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…
For most of the last 13 years, a few minutes before post time at New York Racing Association tracks, you could invariably find Bruce Johnstone lounging against the rail in the winner’s circle. Looking tanned regardless of the season, he exuded calmness and relaxation, an appearance that belied an alertness to everything from a balky…
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…
In early 2017, the New York Racing Association announced that it would pay a $1 million bonus to any Japan-based horse that won this year’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes. Although Lani’s presence in the three Triple Crown races attracted a good deal of fan interest, particularly given that horse’s quirkiness, the NYRA bonus was about more…
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…
Though it lacked a representative from the New York Racing Association for the first time in recent memory, the annual preview of the Saratoga Race Course meet at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame the evening of July 20 drew a near-capacity crowd of participants that peppered panelists with questions on everything from…
The next time a horse is awarded the Triple Crown trophy will be the first time for a new design, as New York Racing Association president Chris Kay has commissioned a redesigned piece to replace the one awarded to the previous Triple Crown winners. Designed and created by Cartier, the trophy awarded to American Pharoah’s connections last year is a…
For the first time in three years, the New York Racing Association will host a Belmont Stakes without a Triple Crown on the line. Preparations at Belmont Park have proceeded much more quietly, with none of the national and little of the local coverage of the last two years, when TV crews descended on the…
As it waits for a decision on the future of the New York Racing Association, the organization’s board of directors May 25 spent less than five minutes discussing rumors of a proposal that would keep the association under state control. The NYRA board, at a meeting in New York City, implicitly acknowledged a report that emerged…
Three-and-a-half years after being put under state control by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York Racing Association board of the directors approved a plan April 12 for a return to privatization at a meeting in New York City. The board was required by statute to submit a re-organization plan to the state this month, with…
Brooklyn Backstretch 