“Don’t fall in love with your horses,” they say. “This is a business,” they say. “You can’t make decisions with your heart,” they say. It’s a good thing that Sharilyn Gasaway didn’t listen to what “they” said, or she might not have had a 2-year-old homebred filly, out of her heart horse, break her maiden…
As Peter Bradley walked into the paddock on a damp Sunday morning, the security guard staffing the gate wished him a good afternoon. “We’ll see about that after the first race,” Bradley responded with his trademark grin. About an hour later, Bradley was indeed having a good afternoon, when his 2-year-old filly Briland won at first asking…
After posting on X that he had purchased 2-year-old Bellacose, John Stewart of Resolute Racing confirmed Aug. 17 that he had purchased a 75% share of the Audible filly for an undisclosed price. “I had posted on (X) that I’d pay a commission if people find a horse they thought I should buy and hooked me up with the owners,”…
A year ago, breeder John Gunther entered a colt by his racehorse Without Parole in the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The bay was out of the Street Cry mare Mama Tembu, herself a half sibling to Stage Magic, dam of Justify, and he sold for $95,000 to Avenue Bloodstock. “He went through the sale,” said Gunther, “but there was a problem with the…
Shortly after implementing new restrictions on the Saratoga Race Course jockey colony to address concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the New York Racing Association and officials from the City of Saratoga Springs announced July 14 additional safety measures that will be in place during this summer’s race meeting. The much-anticipated annual meet usually attracts tens of…
The racing world was well represented April 12 for the funeral of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, held at St. James’ Church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Phipps died of pancreatic cancer April 6. Nearly filling the church, which accommodates 1,200 people, Phipps’ friends and family celebrated his life and mourned his death in an Episcopal…
With an eye on the future, New York Racing Association president and chief executive officer Chris Kay extolled the successes of the present and the recent past at a meeting of NYRA’s board of directors Sept. 29. On the heels of a Belmont Stakes (gr. I) with a Triple Crown on the line and the…
Representatives of jockeys’ organizations from around the world gathered at Monmouth Park Sept. 13 for the first session of a two-day meeting of the International Conference on Health, Safety, and Welfare of Jockeys. Medical professionals and jockey advocates discussed matters including insurance for jockeys riding overseas, research into concussions and spinal cord injuries, and setting minimum…
At a hastily called meeting April 29, the New York Racing Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to install an interim management team, effective May 1. The interim management team is comprised of three people all currently working in executive positions at NYRA: Glen Kozak, vice-president of facilities and racing surfaces; David O’Rourke, vice-president of…
The Blood-Horse has put much of its synthetic surfaces edition online for free. I’d like to think that what I wrote at the end of this post had something to do with it (someone at The Blood-Horse did see the post, according to good old StatCounter), but I fear that I’d be gravely overestimating the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 