Monday at Saratoga, closing day, was a day both happy and melancholy. Happy because we were there, still there, spending Labor Day at the track with family and friends, seeing two stakes races, enjoying another gorgeous day at the Spa. Melancholy because it was the last day, because the beauty of Saratoga would be mine…
Saratoga 2010 closes out with three stakes races that have been run for more than 100 years: the Spinaway, the Saranac, and the Hopeful. In 1910, where we’ve spent so much time this summer, the Spinaway was run on August 16th; the Saranac on August 18th; and the Hopeful on August 20th. The Spinaway and…
“Saratoga is a healing community,” said Paul Ruchames recently, “and you can accomplish a lot with a healing community.” Ruchames is the recently appointed executive director of Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST); he comes to the position from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in the Bronx, where he served as director…
“We’re here to thank you,” said Michael Dubb, chairman of the board of the Belmont Child Association, to the crowd assembled at last week’s benefit at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga. “Tonight is more than financial. It’s the one time a year that we get to thank you for your support.” The children who…
Yesterday’s Travers will likely have no significant effect on racing. It won’t determine the three-year-old champion; it didn’t set any records; and its winner might not even go on to race in the Breeders’ Cup in November. Alan at Left At the Gate has pointed out today that the race isn’t going to win any…
I arrive at 6:40. The sun is up, and the lines at each of the gates to the track are long, with people waiting expectantly for the day’s first race, the rush from the gates to the coveted picnic tables in the back. When I drove out of the track last night at 9:45, two…
I’ve spent a good part of this summer immersed in 1910, in the racing meet a century ago. Saratoga was scheduled to race that year for 21 days; in the middle of the meet, three days were added, because when Saratoga ended, so too would racing in New York. Gambling had been under attack for…
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…
And now we are in full Travers mode. I kicked off what feels like the official beginning of Travers week at the barn of Dale Romans, to interview Tammy Fox for a feature that will appear in the Saratogian later this week. First Dude, Romans’s Travers starter, arrived in fine fettle yesterday from his Churchill…
It is with great melancholy that I post this week’s happenings, as at least one of them will be taking place after I return to Brooklyn. I can’t believe that Saratoga is almost over, and nearly every day I come face to face with a reminder that before too long, the old Spa will be…
Brooklyn Backstretch 