Another series of random bits… To Rich and to last week’s anonymous commenter who posted about the Belmont Child Care Association holiday party—the folks at the BCCA would love to get in touch with you. If you’re interested in talking with them, please e-mail me at the e-mail address to the right and I’ll put…
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…
My DRF watch list informed me yesterday that Evening Attire has been entered in the $250K Greenwood Cup at Philadelphia Park. Run at a mile and a half, the Greenwood is part of the “Win and You’re In” Breeders’ Cup series, so the victor earns an automatic bid to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Dirt Marathon…
I’ve been writing for weeks about the major BEST fundraiser last night, always with a tinge of envy, knowing that the ticket price was out of my reach, regretful that I wouldn’t be able to attend. Around midday on Wednesday, I got a call from the folks at the Belmont Child Care Association, who told…
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…
The Take Ten! standings weren’t complete until Friday of last week and I didn’t have time over the weekend to post them, so what you see below doesn’t represent this past weekend’s racing; those results will be posted later this week. Not a lot of movement from week 8 to week 9, though both Stafford…
The Blood-Horse recently reported that a $40,000 grant from the Alfred Z. Solomon Trust will make it possible for Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST), based at Belmont, to offer dental care to backstretch workers at Saratoga this summer. While BEST has for the past three years provided medical care, this is the first time that…
Brooklyn Backstretch 