It’s Sunday morning at Belmont Park, and Jimmy Toner’s phone is acting up. “I was watching the race last night and I got so excited I must have hit it or something,” he says with a rueful grin. “It stopped working right.” “The race” was the G3 Hawthorne Derby, and Toner was so excited because…
We’re not supposed to fall in love with horses. We’re not supposed to cheer in the press box. We’re not supposed to root in the winner’s circle. These are the rules. Racing gives us a lot to cheer for: favorite horses, a winning bet. It also offers plenty to lament: the bad beat, the injury,…
Darby Dan Farm began life in Kentucky in 1949. Following the death of E.R. Bradley in 1946, his Idle Hour Farm, on Old Frankfort Pike in Lexington, was sold, and John Galbreath, who had begun Darby Dan Farm in Ohio, bought a portion of the property. Winter Memories doesn’t race in the name or the…
Dark clouds and torrential rain gave way to blazing sun and a glorious Met Mile day at Belmont, exactly the sort of day to kick off summer racing with one of New York’s historic races. The Grade 2 Sands Point for three-year-old fillies was the day’s co-feature; inaugurated in 1995, the race is named for…
Made a quick trip out to Belmont this morning, to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and say good-bye to some of the folks who will be shortly heading south. My Saturday morning at Belmont generally come to an end when Aqueduct opens; the opportunity to take the A train to the races, after two…
On October 3, I was sitting at Belmont Park watching the Grade 3 Miss Grillo with a trainer who knows a thing or two about winners; he’s trained horses that have won all three legs of the Triple Crown and the Travers; he’s trained two Breeders’ Cup winners. And as he watched Winter Memories fly…
