Only one more race stands between California Chrome and horse racing’s Triple Crown, but it could be his toughest challenge yet. Since 1978, a dozen horses — Sunday Silence, War Emblem and Smarty Jones among them — have won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, only to stumble before the finish line at the Belmont…
At Saratoga Race Course last summer, Chris Kay proved himself to be a man who likes a big event, as he embraced a summer of stakes and celebrations in honor of 150 years of racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Through the fall, winter, and early spring, Kay’s profile was decidedly lower, but as he approaches…
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.…
California Chrome will run in the Belmont Stakes, and he will wear the nasal strips that caused such a furor over the last 36 hours. Acting with unusual celerity in an industry in which change is seldom enacted easily, the New York State Gaming Commission, which regulates Thoroughbred racing in the state, issued a release…
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…
With this year’s Kentucky Derby a little over two months away—May 3—here are 10 things to know about this year’s Triple Crown series. 1) The penultimate Kentucky Derby future wager closes Saturday at 4:17 pm, post time for the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. The race carried a total of 85…
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…
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…
On Belmont day 2006, the name of one New York Hall of Famer and racing legend was swapped out for another, when the Riva Ridge Stakes became the Woody Stephens. Stephens’ legacy is cemented in his long list of accomplishments, among them the 11 champions he trained, the Eclipse he won as the nation’s top…
Brooklyn Backstretch 