Saratogians are proud of the Travers Stakes. Most of the thousands of fans who show up every year probably don’t know that the race was first run in 1864, or that it was named for one of the men who established Saratoga Race Course; they do know that the day of the Travers is something…
During a career that spanned three decades, Richard Migliore got to sit on a lot of classy horses. Last night at the Parting Glass’s monthly racing meeting (always open to the public), at which Migliore was the featured guest, the jockey was asked to name some of the more memorable horses he’d ridden. He named…
Saturday’s feature at Aqueduct was the Rare Treat, named for the “hard hitting filly” owned by George D. Widener who raced in the 1950’s. For a horse with “rare” in her name, she sure hit the track a lot, running 101 times for a record of 16 victories, 20 seconds, and 14 thirds. Her eponymous…
I frequently count myself lucky to live in a city with newspapers that cover racing daily. Both Ed Fountaine at the New York Post and Jerry Bossert at the Daily News provide handicapping, insight, and race recaps every racing day of the year; their focus is both local and national. Bossert was on a roll…
The Backstretch method did better than it could have hoped yesterday, cashing on the exacta and winner in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Let’s see how it works today. Juvenile Turf: Kera’s Kitten is out in favor of Becky’s Kitten (poor Kera—she travelled all the way from Kentucky to see her namesake race! Check out Grening’s…
Back in August, when Commentator’s retirement was announced, I wrote a column for the Saratogian expressing my wish for an upstate New York home for retired Thoroughbreds. Through various channels I hear that perhaps such a home is in the works, but for now, the two biggest retirement farms are located in the Bluegrass: the…
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. And profuse thanks to reader BrooklynSaint, who pointed out two unforgivable omissions in my wrap-up post from yesterday. Brian Nadeau: thank you! Brian started writing Derby preps last winter, and he continued handicapping through the end of the Saratoga meet, focusing on the Saturday Pick 4’s. His work…
Week 3 begins today; a third of the meet is gone; prevailing mood is a combination of fatigue and regret. “I can’t believe that only four weeks are left…” In no particular order… Week 2 was a good one for the felines, with three winners… Scottkeith’s Kitten Dean’s Kitten And our favorite, Crazy Catlady…The theme…
The happy ending was supposed to come in the 10th race, not the 9th. Commentator was supposed to win the 83rd Whitney, to join Kelso and Discovery as the only horses to win the Whitney three times. He was supposed to cruise to victory and sail off into the Saratoga sunset, retired at age eight…
If you’re a fan of Richard Migliore, there’s no dearth of recent news out there about him. He was interviewed by Jan Rushton a couple of weeks ago on Thoroughbred Weekly; Keith at Triple Dead Heat talked to him at Aqueduct just before Thanksgiving, and this week, NYRA has yet another interview with him, this…
Brooklyn Backstretch 