Last week the American Graded Stakes Committee announced its 2012 graded stakes races. Among the noteworthy changes was the downgrading of the historical Hopeful Stakes from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2. In decrying the downgrading, commentators invoked the race’s history – the Hopeful was first run in 1904 – and the post-Hopeful performances…
There’s racing this week in New York, Kentucky, Florida, and California, but the eyes and attention of many in the racing world are turned southwest, to Tucson, Arizona and the annual symposium of the Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona. Those unlucky enough to be tethered elsewhere and missing this event can…
The issues of drugs in racing was back in the news recently, as the New York Racing Association banned Jeff Mullins and his horses from its tracks for six months, following Mullins’s attempt in the detention barn at Aqueduct to administer a substance to Gato Go Win last April. Concern about the use of drugs…
As a racing fan, I am filled anticipation as we approach the Kentucky Derby, this country’s most anticipated horse race. As a racing fan, I am dismayed that so much Derby attention is being focused on trainers with, shall we say, less than savory reputations. Richard Dutrow, trainer of the acclaimed Big Brown, has racked…
Brooklyn Backstretch 