As Trinniberg and Currency Swap dueled to the wire in the quagmire that was the 2011 Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes (gr. I), I stood in the winner’s circle in a rooting quandary. Currency Swap was trained by Teresa Pompay, a Saratoga native whose family I had known since I was 13 years old. A win would mean her first…
It is, they say, better to be lucky than good. My Miss Aurelia is both. She won her first start, at Saratoga on opening day. And when her connections went back to the barn that afternoon, waiting for them was the tiniest of little black kittens, curled up in the shedrow, not more than a…
It’s hard to believe that it was just three weeks ago this past Monday that we were still racing at the Spa. The opening of school is as absorbing and all-consuming as racing at Saratoga, and it’s easy for memories of summer to dissipate as quickly as the fog over the Oklahoma on a warm…
The female Fourstardave. Dave’s Pal. Tough and dependable. So was Irish Linnet described during her six-year racing career, a career that saw her win at Saratoga for six consecutive years, including five straight wins in the Yaddo. She won her first race at Saratoga as a two-year-old in 1990. It was the third start of…
That’s what I heard, over and over, the night of the Belmont Child Care Association benefit last month, and in the days following. “That was so much FUN!” First-timers and veterans gathered for adult lemonades amid an array of silent auction items before entering the dining room at the Gideon Putnam, bedecked to resemble a…
It’s over. It’s OVER. And while there are plenty of folks out there happy to see the Spa meet come to an end, I will respectfully submit that they are out of their minds, because there is, simply, no better place to be. Though sentimental temptation infused my ride back to Saratoga last Friday, it’s…
Though the Woodward has been run at Saratoga only since 2006, Mr. William Woodward was no stranger to the old Spa. Owner and breeder extraordinaire from his Maryland farm, Woodward was a New Yorker: he was born in New York City in 1876, and he died there in 1953. His horses won five Belmont Stakes.…
On Monday, I got a release informing me that today, NYRA would unveil its proposed capital improvements for Saratoga Race Course, and that tonight, it would hold a community forum to get public opinion on the proposals. Really? Really? On one of the FOUR days of the whole meet that I won’t be there? Really?…
School obligations led me southward earlier this week, away from Saratoga and back to Brooklyn, which looks remarkably verdant and beautiful after two months’ absence. I am happy to be home…I will also be happy to make my way north tomorrow, back for closing weekend at the Spa. Among the many things to look forward…
My Travers weekend started like this. Friday morning, out on the Oklahoma to meet an early interview, and I got blessed with one of Saratoga’s perfect mornings. For the first time since 2000, I wasn’t at Saratoga to see the sun rise on Travers morning; I missed the day’s first race, the annual sprint for…
Brooklyn Backstretch 