Saturday brings to us the second oldest race for fillies in the country; the Alabama Stakes, inaugurated in 1872, is younger by four years than the Ladies Handicap. The race is named for Captain William Cottrill, a Southern military man and keen horseman. Edward Hotaling, in They’re Off! Horse Racing at Saratoga, tells of the…
As expected, the Women’s Day Expo lacked the sexy elements that Gentlemen’s Day included last weekend, and as expected, it was located all the way at the back of the track, near the Big Red Spring, while the Gentlemen’s Day exhibit was placed just inside the main gates off of Union Avenue. While the men…
Sunday’s feature at Saratoga is the Fourstardave Handicap, a Grade II race at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf for three year olds and up. It’s named for one of Saratoga’s most beloved equine citizens, the gelding who won stakes races here for five consecutive years and who won a race every year…
First run in 2004, the De La Rose has served up some excitement in its short life. An ungraded stakes for fillies and mares four and up on the turf, the De La Rose keeps alive the name of an accomplished filly about whom we don’t talk much these days. A daughter of Nijinsky, De…
In discussing Sunday’s feature at Saratoga, Geno at Equispace wondered about the origin of the Jim Dandy, the stakes race run for the 45th time this weekend. Anyone who happened to be holding a ticket on the colt in the 1930 Travers would likely regale listeners with the story of one of the biggest upsets…
The Travers might be the biggest race of the Saratoga meet, but today is billed as the biggest day, with three Grade I’s and a Grade II on the card: the Diana, Whitney, Go for Wand, and Vanderbilt, respectively. All four are “Win and You’re In” races, with the victor in each gaining a berth…
Yesterday’s running of the Sanford Stakes may well not go down in history; scratches reduced to the field to four, and while there was plenty to like in Desert Party’s victory, I’m not sure that many of us are stretching towards his Derby bandwagon, and who knows if we’ll even remember his name a year…
The first Thoroughbred meet in Saratoga took place in August of 1863, on the site of the old trotting course, across Union Avenue from the current track. Known as Horse Haven, just south of the Oklahoma, portions of the old track still exist (pictured below), though parts of it have been paved over and it’s…
This afternoon’s Man o’War at Belmont carries several intriguing storylines, perhaps unusually for a mid-July race. The first, of course, is the return of Curlin to New York, the site of his most famous defeat, in last year’s Belmont. He’s gone undefeated lost only once since then, in the Haskell (thanks, Ernie, for writing with…
It’s tempting this morning, the day of the Dwyer Stakes for three-year-olds at Belmont, to hearken back to the epic 1920 running of the race, in which John P. Grier challenged Man O’ War for the lead, headed him at the eighth pole, and eventually gave way in what the New York Times then called…
Brooklyn Backstretch 