Brooklyn Backstretch

A few random thoughts from New Orleans:
While in Lexington, I stopped at Keeneland, open for the winter for simulcasting, to watch the Gravesend on Saturday. It’s quite a busy place in the winter; in addition to simulcasting, at least two major life events were taking place:

Congratulations to all of those involved, and especially for [...]

I’m glad that even the folks who work at Old Friends admit that they’ve got favorites among their dozens of retirees; in a recent message announcing the death of Ruhlmann, Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen wrote:

I really like all of our retirees but each one of us at Old Friends develop special bonds [...]

I’ve rarely met a highway I didn’t like, and thus, with Christmas festivities behind me (we had a terrific holiday in the Backstretch household, including Christmas Eve dinner two tables away from Eli Manning, perhaps my best ever celeb sighting), I hit the road on Boxing Day to head south and west. After a brief [...]

The Gravesend Bay racetrack, under the supervision of Phil and Mike Dwyer’s Brooklyn Jockey Club, operated in Brooklyn from 1885 – 1910, its race dates alternating with those of the Sheepshead Bay track. The rise of anti-gambling legislation in New York led to its closure, and even though gambling became legal again in 1913, Gravesend [...]

…from Brooklyn Backstretch.
“Racing this Christmas Greeting to you!” by Karin Vollkommer

A mix of the global and the local, in no particular order, and with an explicit belief in Christmas miracles…
…for the glory of the old races—the Suburban, the Brooklyn, the Triple Tiara—to somehow return.
…for Saratoga Russell to come back at four, and to be as fast and electric as he was before he was injured.
…for [...]

Oh, how I miss Aqueduct!
I can understand why folks think it would be good for New York racing to take a few months off in the winter, though the economic ramifications would, I think, be pretty significant at both the individual and municipal levels.
But from a strictly personal standpoint: I have the rare weekend afternoon [...]

Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance colleague Patrick Patten at Handride reminded us once again this week that he’s not a big fan of Equidaily. He argued that it makes no sense for readers to rely on one site for racing news, and he pointed out that the site has included links to a variety of Thoroughbred [...]

You’ve been inundated with racing holiday gift suggestions: last week I talked about movies: Lost in the Fog by John Corey, who offers Brooklyn Backstretch readers a discount (here’s what I wrote about the movie when I saw it last August); and The First Saturday in May, about the road to [...]

On Saturday afternoon, the Belmont Child Care Association held its seventh annual holiday party for the children of Anna House. Scheduled to begin at 1 pm, the party started a little early to accommodate the hundreds of children and families lined up, so that the children could choose gifts to give to their family members.
A [...]