A two-year-old owned by a prominent member of the racing community wins a bevy of stakes races. A physical setback keeps him away from the track, and though he returns to the races, he never quite regains his earlier form, and he is retired to stud at the end of his four-year-old season. At six,…
Friday morning, Thoroughbred racing celebrated the best the sport has to offer when this year’s Racing Hall of Fame class was inducted in front of a packed house at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. Scheduled keynote speaker Steven Crist had to cancel due to the death of his mother, film critic Judith Crist, but the presenters…
The Whitney was first run in 1928, won by W.R. Coe’s Black Maria. Tomorrow, it will be run for the 85th time. Williams Collins Whitney was president of the Saratoga Association at the turn of the last century and oversaw a major expansion and rejuvenation of Saratoga Race Course. His sons, Payne Whitney and Harry…
Ten days down, thirty to go. I already feel as though there’s too much in Saratoga I won’t get to; the to-do list is getting longer, not shorter. Ramon Dominguez carries his lead in the jockey standings through week two; he’s got 21 wins with José Lezcano in second with 11. Anthony Dutrow led the…
Later today, Zagora will attempt to become the seventh horse to win the Diana two years in a row. Miss Grillo did it first, in 1946 and 1947; she was joined by Tempted (1959, 60); Shuvee (1970, 1971); Hush Dear (1982, 1983); Glowing Honor (1988, 89); and Forever Together (2008, 2009). Tempted was bred by…
James Marvin made his first posthumous appearance at Saratoga Race Course in the fourth race on August 9, 2008. It is unlikely, though, that that was Marvin’s first appearance at the track known as the Old Spa. Marvin was born just outside Saratoga in 1809, moving to the Spa City in 1828. Within three years,…
The race now known as the Dwyer began life in 1887, as the Brooklyn Derby. It was run at the Gravesend track in Brooklyn, a track that the Dwyer brothers, Phil and Mike, had helped to bring into existence in 1886. Phil and Mike were Brooklyn butchers, their shop at the corner of Atlantic and…
Bill Hirsch recognizes a legend when he sees one. He is, after all, the grandson of Hall of Fame trainer Max Hirsch, and the son of Hall of Fame trainer Buddy Hirsch. Among the horses they trained: Triple Crowner winner Assault, Gallant Bloom, Sarazen, and Canonero II. Max Hirsch trained three Kentucky Derby winners and…
A few weeks ago, Bill Mott sat in his office at Belmont Park and talked about his earliest racing memories, which centered on the weekly editions of The Blood-Horse that would arrive at his South Dakota home. “I’m trying to think of the filly that used to be on the cover,” he said. “She weighed…
You can watch the race, including its troubled start and one of the horses—presumably the winner—getting rubbed afterwards, and then read the incredibly detailed account of the race in the next day’s New York Times. The amount of coverage the race the got, the number of column inches, boggles the mind of the contemporary reader.…
Brooklyn Backstretch 