In early 2017, the New York Racing Association announced that it would pay a $1 million bonus to any Japan-based horse that won this year’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes. Although Lani’s presence in the three Triple Crown races attracted a good deal of fan interest, particularly given that horse’s quirkiness, the NYRA bonus was about more…
That shouting you heard from the vicinity of Saratoga Race Course just before 7 p.m. on Sunday night? That was Joe Appelbaum, long-time backyard denizen, screaming at one of the TVs as he rooted home the eight horse, Cookie Crisp, on the lead heading to the wire under jockey Kendrick Carmouche. Appelbaum was live to…
When the National Handicapping Championship kicks off later today at Treasure Island in Las Vegas, more than 500 players will take a shot at the $800,000 prize. One of them, Jonathon Kinchen, will be playing for considerably more than that–$2 million more to be exact. The winner of the 2015 National Handicapping Championship tour, Kinchen…
At noon today, the betting windows open for the second pool of the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, enabling the hopeful, the strategic, and the confident to place $2 win and exacta bets with an eye on cashing big on the first Saturday in May. The pool closes at 6 pm on Sunday evening. At…
How do you handicap a horse race? It depends on whom you ask. In Esquire TV’s new reality series Horseplayers, viewers will see both traditional and unorthodox approaches to wagering as cameras follow seven men trying to qualify for the National Handicapping Tournament, held next week in Las Vegas. Team Rotondo will show viewers the tried-and-true. Peter…
Guests posts don’t often appear here, but when the Brooklyn Backstretch house handicapper takes down a contest, it’s worth making an exception. Brian Nadeau, who regularly handicaps the Triple Crown trail here, won this summer’s #Huddie contest at Saratoga, and author/handicapper/editor Peter Thomas Fornatale, who’s currently working on a book about handicapping contests, talked to…
Watch most telecasts of horse racing and you’ll hear little about gambling, the sport’s primary revenue stream. You’ll sometimes see the odds, and analysts/handicappers will make picks, but if you want to actually make a bet, you’d have no idea how to go about it. With the advent of racing coverage on Fox Sports 1,…
On February 23, 1913, the New York Times weighed in on the recent decision by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which upheld the November 1912 New York State Supreme Court ruling that that a man making a private bet at a racetrack was not breaking the law, nor could race track operators be…
When New Yorkers rang in New Year 1913, they did not, as many of us do now, anticipate a day at the races. Even if tracks raced in the winter here then, New York was starting its third year without organized racing, the sport a victim of political activism that made gambling so onerous that…
Brooklyn Backstretch 