A few days ago, I got a message from a Twitter follower that I didn’t know was a racing fan. She said that she’d always been a racing fan and that her sister owns horses, and she’d come up from Brooklyn to Saratoga for the races. She was here on a day on which one…
On the day that last week’s column was published, the column in which I raised questions about the accuracy, timeliness, and consistency of the information in the New York State Gaming Commission’s database of equine injuries, I received an e-mail from the Commission, correcting my assertion that thefatality report from the Saratoga 2014 meeting had…
On Sunday morning not long before post time, several dozen protestors gathered on the corner of East and Union Avenues. They held signs decrying the deaths of nine Thoroughbreds here since the meet began on July 22, one reading “Stop Racing Horses to the Grave.” Though the views of most people attending the track are…
The New York State Gaming Commission Sept. 24 passed several rule amendments related to equine medication, including further restrictions on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and a total ban on stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. The NYSGC also amended rules regarding the role of veterinary technicians on the backstretch and a requirement for continuing education…
At a Sept. 1 summit presented by the New York State Gaming Commission on racehorse aftercare, the New York Racing Association pledged that it would donate $5 per start at its tracks to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. NYRA follows in the footsteps of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which in 2014 began contributing $5…
The New York Racing Fan Advisory Council held an open forum Aug. 30 at Saratoga Race Course, inviting customers and racing fans in the state to share comments and questions about their experiences at New York’s tracks. The Fan Advisory Council was established in 2011 by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, and…
On Saturday morning during training hours, Jackson N Leonard broke down during a breeze on the main track. Vanned off and later euthanized, he was one of three fatalities at Saratoga that day, two during training, one during racing, the first ones of this year’s racing meeting. New York Racing Association staff, the horse’s trainer…
The New York State Gaming Commission announced a major new transparency initiative at its May 26 meeting. As a result of recommendations from the Fan Advisory Council, established in 2011 by the New York State Racing Wagering and Board—the gaming commission’s predecessor—the NYSGC will now publish weekly reports from the New York Racing Association, containing…
A grim winter at Aqueduct In late 2011 and early 2012, horses racing at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York died in alarming numbers: 21 of them between Nov. 30, 2011 and March 18, 2012, nearly double the number that suffered catastrophic injuries in the same period the previous year. It was a time of…
On May 21, the New York State Gaming Commission released the security procedures for the horses entered in four of the six Grade I races on Belmont Day: the Manhattan, the Met Mile, the Ogden Phipps, and the Belmont Stakes. Such procedures are put in place for races worth more than $1 million, according to…
Brooklyn Backstretch 