A slight cat-astrophe delayed my arrival at the Big A on Monday, and when I got off the train at Aqueduct, I was fairly surprised to see it snowing. I didn’t recall seeing anything in the forecast about snow today, and I soon realized that I wasn’t alone: I don’t think many of us expected to spend the day dodging snowflakes.
But we did, and there was a curious beauty in the snow in Ozone Park: snow fell pretty much throughout the day, big fluffy flakes, and while it didn’t enhance the photo-taking, it did enhance what might have been an otherwise dreary day, wet feet be damned.
Kiaran McLaughlin’s Taqarub took the Jimmy Winkfield; jockey Alan Garcia flew up from Gulfstream only for this moment, and offered the quotation of the day following his victory. Asked when he was going back to Florida, he said, smiling broadly, “As soon as this conversation over.” Well-played!
Name of the day: Scary Bob (Lucky Robert – Hallow Wean).
Brooklyn Backstretch alliterative favorite Be Bullish finished third; he ran well, racing four wide on the turn and rallying a bit in the stretch.
Jenny Kellner at On The Lead has a nice piece up about the win on Sunday by eleven-year-old Tour of the Cat; fans of older horses, check it out.
Most discussions of Jimmy Winkfield refer to racism within the jockey colony and incidents in which white jockeys tried to drive black jockeys out of the sport. Check out Colin’s Ghost for the details of one such incident.
Sponsor a retired Thoroughbred through the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation
How’s Madison 200?