This Thursday, while many of us are enjoying a day off, eating well and spending time with friends and family, the good folks at the Belmont Child Care Association will be at work as usual. Because even though it’s perhaps this country’s most significant holiday, the horses don’t much care, and they need to be…
Charities of various flavors take advantage of the throngs that descend on Saratoga during racing season: every week, even every night, events both modest and elaborate take place across the Spa City. The terrific spirits shop Crush and Cask supported a number of charities with Tuesday night wine tastings, and Chianti Il Ristorante offers diners…
“Saratoga is a healing community,” said Paul Ruchames recently, “and you can accomplish a lot with a healing community.” Ruchames is the recently appointed executive director of Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST); he comes to the position from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in the Bronx, where he served as director…
“We’re here to thank you,” said Michael Dubb, chairman of the board of the Belmont Child Association, to the crowd assembled at last week’s benefit at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga. “Tonight is more than financial. It’s the one time a year that we get to thank you for your support.” The children who…
It is with great melancholy that I post this week’s happenings, as at least one of them will be taking place after I return to Brooklyn. I can’t believe that Saratoga is almost over, and nearly every day I come face to face with a reminder that before too long, the old Spa will be…
Another week at Saratoga is in the books, and some among us are already looking mournfully towards the end of the meet. We’re past the halfway point, and it feels like Labor Day is going to come much too soon. But we’ve still got a few furlongs left, and there’s plenty to keep us busy…
I wrote recently in the Saratogian about the multitude of charitable opportunities that the racing season in Saratoga offers; nearly every night, we can choose an event to attend, a way to contribute, a charity to support. Among those charities are those that support New York racing all year round, some of which pack up…
On a spectacularly beautiful Saratoga morning, hundreds of racing fans turned out to support New York backstretch charities and get a little exercise in this morning’s Fasig-Tipton 5k to benefit the Belmont Child Care Association, the Backstretch Education Fund, Backstretch Employees Service Team, and the Racetrack Chaplaincy. I went into this morning’s race with no hope of matching…
Today brings the first of two twilight racing cards at the Spa this summer; post time is 2:30. Yesterday brought several promotions to the track: a short-sleeved T-shirt giveaway and a mid-summer St. Patrick’s Day. As I walked into the track just as the first race went off, I saw, in quick succession: people lined…
In what has become something of a Saratoga tradition, the jockeys played basketball last night for charity. Three years ago, they took on a fifth grade A.A.U. team from Texas, beating the youngsters by a score of 44-39; two years ago, the kids came back for a rematch and trounced the riders, 49-32. Last night,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 