Joe Clancy The year was 2007, The Saratoga Special’s seventh in business. We were young (or less old), the paper was a tall tabloid (today’s version is more square), the participants were at once familiar and unfamiliar and the magic was still there. The Special set up in a half-under-construction house on Lincoln Avenue with a staff … Read more
New website? In what’s-getting-to-be-late June? Sure thing, what could go wrong? Hopefully nothing. As the photo shows, and the SEO optimizer tells us, it’s time the new version of thisishorseracing.com breaks from the gate. We gave TIHR a much-needed facelift, which should be noticing right about now. It’s been a few months of work, some … Read more
Saratogians are tired of the jokes – just ask our Tom Law – but the snow melted months ago and people really are thinking about the racing season at Saratoga Race Course. Back in March, the New York Racing Association released its stakes schedule, and The Saratoga Special publishing calendar followed right along. Just as … Read more
You might come to thisishorseracing.com for steeplechase news or to find the latest edition of The Saratoga Special – or hopefully to sign up for The Saratoga Special Readers Club, buy a calendar or look into advertising – but much of our work for the last several years centers on the monthly print magazine Mid-Atlantic … Read more
Monday’s Big Apple Showcase Day, which features a five-pack of stakes worth $900,000 and 10 races overall for New York-breds, takes center stage on Memorial Day at Belmont Park. Reprinted with permission from the New York Thoroughbred Breeders website nytbreeders.org. One of the most anticipated days for the Empire State’s breeding and racing program always … Read more
Write a column. For more than a week, those three words have been part of the list on my current reporter’s notebook I take pretty much everywhere. Technically I wrote one, sort of a Preakness preview, last week but that’s not what I meant. I meant write a column about winning the Old Hilltop Award … Read more
Jose Ortiz showed up at Chad Brown’s Belmont Park barn one morning late last fall to breeze an unraced Gun Runner colt the trainer told him might be a good one someday. The first impression went anything but well. “The first time I got on him, I walked in the shedrow at Chad’s, saw him … Read more
Preakness Eve. From what may be the world’s most sprawling suburban hotel while Connor McDavid lights it up in the NHL playoffs, the second jewel of racing’s Triple Crown stands about 20 hours away. The Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike stayed in Kentucky, leaving a mixed bag of nine runners in the $1.5 million classic … Read more
Maryland My Maryland. They’ll be singing that tune a little before dusk Saturday at Pimlico Race Course during the post parade for the 147th Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown. A stakes-filled card awaits fans and horseplayers, topped by the headliner with a field of nine, along with four other graded events … Read more
Preakness Day. At Radnor. Baltimore may be all about the second jewel of the Triple Crown, but suburban Philadelphia goes jumping Saturday with the Radnor Hunt Races on the grounds of the Radnor Hunt Club in Malvern, Pa. The races go to the post for the 91st time at the historic site, home to the … Read more
