tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69389196275824886582009-11-08T20:10:01.105-05:00Reports and reflections on (mostly) NY racingTeresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03118955760148482020noreply@blogger.comBlogger695125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6938919627582488658.post-13141539377056789722009-11-08T11:30:00.005-05:002009-11-08T13:20:27.959-05:00

A brief look at how the dirt horses did over the weekend.Given the number of variables at play, it would be folly to try to draw definitive conclusions from these results; race records of individual horses on the various surfaces, including the different types of synthetics, would also need to be taken into consideration, and of course, a number of horses who have run primarily on synthetics also

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The Backstretch method did better than it could have hoped yesterday, cashing on the exacta and winner in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Let’s see how it works today. Juvenile Turf: Kera’s Kitten is out in favor of Becky’s Kitten (poor Kera—she travelled all the way from Kentucky to see her namesake race! Check out Grening’s story in the DRF). Dean’s Kitten is here, too, along with Pounced. The

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Game over, Breeders’ Cup Day 1. I left school at the earliest possible moment and managed to get home in time to see all of the filly/mare races, to place wagers, and to end up in the black for about $60. For a $2 bettor like me, that’s a profit about which to be happy. And how lucky am I, unlike so many others, to have a job that in this instance, permitted me to see the races yesterday?

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Race 2: The Grade II, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at 1-mile.POUNCED drew well and enters off a second to the accomplished Siyouni in a classy European Group I on the Arc undercard; tepid choice in a race that could go to just about anyone. KERA’S KITTEN has progressed nicely in both career starts and will test firm ground for the first time; complete unknown will be a big, big price,

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Even the most cursory of looks at racing newspapers, websites, and magazines yields a plethora of handicapping strategies. Beyer guys, Sheets disciples, avowed trip handicappers—everyone’s got an angle, out there for the taking.I attended and bet on races for years before I became cognizant of my own handicapping strategies. Armed with past performances, I checked earnings, conditions, breeding,

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According to Claire Novak, Mike Smith is the sexiest jockey riding in the Breeders’ Cup.How do we know this? Because at ESPN.com, Novak, encouraged by Horseplayerpro.com's Joe Kristufek and with input from other racing media (both male and female), posted her list of 10 sexiest jockeys riding in this weekend’s races at Santa Anita.Included on the list are nine men and one woman, Rosemary

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OK, it’s Breeders’ Cup, so let’s have a little fun while expanding the bankroll just a little bit. After all, if you can’t do it these two days then you never can. I’ll give selections (gulp) and notes for each race and then put together a few exotic tickets as well. Good luck, everyone, and enjoy the races!Race 3: The $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon for 3&up at 1 ¾ miles.You’ve got to think the

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The issues of drugs in racing was back in the news recently, as the New York Racing Association banned Jeff Mullins and his horses from its tracks for six months, following Mullins’s attempt in the detention barn at Aqueduct to administer a substance to Gato Go Win last April.Concern about the use of drugs in racing is widely documented, as is frustration with lack of uniform policies, long

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So here it is, a little more than 72 hours out from post time for the Breeders’ Cup, and I haven’t written a thing about it. It would be silly of me to pore through past performances and hazard handicapping guesses.I can’t write about what’s going on on the backstretch or in the morning, because I’m not there.Besides, the blogosphere and Twitterverse (God, I hate both of those words) and the

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Two sentimental winners took Saturday’s stakes races at Aqueduct, perhaps the most unsentimental of race tracks.The grade III Bold Ruler was run as the fourth race; in a field of five, Jack Bruner's Sing Baby Sing was the favorite; Allen Jerkens's Le Grand Cru was the longest shot at 7 – 1, a fact that surprised the Chief. “I was surprised at his odds,” he said after the race. “I didn’t think he’

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from the NYRA gate crew, as they prepare to load for the Turnback the Alarm.

