Recent publications
- Miles to go before I sleep: from Keeneland to Charles Town (The Racing Biz)
- Claim to Fame: The Story of Saginaw (NY Breeder)
- NYRA Not Close to Naming McClain's Successor (The Blood-Horse)
- The Ethics of Horsemeat (Forbes.com)
- First Frost: Frost Giant's first crop sets records (New York Breeder)
- Prom Dresses to Derby Hats: Vyjack Owner David Wilkenfeld (Forbes.com)
- Gyarmati takes academic approach to training (DRF)
Handicatting with Floyd…
…and with Imp and Furlong
Madison’s fund for feline welfare
The cat horse winners during the Belmont spring meet added up to about $250, which was donated to All About Spay Neuter, the organization that helps take care of the Belmont cat colonies.
$155, representing the money made by cat horse winners at Saratoga, was donated to New York City Animal Care & Control
Racing-related charities
Recommended Reading
- Colin's Ghost
- Crist Blog
- Fillies First
- Foolish Pleasure
- Green but Game
- Hello Race Fans!
- Left At The Gate
- New York Daily News racing coverage
- New York Post racing coverage
- Old Friends Blog
- Owning Racehorses
- Post Parade
- Raceday 360
- Railbird
- ReRider Who's Lucky To Cope
- Riding Rough Shod
- Superfecta
- That's Amore Stable
- The Rail at the New York Times
- The Turk: Horses, Handicapping and Hijinks
- TURF
Racing sites
Racing books I like
A Year at the Races, by Jane Smiley
And They're Off! by Edward Hotaling
Native Dancer: The Grey Ghost, Hero of a Golden Age, by John Eisenberg
Not by a Long Shot, by T.D. Thornton
Saratoga Days, by Sean Clancy
Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand
The Great Match Race, by John Eisenberg
The Noble Animals, by Landon Manning
Tag Archives: book reviews
Sham: Great Was Second Best
Sometimes the second fiddle gets to play in the first chair. Alydar finally beat Affirmed (albeit through disqualification) in the Travers; Easy Goer vanquished his nemesis Sunday Silence in the Belmont. Though often on the losing end of the rivalry, … Continue reading
Bill Heller on Jose Santos: Above It All
The life of a jockey would, inherently, seem to have more than enough drama to make its narrative compelling. Small of stature, often from modest (at best) beginnings, the men who make their living on horseback daily risk injury or … Continue reading
The poetry of Kentucky Derby
“One of my earliest memories,” recalls poet Andrea Cohen, “is Dreamland. When one is going off to Dreamland, one is riding a stallion. When I was very young, before going off to sleep, my brothers and I would say, ‘See … Continue reading
Steve O’Brien’s Bullet Work
Steve O’Brien picked up the phone on Sunday, April 10th, the day after the Wood Memorial, and before I finished identifying myself, he asked, “What happened to Uncle Mo?” O’Brien is a racing fan. He grew up in Grand Island, … Continue reading
Juliet Harrison’s Track Life in Saratoga Springs
Photographer Juliet Harrison describes herself as “your typical horse crazy kid.” Perhaps atypically, she knows exactly when that horse craziness hit. “When I was five years old,” she recalled recently by phone from her home in the Hudson Valley, “I … Continue reading
Thinking about Lord of Misrule
In 2010, my racing and literary worlds collided spectacularly when Jaimy Gordon’s Lord of Misrule came out of nowhere to win the National Book Award, catapulting both book and author right into this country’s literary conversation and splendidly blending books … Continue reading
Racing books: Women of the Year: Ten Fillies Who Achieved Horse Racing’s Highest Honor
…fillies and mares who do defeat males are highly special. In American racing heroines have come along with enough frequency that a female’s outrunning a male is not seen as a freakish occurrence, but it is not so commonplace as … Continue reading
Book review: The Training Game by Karen M. Johnson
A maxim of authorship, it is said, is to write what you know. And there may well be no turf writer who knows trainers better than Karen M. Johnson, author of The Training Game: An Inside Look at American Racing’s … Continue reading
A look at a couple of racing books
As I headed to Florida in March, I filled a bag with books, many more, I knew, that I would actually read. (One of the benefits of driving everywhere is that there are no luggage fees or limits. I can … Continue reading




