On Saturday, December 6, a few hours before Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals buried their Metropolitan Division rivals the New Jersey Devils 4-1, Ovechkin’s equine namesake became a millionaire in the last race of his seven-year career. Eighttofasttocatch was purchased in 2007 for $47,000 by former Capitals co-owner Arnold Heft, who died earlier this year. Heft…
Way back in June, I had the good fortune to cover the NHL draft in Philadelphia (an unforeseen result of my having purchased an orange car last summer was frequently being mistaken for a Flyers fan–shudder) for the Canadian Press, thanks to hockey/racing writer Stephen Whyno, who in 2012, on the day that I’ll Have…
If you can play, you can play. Those seven words sum up the message of the You Can Play Project, founded two years ago by Patrick Burke, Brian Kitts, and Glenn Witman. “Dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation,” You Can Play began with one video, in which Burke…
Hockey returned to the NHL this week after the Olympic break, our national loyalties reverting to regional ones, as the players against whom we rooted over the last few weeks once again become our home team. Whether NHL players will return to the Olympics in PyeonChang, South Korea, in 2018 remains to be seen; injuries to the…
When the Eclipse Award winners were announced a couple of weeks ago, the response to the honorees was largely muted; 2013 was not a year in which the performances on the racetrack were likely to give rise to any controversy, and there was no polarizing Zenyatta/Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta/Blame debate for Horse of the Year. What…
Depending on the outcome of Saturday’s fifth race at Santa Anita Park, Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville might get a chance to dream about adding a Kentucky Derby trophy to his collection of Stanley Cup rings. Midnight Hawk, a three-year-old colt, will make his second start tomorrow in the Grade 3 Sham. He’s owned by Quenneville…
Earlier this year, Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor published Racecourse Architecture, highlighting the world’s most beautiful and luxurious racecourses, among them Happy Valley in Hong Kong, Ascot in England, and Meydan in Dubai. In the book and in Roberts’ presentations on the subject, he suggests that as pressure for gambling dollars become more intense, the quality…
During his playing days, it was hard to find someone with an unkind thing to say about Marty Biron. His quick sense of humor and affable naure made him a favorite with both fans and teammates, and his retirement announcement earlier this month elicited kudos from fans, and predictions from hockey professionals, including Toronto Sun…
You can play. With these three words, a unprecedented movement of inclusiveness was started a year ago, and earlier this month, the You Can Play Project and the National Hockey League announced a ground-breaking partnership “to make the NHL the most inclusive professional sports league in the world,” according to a league release. The You Can…
Is the suburbification of Brooklyn now complete? The once-gritty borough has survived an influx of big box stores and national chains and SUV-stroller-wielding parents, but on Wednesday, Bruce Ratner, Charles Wang, and Gary Bettman may have put an end to whatever urban cred Brooklyn might have had left, when they announced that the New York…
Brooklyn Backstretch 