I went to Aqueduct for the first time on January 29, 2005. That was the first year that I followed horse racing year-round, and after nearly seven years in Brooklyn, I had yet to visit the only extant track in New York City. I was drawn to the Big A that freezing day not by…
A few hours after the third race on Sunday, Aug. 7, Lacey Gaudet stood on the second floor of the clubhouse at Saratoga Race Course. It’s a place she’s been many times before, but despite her familiarity with it, on that afternoon, she viewed the place with a new perspective, that of a trainer with…
Last November, Ross Peddicord came to New York’s Equus Film Festival as an ambassador for Maryland horse racing. He expected the festival, which was being held for the second consecutive year in Manhattan, to serve as a platform for showcasing Maryland’s myriad equine activities. He didn’t expect to leave the festival wanting to bring a…
At 6 am on Tuesday, February 24, temperatures in the greater Baltimore area hovered in the single digits. Though classified as below normal for the region, they were all too normal in this winter of 2015, when words like “polar vortex” and “Siberian express” and “biting wind” have become an unwelcome entry into the vernacular.…
“Jack on the Rocks roars back to win under Sheldon Russell! It’s Sheldon Russell—make his a double on Maryland Million Day! Jack on the Rocks!” That call by Dave Rodman is one of Richie Munk’s favorite racing memories, and he’s got no shortage of them from which to choose. Munk has nearly 20 years in…
Charles “Chip” Reed and Mike Zanella first met on a gambling trip organized by a mutual friend. “He said to me, ‘I want you to meet my friend Chip. I think you’re really going to like this guy,’ ” recalled Zanella recently. “That’s how it started.” It was, as they say, the beginning of a…
Maryland-bred Bold Affair, repeat winner last month of the Primonetta Stakes at Pimlico, has been retired, according to her owner Charles Reed. Reed owns and co-bred the Two Punch mare in partnership with Mike Zanella. The five-year-old Bold Affair is out of Hunka Hunka Lori Z (Colonial Affair), purchased by Reed as a yearling at…
Brooklyn Backstretch 