On Tuesday morning at around 10:15 a.m., the main track at Saratoga Race Course had closed for training, and the tractors were out to groom the surface. Pretty much business as usual. Except for the half-dozen jockeys, in street clothes and safety vests, hanging around the track’s first turn, ready to ride horses whose names…
Over the weekend of May 30, amid coast-to-coast protests against racism and police brutality, jockey Kendrick Carmouche couldn’t hold back his feelings any longer. He propped up his phone and spoke from his heart on Instagram Live for nine minutes—roughly the same amount of time Derek Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck, leading…
In 2011, Joe Dietrick made his annual trip to Saratoga Race Course from his home in northeast Pennsylvania. He’s come here for decades, and when he was younger, he’d park his mobile home in Saratoga for the whole meet. On that day in 2011, Dietrick was with his son Jon and two grandsons. John Velazquez…
On the Friday of Breeders’ Cup weekend, Sophie Doyle was enjoying a rare recreational day at the racetrack. She’d been out in the morning as usual to work horses at Keeneland, then traded her riding clothes for a dress and heels to watch her brother James ride Birchwood in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for…
When racing fans think of Travers-winning jockeys, they might think of Chris McCarron or Jerry Bailey, who each won Saratoga’s flagship race three times. They might think of Javier Castellano, Braulio Baeza, Eddie Arcaro, or Pat Day, who won it four times. They probably wouldn’t think of Shelby Barnes. Shelby “Pike” Barnes won the Travers…
Saturday, August 8 was a pretty big day at Saratoga Race Course. The inaugural Whitney Racing Festival featured five stakes races, three of them graded, the centerpiece the 88th running of the Whitney Stakes. Kendrick Carmouche had mounts in three of those races. He finished last in the first one, on Joint Return in the…
In the 19th century in the southern United States, black jockeys ruled the horse racing world. The sport was centered mostly in the south, and white plantation owners entrusted their prized racehorses to the slaves who worked on their farms and in their stables. The skill of the riders, and thus the success of the…
While the eyes of the U.S. racing world will be focused on Gulfstream Park on Saturday night when this year’s Eclipse Award winners will be announced, next Monday a less-heralded but equally important event will take place in South Florida when jockey John Velazquez offers the opening remarks for the 2015 Jockeys’ Guild Assembly. Not…
The horse racing world turns its eyes toward Southern California this weekend, when the Breeders’ Cup takes over Santa Anita Park for two days of world class racing with championship implications on the line. Joined by their elite European counterparts, North America’s top jockeys, horses, and trainers will compete on Friday and Saturday in Breeders’…
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…
Brooklyn Backstretch 