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.…
The paint on the weathervane at Pimlico, which carries the colors of the Preakness winner, had barely dried before California Chrome’s Triple Crown bid erupted in controversy. The chestnut colt’s length and a half victory on Saturday afternoon put to rest any lingering doubts that his performance in the Kentucky Derby was the result only…
Hockey returned to the NHL this week after the Olympic break, our national loyalties reverting to regional ones, as the players against whom we rooted over the last few weeks once again become our home team. Whether NHL players will return to the Olympics in PyeonChang, South Korea, in 2018 remains to be seen; injuries to the…
“The second richest day in North American racing” will come to Belmont Park on June 7. That’s what the New York Racing Association (NYRA, and an occasional freelance client of mine) announced last week, in a reconfiguration of its springs/summer stakes schedule designed to create a blockbuster race card on the day of the Belmont…
The reorganization board of the New York Racing Association met for the first time a year ago, but it wasn’t until its eighth meeting Dec. 4 that its members offered any significant disagreement to a proposal made by board chairman David Skorton. On the agenda was NYRA’s 2014 budget, one of the most contentious elements…
On the last weekend of October a year ago, Thoroughbred trainer Mark Hennig and his wife Rosemary were on their way home from Florida. They’d heard about the impending storm heading towards their New York home, but they weren’t particularly concerned. “We were just due to come back that day,” Hennig said this week at…
Saturday’s meeting was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT, the time the gates open at Belmont. But with few people in attendance, the forum was delayed until nearly 11:30 a.m., which put it up against a jockey autograph signing scheduled by the New York Racing Association. NYRA’s only role in the fan council forum…
In April of 2010, Edward Stanco sent his mare Storm Dixie to Kentucky to be bred for the first time. He’d purchased her for $67,000 in 2006, and after she won just once in 10 starts, he decided, after years in the racing business, to take a shot at breeding a horse. The mating didn’t…
In June of 1913, the racing world slowly began to return to normal, or at least to a new normal, one in which bookmakers were banned and bets were made furtively, as customers tried to figure out how they could wager without running afoul of the law. In further good news for racing, within weeks…
Earlier this month, when horses gathered in the paddock at Belmont Park before heading to the track for the Belmont Stakes, they walked around an iconic white pine tree, thought to be a part of the estate on which the racetrack was constructed in 1905. Estimated to be nearly 200 years old, the tree was…
Brooklyn Backstretch 