Hoppegarten is a beautiful old race course just outside Berlin, somewhat past its glory days (owing to the vicissitudes of German twentieth-century history) but still charming. I’ve been going there for years, and though there have been little indicators of fresh investment (smart new signs, posh ladies’ loos) the essential character remains the same. The …
Category Archives: Gambling
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
Thank you to Susan for sending me a link to this piece on horse prints in fashion at Style Bubble. Roo shared this, er, fascinating set of what you might call outsider art portraits of horses smoking cigarettes, for sale now on Craigslist New Orleans. Click now before they’re sold. Ed Ward let me know …
The Queen is Dead; Long Live the Queen
Zenyatta’s poor jockey, Mike Smith is mortified that she was just pipped in the Classic, but then there was Goldikova, the French filly who last night became one of the greatest milers of all time:
Riding the Wind
Take a ride on the brilliant racemare Zenyatta, who will try to win the twentieth race of a twenty race career tonight at Churchill Downs, Kentucky: the $5,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Classic. God but she’s shiney.
America’s Narcotics Problem
Thanks to Karen Krizanovich for sending me this New York Times piece on the use of drugs in US horse racing in the run up to the Breeders’ Cup championship day. I’ve bolded for emphasis… I do not know how any true horseman or horsewoman could send injured horses into competition. “A Jockey Club study …
Grey Vision
Today at Newmarket there will be a special race for grey thoroughbreds only, the Racing Welfare Grey Horse Handicap.More from Horse Talk: “The contest, first run in 2003, is restricted to horses registered as grey aged three and above. A field of 16 has been declared for this season’s renewal and includes the first three …
In Two-Four Time
On Sunday I went to the Trabrennbahn Mariendorf to watch the 2010 Deutsches Traber-Derby – my first harness racing meet. I saw a couple of exhibition trotting races at Hoppegarten last year and was fascinated – the horses so fast they seemed as low to the ground as the rocking horse racers in old paintings, …