On this fine, blustery, snowy, gusty Saturday morning, when I should be at Belmont but I am instead at home, I was engaging in a leisurely breakfast coupled with some serious procrastinating when I noticed that Twitter suggested that I follow @espnhorseracing. @espnhorseracing? Who knew? Cool! Except…@espnhorseracing last tweeted on August 20, 2010. That tweet…
Earlier this week, I posted on Twitter and Facebook the ad below for this year’s Belmont Stakes. I wrote, “I love this ad. And I know that it’s stuff like this that makes non-New Yorkers hate us…but I still love it.” The responses to the ad were all favorable…perhaps because those who don’t like it…
Not long after the Kentucky Derby, I was putting together a post about jockey John Velazquez, and, in search of embeddable video of the race, I went to YouTube, expecting to find an official version made available by NBC, by Churchill Downs, or by the NTRA. In some ways, I’ve gotten spoiled: the NTRA, Breeders’…
I have a little media fantasy. Several, actually, but this is the big one, the one in which I get to assemble, as if I were putting together a new laptop, my ideal of a cable system. I’d get to look at that vast array of choices, and I’d get to pick exactly what I…
So I might just have a new favorite network. Yesterday afternoon, as I began to head south after a brief trip to Saratoga, Brother Backstretch sent along the following: The National Hockey League and the NBC Sports Group have reached agreement on a landmark 10-year television and media rights deal, taking the partnership through the…
On Friday evening at Churchill Downs, a lot of people in the press box were surprised at Life At Ten’s performance when she broke – sort of – from the gate in the Distaff. (Do I *have* to call it the Ladies’ Classic? Do I have to?) And some of us weren’t. Most of the…
Unlike racing (at least in New York), hockey has an off-season. Which is not to say that hockey news stops between the hoisting of the Stanley Cup in June and the opening of training camps in September: salary cap management, off-season trades, and players’ union peccadilloes all get their share of ink as we impatiently…
It all began so innocently. The smart and funny John of Not to the Swift noted on Sunday, “Very little tweeting about Greta Kunzweiler who is turning out to be the comeback story of the year.” In response to which the smart and funny irish_1 asked, “Racing’s gender bias?” Thus giving rise to a smart…
Today’s post is a series of public service announcements of one form or another, catching up with racing charities and other news. Still waiting to hear from Bourbon Bliss Barn, the winner of the 2010 Road to the Roses Brooklyn Backstretch charity league. It’s been a week, so Bourbon Bliss, unless I hear from you…
According to Claire Novak, Mike Smith is the sexiest jockey riding in the Breeders’ Cup. How do we know this? Because at ESPN.com, Novak, encouraged by Horseplayerpro.com’s Joe Kristufek and with input from other racing media (both male and female), posted her list of 10 sexiest jockeys riding in this weekend’s races at Santa Anita.…
Brooklyn Backstretch 