More than 15 years ago, folklorist Ellen McHale was asked by the National Museum of Racing to do a short-term consulting project on the life of backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course. “The education department wanted more information about the people who worked on the backstretch,” said McHale recently from her office at the New…
In this historic summer at Saratoga, it is de rigeur to recall the memorable moments at the Old Spa: Man o’War losing the Sanford. Jaipur and Ridan’s Travers. Onion upsetting Secretariat. And of course, Rachel Alexandra. Her Woodward tops many lists, especially for those too young to remember some of those other races, especially for…
An archaeologist by training, Lucas Rubin has spent a good deal of his life immersed in the past. He also loves cities, and he loves sports. In his book, Brooklyn’s Sportsmen’s Row: Politics, Society & the Sporting Life on Northern Eighth Avenue, he indulges his passion for all three. Read more at Brooklyn Bugle about an exquisite…
It’s happened to all of us: we watch a promising 2-year-old, we get excited…then he gets hurt and disappears, and often, we have no idea where he goes. In her young adult novel Raja: Story of a Racehorse, Anne Hambleton tells the story of what might happen to a horse who can’t race any longer.…
We in the United States aren’t the only ones looking forward to the first leg of a Triple Crown this weekend. On Saturday at Newmarket, the 2,000 Guineas will be run at the distance of one mile, kicking off Britain’s Triple Crown season. The other two legs are the Epsom Derby, at Epsom Downs on…
OK, nine days until Christmas. Eight shopping days. I hope, for your sake, that you’re a little further along in your holiday shopping than I am. But in case you’re not, and still in search of the perfect gift for the racing lover in your life, here are a few items you can pick up…
Sometimes the second fiddle gets to play in the first chair. Alydar finally beat Affirmed (albeit through disqualification) in the Travers; Easy Goer vanquished his nemesis Sunday Silence in the Belmont. Though often on the losing end of the rivalry, both Alydar and Easy Goer have, over the years, garnered nearly as much ink as…
When it comes to career choices, Kim Schaumburg hasn’t exactly taken the easy road. Her first job as an adult was as an exercise rider, then a jockey. When an injury ended that phase of her life, she got her commercial pilot’s license for single engine floatplanes, and on September 11, 2001, she was stranded…
The life of a jockey would, inherently, seem to have more than enough drama to make its narrative compelling. Small of stature, often from modest (at best) beginnings, the men who make their living on horseback daily risk injury or worse, fighting their own biology to keep their weights low and their strength high. Add…
“One of my earliest memories,” recalls poet Andrea Cohen, “is Dreamland. When one is going off to Dreamland, one is riding a stallion. When I was very young, before going off to sleep, my brothers and I would say, ‘See you in Dreamland,’ and we’d describe the horse we’d be on.” That’s about the closest…
Brooklyn Backstretch 