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It’s been a long time since a day of Saratoga horse racing other than Travers Day caused as much anticipation as Saturday’s.  Too bad that after a long string of sunny, dry days, a little rain fell.  Nevertheless, it was an afternoon of roundly felt satisfaction – the best card of the year, three races for two-year-olds of substantial ...

Light bulbs are shining in attics. The yearlings are back and the bats are leaving the barns for a new cozy dark spot to live in for the next week or two.  Homeowners experienced in bat control know that if they steal the night away the nocturnal critters won’t trespass.  Failing that simple deterrent, they open a door and escort their ...

Whatever the number is that NYRA reports as the paid attendance for Sunday, you can cut it by a third.  The crowd was big, but the count was inflated by thousands of people who paid their way into the track more than once and left before the races began.  With every paid admission of $3, patrons received a coupon for a great-looking ...

Owner Mike Repole wasn’t on horseback Saturday.  But he rode an emotional bucking bronco that would unseat most people.  His Repole Stables sent out four runners – two won, and the first one, a promising maiden two-year-old colt by Giant’s Causeway named Giant Surprise, was taken off the track in a van seconds after he crossed the finish ...

The rematch between Winter Memories and More Than Real, her lone conqueror, in the gr. 2 Lake George Stakes never took shape.  That puts added pressures on the powers to be to keep horse racing’s real rivalry going.  The connections of Blind Luck and Havre de Grace have said that they intend to bring their horses to Saratoga in late ...

  Wonderful track photographer Bill Denver of Equi-Photo sent several people this photo (above) of Japanese jockey Hiroki Goto after a victory earlier this month. Hiroki is spending the summer at Monmouth park, and is one of the leading riders in Japan with over 1,300 career wins. This particular photo shows Hiroki saluting the crowd after ...

 NYRA officials seem very pleased with the numbers posted for the first four days of horse racing. Considering that the first two days were conducted in sweltering heat and the fourth was held in the rain, that the track was able to attract 350 more people each day on average than last year is a development in which they should rightfully ...

With their signature mustaches, brothers Art and Jack Preston often get mistaken for one another by racetrack officials and reporters who don’t know them well. So after Art’s 5-year-old horse Flat Out won the Suburban Handicap (gr. II) at Belmont Park July 2, it was Jack who was supposedly getting quoted in the media about the big victory.“Yeah, ...

 (Originally published in the July 30, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Eric Mitchell - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter Another golden opportunity has been dropped into the lap of Thoroughbred racing.A real rivalry; not one manufactured by ...