As good as Sara Louise and Music Note were in the Victory Ride and the Ballerina respectively, they might have been overshadowed by Vineyard Haven in the King’s Bishop even if he hadn’t been disqualified from first to second. Vineyard Haven, who went off at similar odds as Music Note and as the co-fourth choice…
The sun is shining on Saratoga today, 24 hours too late to make Travers Day 2009 an unqualified success. Though Saturday brought neither the fury of the Birdstone storm nor the inexorability of 2002’s rain, the promise of day-long precipitation suppressed both handle and attendance. The weather turned out to be not quite as bad…
Listening to the sound of raindrops pound outside my window, I am, for the first time in nine years, anticipating the start of Saratoga’s biggest race day not from the backyard, but from the cozy confines of my rental, a few blocks from the track. In 2000, I joined my brother and his friends in…
In not terribly surprising news, Mine That Bird was declared out of the Travers this morning, so once again, a Derby winner will not run in the Travers this summer. Since Thunder Gulch in 1995, only one Derby winner—Street Sense in 2007—has also run here in the Mid-Summer Derby. But there will be no shortage…
With, unsurprisingly, an emphasis on Travers Day. Approximately 6:20 am… …and a stranger says to me, “If heaven’s like this, I’ll never sin again…” Venturing to the back, we are greeted with electronic welcome messages… …just before the gates open for the first sprint of the day, as hundreds run to grab a prime spot…approximately…
Big race days and big races are supposed to be memorable. We want them to stand out somehow, to give us something to savor, to become, in the words of ESPN, instant classics, to create stories. And boy, did Travers Day 2008 deliver. Let’s start with the weather. It’s become tiresome to talk about the…
Ruthless (Eclipse – Barbarity) Photo credit to the National Museum of RacingThose of us who favor the distaff side have had quite the year and a half. Fillies and mares have stolen the headlines pretty regularly since last summer: Rags to Riches’ victory in the Belmont; Eight Belles’ impressive second in the Derby, followed by…
Brooklyn Backstretch 