Saturday, August 17, 6:31 am, barn 62, Oklahoma training facility Ed Stanco is at Todd Pletcher’s barn with his son Adam and Adam’s wife Kate. Mike Tyburski, a long-time Stanco friend and a partner in King of Prussia Stable, is there, too. “There’s nothing more to say, really,” says Stanco, petting Princess of Sylmar. “Marty…
“The weather was bright and warm, the track fast, and the betting lively.” So the New York Times described Alabama day, 1883. So far, we’re running neck and neck with that day 129 years ago: it’s a glorious, perfect Spa morning, and the track is indeed fast. The betting will, we can assume, be lively—indeed…
He’s got a horse named Blind Luck, and if Jerry Hollendorfer believes in good fortune, he must have been happy to learn where his filly would be staying for her time at Saratoga. The wise folks at the New York Racing Association lodged Blind Luck back in Barn 7, where Allen Jerkens and his horses…
Tomorrow is the 130th running of the Alabama Stakes, and an opportunity to continue to look back at Saratoga a century ago. 1910 brought the 32nd running of the Alabama, and it was won by an impressive filly named Ocean Bound. Who? Ocean Bound. Owned by Woodford Clay, Ocean Bound was, according to the New…
Week 4 is in the books. Today is Sunday, or at least it feels like it is, because the pace is a little slower, there’s a little more free time. Then again, it’s Travers week, so come tomorrow (Monday), we are full steam ahead. But for now, a look back at week 4… I know…
The breeding of Thoroughbred race horses is hardly an exact science; how, after all, can the same pedigree produce both Barbaro and Nicanor? Why did the talent of Secretariat and Chris Evert skip their offspring Six Crowns and re-appear a generation later in Chief’s Crown? 19th century horseman Francis Morris would likely not be able…
Saturday brings to us the second oldest race for fillies in the country; the Alabama Stakes, inaugurated in 1872, is younger by four years than the Ladies Handicap. The race is named for Captain William Cottrill, a Southern military man and keen horseman. Edward Hotaling, in They’re Off! Horse Racing at Saratoga, tells of the…
The front page of the NYRA website today has a story on the upcoming Anna House holiday party in which the children will get to choose presents to give to their families. Even better, the story is written by Jenny Kellner, who was a panelist at the women in racing panel at the benefit for…
Brooklyn Backstretch 