When I lived and taught in London the mid 1990’s, I wasn’t much interested in racing. Somehow, shockingly, during my tenure I never once attended a horse race, though I did hear the BBC Radio 4 picks of the day each morning, for tracks like Lingfield and Doncaster, as I got ready for school. I…

When we watched the 2008 Kentucky Derby, we all wanted to know: How is Eight Belles? What happened? When we watched the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, we all wanted to know: How is Pine Island? What happened? When we saw a five-horse pile-up at Aqueduct earlier this year, we all wanted to know: How are…

At first, it was just another version of disturbing: shortly after the beginning of the eighth race yesterday at Aqueduct, jockey Mike Luzzi was working hard to pull up Cloud Nine. Watching the turf race from the winner’s circle, we could see that a rear leg was badly broken–horse and jockey were directly across from…

As an anonymous commenter noted, Backstretch handicapper Brian nailed the Arkansas Derby, picking Papa Clem for the win; he didn’t do too badly in the Blue Grass, either, observing of second place finisher Hold Me back, “Formidable and due a ton of respect.” Can you give me the Derby winner, Brian? Please? He’ll offer a…

Thanks to Jim Barber of Capital OTB for writing in regarding Saturday’s NYRA program on MSG+: Producing 2 TV programs at once with the same crew and the same equipment is difficult. You must keep pace with the normal simulcast product as well as keep pace with an hour program that probably had commercials. An…

Saturday marked the maiden voyage of the collaboration between NYRA and the Madison Square Garden network, the first of six scheduled broadcasts devoted to New York stakes racing. Saturday’s show was broadcast on MSG+, as will be this summer’s shows; the channel is available throughout much of New York on regular cable, and nationally on…

Spring break is over. The inner track is closed. The Wood Memorial is less than a week away. All the signs are there…but spring is staying stubbornly away from New York, and if, as the weather forecast indicates, April showers bring May flowers, they will most certainly not bring turf racing back to New York,…

Back in Brooklyn after two terrific weeks on the road. While I can’t say that I’m thrilled that vacation is over, it was pretty great to glimpse the skyline as I drove in, and pretty nice to be home after being a guest for so long. Madison and Floyd are quite happy that they can…

Having spent about half of this vacation on racing-related activities, it seems mightily unjust that on this Big Day of Racing, here and abroad, I’ll be on the road, with no access to races or results until this evening. Maybe I can find a rest area with wi-fi access and time a stop to coincide…

We interrupt our regularly scheduled southern programming with this important news from Aqueduct: “Distaff” is not a dirty word. On Saturday at the Big A, the Distaff Handicap will be run for the 55th time. It’s been won by storied fillies and mares, several of whom have been profiled here: Hirsch Jacobs’s Searching (1957); her…