Monday quick picks

Ed Fountaine in the NY Post reports that trainer Sid Watters died in Maryland last week. Watters, age 90, trained champions Slew o’ Gold and Hoist the Flag, whom I profiled at the end of January. The story of Hoist the Flag, which must have garnered a relatively similar amount of press coverage as the…

Hollie Hughes and history

My Saturday mornings are often a leisurely stroll through racing history; with a cup of coffee (aside: for Christmas, my mother gave me one of those old-time stovetop espresso pots, and it makes the best coffee I’ve ever drunk. It’s a sublime source of Saturday morning pleasure), I check out the New York feature race,…

Friday Quick Picks

I wish I could say that I have come out of week two of the ST Publishing Take Ten Derby game unscathed, but I cannot: predictably, my Pyro-less stable plummeted. That’s what I get for being a non-conformist. We’ve got seven stables in our little intramural competition; many have kicked in to add to my…

Is it over?

Fans and employees of New York racing are breathing a little more easily this morning, as it appears that after years of discussion, negotiation, stalling, power plays (not the good kind, that take place on ice; the bad kind, that take place when egos and agendas collide), and overall embarrassment to the Empire State, the…

This I Believe

For the last couple of years, NPR has been running a series called “This I Believe,” in which listeners submit and read essays about their beliefs and values. I generally turn to sports radio when these segments come on; I am not much given to proclaiming my own beliefs, nor terribly inclined to listen to…

Just in time for Valentine’s Day…

I think—dare I say it—that I may be in love. I haven’t felt this way since 2004. Then, it was summer love: warm rains, summer breezes, cold beers and lemonade. Picnics, tank tops, flowers and trees in bloom. It was July 29th, and his name was Afleet Alex. Then, it was Saratoga; now, it’s Aqueduct…

Who needs stakes races?

My favorite Saturday races were allowances, one north, one south, featuring horses I’ve been watching for the last couple of months. The first was at Gulfstream, the third, featuring my oft-touted Saratoga Russell, who reverted to the form of his first race, wiring the field in sizzling fractions over a sloppy track to win by…

Saturday’s quick picks

Alan is right: you’ve got to check out the replay of Thursday’s eighth race at Aqueduct, Be Bullish’s must-be-seen-to-be-believed victory. Way back on September 22nd, Be Bullish caught my attention in a maiden race at Belmont, which he won after crashing his way through horses on the way to the wire. It was a bad…