The stakes schedule at Saratoga at the turn of the last century was already robust. Announced in February in the New York Times for the 1901 season, it featured 25 races worth a total of $85,000. Among those to be run were the Adirondack, Spinaway, Travers, Alabama and Saratoga Cup. The racing meet that year was 22…
On a morning earlier this summer, Soledad O’Brien failed to pick up the phone for a scheduled interview, calling back a short time later with effusive apologies. “I got dumped by my horse,” she said. “He got spooked, took a side step, and I fell off.” She is matter-of-fact about the experience, the result of a lifetime around horses, which began, as…
A two-year-old owned by a prominent member of the racing community wins a bevy of stakes races. A physical setback keeps him away from the track, and though he returns to the races, he never quite regains his earlier form, and he is retired to stud at the end of his four-year-old season. At six,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 