Happy Halloween! I’m pretty sure that my local card store has already put out their Christmas cards, and while overall I am about as near to thinking about Christmas as I am to thinking about retirement (and that would be not nearly near enough), I was glad to hear from the Belmont Child Care Association…
Curlin did more than satisfy thousands of racing fans on Saturday afternoon; he also made the lives of the folks on the backstretch in New York a little better. The sale of Curlin T-shirts made $10,500 for Backstretch Employees Service Team, and the future sale of any shirts will also benefit BEST. Thanks to those…
The folks at Backstretch Employee Service Team contacted me today to say that NYRA has donated 5,000 Curlin t-shirts to BEST for sale at the races today. Here’s hoping that all 5,000 sell for their low, low price of $5, netting BEST $25,000. BEST provides a variety of services, including medical and dental care, to…
Last Wednesday, the Belmont Child Care Association held its annual and major benefit for the children of Anna House. Having outgrown its traditional home at the Gideon Putnam, this year’s event was held at the City Center…and the good news is that it, too, felt crowded at times, testimony to the commitment of so many…
What with the trifecta of bad racing news over the last couple of days, (the Jeremy Rose suspension and the Dutrow/Asmussen violations), I’m going to focus on some good racing news. As both the NY Daily News and Green but Game reported earlier this month, Casino Drive and his connections developed quite a relationship with…
At the end of May, I wrote about the Metropolitan Handicap, noting that the last winner of the Handicap Triple Crown was Fit to Fight; four days after the Met Mile was run, Fit to Fight was euthanized due to, in that classic phrase, “the infirmities of old age.” He stood at Lane’s End and…
Brooklyn Backstretch is going a little random as the school year comes to a close. In an example of bad timing, I head out of town this morning for four days of community service with our senior class—fun and rewarding, a great way to end the year, but not the best way to stay on…
Brooklyn Backstretch is taking it easy this morning, having received yesterday a late-breaking invitation to the BEST benefit on Long Island last night, at which Allen Jerkens received a Lifetime Outstanding Trainer award. The New York Racing Association hosted the event at the gorgeous Hempstead House in Sands Point, Long Island, which is a long…
Following the Native Dancer brouhaha begun with this article in the Wall Street Journal and continued by Eight Belles’ breakdown, a reader e-mailed this piece from the Baltimore Sun, which takes issue with the assertion that today’s horses who trace to Native Dancer are more fragile than horses from other sire lines. As someone who…
Earlier this week, the Schenectady Gazette ran a story about the ways in which B.E.S.T. (Backstretch Employees Service Team) will work on behalf of the Saratoga backstretch workers this spring and summer (thanks, Equidaily, for the link to this story). B.E.S.T., located on the backstretch at Belmont, began as a drug and alcohol treatment program…
Brooklyn Backstretch 