This blasted flu that has kept me home from work all week is also, in all likelihood, going to keep me away from the Big A and the Gotham today. I’m hoping for some sort of miracle rally, but reports of the first big New York race of 2009 are probably, maddeningly, going to come…
Busher broke her maiden in her first start, on my birthday in 1944 (several decades before I was born, I hasten to add). That victory kicked off a Belmont-centric two-year-old season in which the filly raced at the big oval six times, winning four starts, and finishing second and fourth once each. She won her…
A year ago, I first made the acquaintance of Hollie Hughes, a man who devoted himself to and made a life in horse racing, who is as closely linked to one of racing’s first families as anyone could be—and of whom most racing fans have never heard. A year ago, I wrote of Hughes and…
It was in 2008 that I first made the historical acquaintance of Hollie Hughes, a man who devoted himself to and made a life in horse racing, a man as closely linked to one of racing’s first families as anyone could be. In 2008, I wrote of Hughes and of Sanford Farm, the place where…
In a lovely bit of romantic whimsy, NYRA has scheduled the Dearly Precious for Valentine’s Day this year. Though the bay filly has a pedigree that suggests romance (out of Imsodear), it was her performance on the racetrack that really set hearts racing. En route to being named champion two year old filly of 1975,…
“Whirlaway in action was more impressive than Whirlaway on his record, however, as the colt lost several times through bearing out, dawdling at the start, or other foolishness; when he finally made up his mind to run, he could turn it on, and it was agreed that he would be harder to beat at longer…
I am intrigued by this race horse, born in 1888, owned by J.A. and A.H. Morris (of the Morris Park track in the Bronx). She’s got a race named after her, to be run today at Aqueduct, and Pedigree Query calls her “the best sprint mare of her day.” But Pedigree Query’s usually extensive race…
While thousands of massed onlookers vented their excitement in outcries whichmerged into a prolonged roar, five lightning-hoofed throughbreds (sic) flashedover the finish line in the Paumonok Handicap at Jamaica yesterday clustered ina compact group. (New York Times) It was last year’s Paumonok that led to my discovery of the wealth of racing writing in the…
“The sport of horse racing is the only instance where the participation of blacks stopped almost completely while the sport itself continued—a sad commentary on American life…Isaac Murphy, so highly admired during his time for his skills and character, would have been ashamed of his sport.” –Arthur Ashe, quoted in Hotaling. Today, on the day…
Though the remarkable Searching was not a Jacobs homebred, her daughter Affectionately was, the product of the successful racing relationship between trainer Hirsch Jacobs and owner Isador Bieber. Unlike her mother, who raced twenty times without winning, Affectionately won nine of her first ten races, including three stakes races as a two-year-old, and in 1962,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 