This weekend, 12 horses will take to the legendary Belmont oval to run in an historic stakes race, a race that dates back to the 19th century, a race in which horses will run, for one of the few times in their careers, if not the only time, a mile and a half. On Friday,…
Researchers of racing’s history have been spoiled for choice over the last couple of years: The entire New York Times archive going back to 1851 is digitized and online, much of it for free, more of it available to subscribers or for a fee. Equibase offers free access to charts going back to 1991. The…
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…
During the last week of April in 1994, turf writers were looking ahead to the Kentucky Derby while hockey writers were following the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. On the April 16, the Wood Memorial had been won by the Steven Young-trained Irgun; he beat Go for Gin by a length and a…
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention… Think when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth… Prologue to Henry V, William Shakespeare We are just a few days away from the date accepted as Shakespeare’s birthday – April 23,…
The racing season of New York State, and thus of the Eastern turf, was opened at the Aqueduct race course yesterday in the presence of a crowd that astonished the track managers even more than it did the patrons of racing who come under the head of “regulars” and professionals. A great attendance was expected…
“On a quiet evening or a Sunday morning, when there’s nothing happening, I think you can feel it. They talk of ghosts on the farm, especially at the old training barn. Kind of makes you wonder sometimes. Who’s to say that there aren’t certain spirits here?” Tom Mullikin smiles as he says it, but with…
“As president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, a group that represents exactly what the name suggests, [Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt] has some heartfelt words of warning and advice for the Establishment of racing, not just in his own New York state but through the rest of the country as well. The major points in…
The race named for Hollie Hughes hasn’t been around all that long – only since 1979 – but it honors a man whose life in racing began 98 years ago, a man who worked for a stable – Stephen Sanford’s Hurricana Farm — that was racing at Saratoga as far back as 1880. The Sanfords’…
On this weekend when a team that plays in New Jersey will be nominally representing New York in the Super Bowl, it seems only fitting that a race named for a man whose racing life was based in the Garden State will be run at Aqueduct. Like the New York Giants, David Withers got his…
Brooklyn Backstretch 