The graded stakes run earlier this month at Aqueduct have been around for a while: the Toboggan was first run in 1890, the Withers in 1874. When racing came back to New York in 1913, both were renewed, both at Belmont Park. The Withers was run on May 31, the day after racing returned for…
Originally this race was run over the memorable six-furlong straight course at Morris Park, then the newest and most elaborate of Metropolitan racing plants—which was a bit down grade and for that reason nicknamed the “toboggan slide”. (sic) (Hervey) It’s fitting that a race called the Toboggan is going to be run on a day…
Perhaps in acknowledgement of all of those freezing winter weekends spent at the Big A, the racing gods smiled on me on Saturday morning. For the first time in a week, I felt well enough to think that I could actually manage a few hours outside of the apartment, and mid-afternoon, I ventured to Aqueduct,…
Aqueduct offers the best of two racing worlds this afternoon, the present and the historical. We’ve got the Grade III Gotham, for three-year-olds with Derby aspirations. The race was first run in 1953 at the Jamaica racecourse and named for the city in which the track was situated, another in a line of races honoring…
Brooklyn Backstretch 