Brooklyn Backstretch

I still haven’t made it all the way through the six hours of TV coverage of Saturday’s races. Next time, I’m going to TiVo hour by hour, so that I can delete after each segment, instead of having the whole damn show take up space on my TiVo.
On Inside Racing Tuesday, Jason Blewitt and Eric [...]

A few random thoughts about the weekend’s racing:
As has been noted on blogs and in newspaper stories, nine of the eleven Breeders’ Cup winners prepped on New York tracks. Many of the trainers are based in New York, so it’s not such a surprise, but it was certainly a good day for New York racing, [...]

While I had a pretty fun day overall (financial considerations aside), I end it unsettled, as always, by the breakdown of another horse. George Washington’s death is no more tragic than that of any other racehorse at any other racetrack around the country, but having it happen on racing’s biggest day nonetheless lends it a [...]

And so it ends: as the World Series ends baseball season, and as the Stanley Cup playoffs end hockey season, so does the Breeders’ Cup Championship end the Thoroughbred racing season. Fortunately for us, unlike those other sports, we get to keep watching horse-racing, even during the “off-season.”
The champ is crowned, and a worthy champ [...]

Just posted this to the TBA handicapping contest. Read ‘em and weep…by this tomorrow, I likely will!
Juvenile Fillies: A to the CroftJuvenile: War PassFilly & Mare Turf: Passage of TimeSprint: ForefathersMile: Excellent ArtDistaff: Lear’s PrincessTurf: Dylan ThomasClassic: Curlin
Disclaimer: I have no idea if these horses are actually what I will bet. But as of this [...]

As noted below, the number in parentheses following each race is Brisnet’s Prime Power rank in the race.
Mile: Not much in the way of affiliation in this race, so I guess I’d love to see My Typhoon beat the boys. I don’t really think she will, but it would be kind of cool in this [...]

If Monmouth was half as miserable this afternoon as Brooklyn was, I feel awfully sorry for all the people gathered down south: the Monmouth folks who worked so hard to pull this off; the patrons huddling for a warm and dry spot without their forbidden umbrellas; the horses running in the mud; and the jockeys [...]

…of children and horses.
I wrote yesterday about the connection between Oprah Winney (who has her own website) and the Belmont Child Care Association, and I learned today that the Breeders’ Cup production crew was at Anna House recently. A segment on Anna House is scheduled to run during Friday’s coverage…so set your TiVo (as if [...]

As of Tuesday afternoon, Brooklyn Backstretch is officially a member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance. You’ll see the other members on the blogroll to the left, and I’m happy to say that a condition of membership is an annual donation to Old Friends. Happy to pay that price of admission, and happy to be a [...]

Last Wednesday afternoon, literally minutes before heading out to drive south to Virginia for a conference (on academic integrity—woo-hoo, right?), I exchanged a couple of e-mails with an internet horse racing friend who shares my affection for the horses of Allen Jerkens, particularly Duchess of Rokeby. Hearing that I was headed south, she urged me [...]