Brooklyn Backstretch

You didn’t really think only 19 would line up, did you? Of course not! Ever the sportsman, Nick Zito threw Nowhere To Hide into the mix at the last minute and we have a full field of 20 in the starting gate. Personally, I think post positions in the Derby are highly overrated, with some [...]

Or maybe this would be better called, “Bad news Thursday.”
Last week, regular reader Rich from Boston sent me this incredibly disturbing link to a story from ABC News, about Sheikh Mohammed’s brother, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, who tortured a man on videotape. The tape was subsequently smuggled out of the country. [...]

Our third and final installment takes a look at the remainder of the field. The Tuesday morning scratch of Square Eddie and the decision not to run Take The Points left the door open for Join In The Dance and Atomic Rain, and both should have a big impact on the race. [...]

One hundred and four years ago this week, Belmont Park opened. Hailed as a track that would appeal to the general public and not simply to bettors, Belmont occasioned a week of coverage leading up its opening, the day after which the Times declared, “There has never been a more brilliant assemblage at any race [...]

Part two of our installment was supposed to start with Quality Road, who would have vied for favoritism on Saturday. Sadly, he was declared from the Derby Monday morning as the result of a quarter crack. Let’s continue at our look and hope we see the classy son of Elusive Quality soon. [...]

When we watched the 2008 Kentucky Derby, we all wanted to know: How is Eight Belles? What happened?
When we watched the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, we all wanted to know: How is Pine Island? What happened?
When we saw a five-horse pile-up at Aqueduct earlier this year, we all wanted to know: How are the [...]

We made it through the winter and the spring preps, so now it’s time to look over the prospective field for the 135th Kentucky Derby. Entries will be taken Wednesday afternoon, but it’s never too early to get a look at the runners, their background, and the good and bad aspects they bring to the [...]

Late Saturday afternoon, I stood on the A train platform at Aqueduct for the last time until this fall. I wore a sleeveless shirt, sandals, and a skirt, no tights. No hat, no gloves, no scarf, no coat, no boots. I don’t think that that’s EVER happened.
It’s spring, all right, and with [...]

At first, it was just another version of disturbing: shortly after the beginning of the eighth race yesterday at Aqueduct, jockey Mike Luzzi was working hard to pull up Cloud Nine. Watching the turf race from the winner’s circle, we could see that a rear leg was badly broken–horse and jockey were directly [...]

The Rail, the New York Times racing blog, launched this week for the 2009 Triple Crown season, and this post appeared there yesterday.
They certainly got the name right.
One can imagine Mrs. John D. Hertz, breeder and owner of a brown colt born in 1940, looking at his pedigree—the colt was by Reigh Count out of [...]