…the silence was most striking moments later, when track announcer John Imbriale let us know that the stewards were taking a look at the stretch run and that Midnight Bisou’s rider, Ricardo Santana Jr., had lodged an objection against the winner. Ordinarily, we’d have heard cries of disgust from the people holding tickets on,…
In November 2011, Benjamín León went to Lexington, Kentucky to buy a racehorse. Not just any racehorse—he had his eye on one in particular, and he was, he said last weekend, determined to get her no matter what. He actually bought nine horses at the Keeneland November sale that year, spending $22.4 million on fillies…
I wrote this a year and a half ago, shortly before the 2008 Breeders’ Cup. I recalled it this weekend, during so many conversations about Zenyatta, the Breeders’ Cup, Personal Ensign…and this race. It originally appeared at The Blood-Horse. What agony to be a fan of the distaff side in November of 1988. Root for…
Shug, Phipps, and fillies: a racing combination that we ignore at our peril. An incomplete list of Phipps racing females trained by Shug McGaughey: Personal Ensign. Pine Island. Inside Information. My Flag. Storm Flag Flying. Smuggler. Need I go on? I can… (and I should have–thanks, LJK, and sorry, Heavenly Prize!) Small wonder, then, that…
Brooklyn Backstretch 