On Thursday at Saratoga, seven-year-old All The Way Jose will make his fourth start of the year in the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup Handicap. The former flat runner is 8-1 on the morning line, and looking for his first win at the Spa since an allowance race in 2014 when he was…
On the morning of July 27, Keri Brion sat on a golf cart on Saratoga’s backstretch and glumly watched torrents of rain soak the turf course. She was scheduled in a few hours to ride her first race at Saratoga, in the Grade 1, $150,000 A.P. Smithwick, no less, but with incessant rain forecast for…
At 5:35 a.m., Keri Wolfsont responds to a direct message within seconds. Every morning’s busy, but this one is particularly so, the eve of the Colonial Cup card in Camden, where she and a half dozen equine charges await tomorrow’s races. The assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, Wolfsont is based at his…
Horse racing is not known for embracing new technology–only within the last few years have fans been able to view races in high-definition—and staying true to past performance lines, the sport’s individuals and institutions were both initially slow to establish a presence on social media. Even now, some of racing’s biggest presences in real life—people…
In early August of 2011, my parents and I, not unusually, spent a lovely afternoon at Saratoga Race Course. With other family in town, they had to leave before the last race, but not before placing their wagers, and later that evening, my mother, from whom I inherited the hunch-betting gene, called to inquire about the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 