It’s late afternoon on a February Saturday in Saratoga, and the sun is low in the sky; the temperature hovers just above freezing, and a chilling wind sweeps through the deserted shedrows of the Oklahoma training facility. There’s not a horse or a human in sight. Describing the scene as “desolate” would be charitable. But…
Last week the American Graded Stakes Committee announced its 2012 graded stakes races. Among the noteworthy changes was the downgrading of the historical Hopeful Stakes from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2. In decrying the downgrading, commentators invoked the race’s history – the Hopeful was first run in 1904 – and the post-Hopeful performances…
Photographer Juliet Harrison describes herself as “your typical horse crazy kid.” Perhaps atypically, she knows exactly when that horse craziness hit. “When I was five years old,” she recalled recently by phone from her home in the Hudson Valley, “I had a babysitter who gave me a picture book of horse breeds. I still have…
Not exactly looking like the summer place to be these days, but it’s only 157 days until opening day…and it might just take every last one of them to get rid of the snow… As always, click to enlarge… The Oklahoma… And the main track… The lake…but no canoe… And maybe the saddest sight of…
Travers Statue at the Wishing Well, decked out in Gainesway colors, for Afleet Express’s victory August 28, 2010 February 12, 2011
My autumn tracks are Belmont and Keeneland, both of which are beautiful in the fall. Both tracks race in the spring, too, but they seem somehow made for colorful foliage, for chilly temperatures, for bridging the transition from tank tops to sweaters. Saratoga is all about the summer, but it, too, is resplendent in the…
A quick check-in before heading upstate to see the family, catch the last of the fall foliage along the Taconic, and squeeze in one more visit to the Oklahoma before training there comes to an end next month. Bennett Liebman has provided some further information and stories on the Saratoga saddling area, this one from…
What a fun week it’s been! E-mails and Facebook comments and phone calls and website comments, all dropping nuggets of information about when the paddock at Saratoga changed. The saddling area under the trees at Saratoga is so iconic, and Saratoga itself so steeped in history, and Saratoga fans so aware of that history, that…
Noah built the ark when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, and thus Lent, a time of sacrifice, is 40 days. In the Bible, 40 days symbolizes deprivation, meditation, transformation. But for those who worship at the altar of racing, 40 days is now nothing…
One more week. One week from today, and Saratoga Racecourse opens for the 2009 racing season. I can’t wait. While far from in full high season fervor, Saratoga is buzzing—all over town, homeowners are busily emptying closets and drawers and cupboards, to prepare for the seasonal renters who are packing and sorting and asking themselves,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 