Happy new year! And for the third consecutive year, I’m kicking off my year at a racetrack. In 2009, I welcomed the new year on the Fair Grounds backstretch; last year, it was Calder; and finally, this year, I’m making it to my first New Year’s Day at the Big A, getting my NYRA calendar…
Ah, library day. After a few days of shopping for Christmas, visiting farms, and seeing friends, Tuesday was the day set aside for spoiling myself at the Keeneland Library, for delving into racing’s past, for exploring the Library’s precious collections, for reading and writing and taking notes. After calling on the unparalleled knowledge of librarian…
The envelope for the key to my room tells me that my hotel “sits on some of Lexington’s oldest thoroughbred farm land. It spans some 1300 acres, and was once an integral part of the Madden Family’s (sic) ‘Hamburg Place Farm.’” John Madden named his farm after his champion two-year-old colt; according to Maryjean Wall,…
On Saturday night, after spending the day at Aqueduct, I stumbled across The Rocket, a 2007 Canadian movie about Maurice Richard, who played for the Canadiens from 1942 to 1950 1960. Richard was the first player both to score 500 goals in a career and to score 50 goals in 50 games. One of the…
On Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct, Haynesfield got within a head of becoming the first horse to win the Suburban, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and the NYRA/Cigar Mile. Longshot Jersey Town denied him that honor. Following Haynesfield’s defeat, Cigar remains the only horse to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the NYRA Mile. The…
I would like to meet the person who had the good sense, in 1945, to name a New York race after Comely. I recognize that that’s probably not possible, but in this season of talking about racing history, that man (and yeah, had to be a man, right?) truly did preserve this filly’s place in…
A quick check-in before heading upstate to see the family, catch the last of the fall foliage along the Taconic, and squeeze in one more visit to the Oklahoma before training there comes to an end next month. Bennett Liebman has provided some further information and stories on the Saratoga saddling area, this one from…
Ah, holiday weekends! Not sure what the justification is behind making Columbus Day a major holiday, but given the chance at a three-day weekend…I’ll take it. As usual, I spent Saturday at Belmont, where there were three Grade 1 races on tap: the Jamaica, the Frizette, and the Champagne. On Sunday I headed for points…
What a fun week it’s been! E-mails and Facebook comments and phone calls and website comments, all dropping nuggets of information about when the paddock at Saratoga changed. The saddling area under the trees at Saratoga is so iconic, and Saratoga itself so steeped in history, and Saratoga fans so aware of that history, that…
I haven’t yet seen Secretariat, though what I’ve heard about it suggests that perhaps it will be a Netflix or pay-per-view rental, instead of a $12.75/ticket night out in New York City. The absence of Riva Ridge – in even so much as a mention – from the movie has raised the ire of a…
Brooklyn Backstretch 