick post here today, from gray, cold, wet of Whirlaway day at Aqueduct. Really, one Saturday this winter, could I have a sunny day at Aqueduct? Just one? Please? But on we trudge, and while today’s Whirlaway doesn’t look like it’s going to be much of a race, one never knows what might emerge…
Late Saturday afternoon, I stood on the A train platform at Aqueduct for the last time until this fall. I wore a sleeveless shirt, sandals, and a skirt, no tights. No hat, no gloves, no scarf, no coat, no boots. I don’t think that that’s EVER happened. It’s spring, all right, and with the last…
If you all did on Sunday was box Cornelio Velasquez/Jose Lezcano in exactas and play them in daily doubles, you’d have cashed $514 worth of winning tickets, for an investment of under $50. These two jockeys combined for six wins and three seconds, and while I doubt that they figured significantly into anyone’s betting strategy,…
Whenever I go to Aqueduct, I assume that it’s going to be cold. A pleasant surprise, then, that yesterday was sunny and warm, and most of us at the Big A were overdressed, especially when we stood in the sun. In fact, the weather was far nicer today than it was on most Saturdays at…
The opening of Aqueduct in 1894 attracted surprisingly little coverage in local newspapers, perhaps because at that time, it wasn’t the only game in town; even as Aqueduct opened, racing was being conducted at Jerome Park in the Bronx. The Brooklyn Eagle carried several brief stories about its planning and opening, while the New York…
Shakespeare, Keats, and Wordsworth are turning in their graves… October brings the autumn cold and drear;The Spa, bereft, begins its winter nap,Awaits July and the return of cheer,Of those who come to wager, watch, and ‘cap. And Belmont, home of champs, its storied groundThe host of Grade I winners, bids farewellWith state-bred runners; others, sunshine-bound,For…
Brooklyn Backstretch 