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In the Aqueduct post yesterday, I meant to include this terrific article by Mike Jarboe from March 2001. Writing in the Times Union, Jarboe evinces an infectious affection for the homely (in both senses of the word) track. Saratogians and other Capital District residents: looking for a way to celebrate Hallowe'en and contribute to a good cause? Check out the Hallowe’en party at the Grey Gelding

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So it’s off we are to much-maligned Aqueduct today. Post time changes to 12:30 from 1:00, and when the horses leave the gate today, I’ll be in a paper conference with a student, and the earlier post time means that it’s less likely that I’ll be able to catch the last race when I get home from school.But fashionable though it is to mock the beat-up old track in Queens, the last track within the

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When, in yesterday’s New York Post, Ed Fountaine wrote, “Wednesday kicks off a six-month stretch at South Ozone Park Correctional Facility, otherwise known as the Big A,” he was only the most recent New York turf writer to comment disparagingly on Aqueduct.Most of the historical reports of racing that I’ve read are effusive to the point of straining credulity, panegyrics to the bucolic parks of

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The final Saturday of racing at Belmont came to an end with both bangs and whimpers. The whimpers were weather-related, and after the uncountable number of grey, damp days at Belmont, going back to last year’s fall meet, those who grumbled about yet another soggy day at Big Sandy might be forgiven for their grumpiness.The dismal weather significantly marred the spirit of the day; I didn't make it

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New York Showcase Day at Belmont Park is as big a racing day for me as the Gold Cup, as the Travers, as the Wood. When the stakes schedule comes out, I mark my calendar: Showcase Day is a non-negotiable day at the races.As usual, NYRA’s got a slate of activities planned: handicappers can join Dave Litfin and Mike Watchmaker from the Daily Racing Form for a handicapping seminar from 11:15 – 11:45

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With New York-bred Showcase Day on tap for Saturday we’ll bypass the Pick4 handicapping and instead give a brief preview of the card, which came up, as always, balanced and competitive on a great day that helps support New York-bred racing.Race 1: LIVING FOR THIS just missed at this level in his last and a repeat of that run would be plenty good enough against this weak cast; moisture in the

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Every Saturday, Jennifer Montfort goes to the track. She gets there early, heading to the backstretch and making her rounds, checking in with her “regulars”: the trainers that she sees every week, with whom she works to place horses whose life on the track is nearing its end.Jennifer is a CANTER NE (Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses of New England) board member who,

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Back in August, when Commentator’s retirement was announced, I wrote a column for the Saratogian expressing my wish for an upstate New York home for retired Thoroughbreds. Through various channels I hear that perhaps such a home is in the works, but for now, the two biggest retirement farms are located in the Bluegrass: the Kentucky Horse Park and Old Friends.And so, if our favorite race horses

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She’s two years old, and she’s something of a bad girl. She’s a chestnut. Between them, her parents won 9 Grade or Group I races. She started life as Gossip Gal, but that was too close to Gozzip Girl, and so her name is Superior Selection.She’s named for her dam, Society Selection, and her sire is Giant’s Causeway. She gets her coloring from her father, and, it’s suspected, her temperament. She’s

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With the scheduled Grade III Athenia getting cancelled on Thursday due to the heavy rains in the forecast, there’s a good chance that all of Saturday’s action will be washed off the turf. With that in mind, we’ll take a condensed look at the late Pk4 in terms of the main-track-only.Race 7: $16,000 claimer for 3-year-olds and up at 1-mile.THEARTOFCOMPROMISE takes a significant class drop and looks

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The story begins at Belmont, at the 2004 Belmont Stakes.Lois Engel and her husband, Paul Raymond, were there with 120,137 other racing fans, wondering whether Smarty Jones would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. It was their first trip to the Belmont.Racing history aside, Paul was looking for a winner, and he thought that he found one in Birdstone. Belmont’s big, but

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I think it’s awfully nice when school holidays coincide with Keeneland racing; it’s even better when it happens in October, when part of the journey involves wending through the West Virginia and Maryland mountains as fall foliage explodes in color.So at the end of yet another Backstretch road trip (24 hours in the car, 50 hours in Lexington—totally a fair deal), I’m back home in Brooklyn,

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Saturday, November 24th, 2007, was a pretty good day for trainer Bill Mott. He swept the two-year-old stakes that day at Aqueduct when Court Vision overcame an inquiry to win the Grade II Remsen; a race earlier, his Mushka had rallied from last to win the Grade II Demoiselle.Yesterday, one might have wondered whether Mott recalled that day, experiencing a weird kind of déjà vu, as over the

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