Readers Up #41: Saratoga Headhunter
Well, here we are again. Here is New York's Capital Region in the midst of the Saratoga meet, and also the midst of a stormy, fiery, uncertain summer. The...
Readers Up #40: 2021 Yearbook
Dear readers, If you're interested in revisiting the long version of the content listed above (...why), please find .mobi, .pdf, and .epub files here. If you...
Readers Up #39: Racetrack Rogues
It appears we've reached the end of the line. (I'm searching for the appropriate racing term and coming up blank, which feels like a sign from an impassive...
Readers Up #38: My Suffolk Downs
Is all racing writing elegiac? More and more the distance from the track is wearing on me. Sure, Belmont is open, but despite what every decision-maker above...
Readers Up #37: A Day at the Races
It had to be you, I sing to my library copy of Barry Gifford's 1988 racetracker Bible A Day at the Races. Yep--that Barry Gifford, of Sailor and Lula fame,...
Readers Up #36: Summer Reading
I admit, I'm feeling both lazy about and overwhelmed by reading this summer. Waterlogged, maybe; Albany is getting a heavy dose of regular rain--perfect...
Readers Up #35: Beautiful Horseflesh
June in my part of New York isn't deep summer, but Albany has had enough 90+ days so far this year to make me think longingly of home. Tampa's sun-baked...
Readers Up #36: Betting on a Duke's Heart
The trope of the young girl flipping frenetically through a racy novel to get to the good bits is well-established. As a young girl myself, I even...
Readers Up #35: Sports Movie Double Feature
Well! The Kentucky Derby is this weekend. Contrary to Pandemic Time, it's even happening when it should be. Here's a bad tip from me: just play Soup and...
Readers Up #34: Perestroika in Paris
American adult readers sometimes seem wary of animal stories, as two questions near the top of the Goodreads page for Perestroika in Paris attest: What age...
Readers Up #33: Freebie February
2021 sure is a whole 'nother "second verse same as the first," huh? Despite the demands of my working life being the same as they've ever been--except more...
Readers Up #32: Runaway Alex
2020 was a big year for all of us, in terms of discovering the limits of our reclusiveness and expanding our sourdough boundaries (literally), but an...
Readers Up #31: 2020 Yearbook
Well. You know. I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. Readers Up: Year Two compilation to come in January--expect your copy via this newsletter before...
Readers Up #30: Salute Your Shorts
Although my relieved Tumblr friends might think otherwise, I have actually been following The State of the American Jockey this year. Ferrin Peterson tearing...
Readers Up #29: Bare Knuckles & Saratoga Racing
I'm not a New Yorker. Sometimes I wonder if I could be, but the Rubicon of bolting through yellow lights has yet to be crossed and I'm really bad at...
Readers Up #28: Good Things Come
As much as I enjoy intellectualizing everything under the sun, sometimes I just wanna like a thing. Sometimes I want to feel good! Remember feeling good?...
Readers Up #27: 10 Lb. Penalty
Ah, you are thinking, at last! A Dick Francis novel, the obvious choice, why did it take so long? Well, for one thing, Dick Francis does not write about US...
Readers Up #26: The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime
First, the frisky two-year-old Thoroughbred in the room: yes, it is August. But is it, though? Is it not, spiritually, March 148th? I feel a little bad for...
Readers Up #25: Central Florida Thoroughbreds
As of this writing, I've spent the better part of three weeks trying to cyberbully the New York Racing Association into acting like something other than...
Readers Up #24: Backstretch Girls
A Wednesday newsletter? Feels funky! Then again, time has been revealed as being an agreed-upon fiction, so who knows--maybe it’s actually Friday. Anyway......