JC / Railbird

OTB

Elsewhere

Forgive the self-promotion; it’s not every day I can say that you can find me twice on the New York Times web site …

On the City Room blog, I reply to comments left regarding Sunday’s OTB story. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the exchange, except for one mistake on my part — I realized this morning that commenter El Barto was referring to the amount retained by OTB, not the surcharge on winning bets. Oops! It’s still a fine reply, just to another question.

On the Rail, I write about history and preps, how the races have changed, how tradition may still matter. After I’d already sent this piece off, I read Jay Hovdey’s post on Derby defections, in which he refers to Eskendereya’s “porcelain handling.” I suppose there’s some truth to that, but consider: Last year’s field averaged 6.4 lifetime starts, down a bit from the 7.05 of the 2004 field (the first of the 20-horse Derby era). A light record is just the way of things these days — this year’s likely field averages 6.5 starts — making the 3YO prep season all the more important.

Posted in Media on April 27, 2010 / Tagged Derby History, Derby Prospects, Kentucky Derby, New York Times, NYC OTB, OTB

Once Upon the 1970s

Via Brooklyn Heights Blog comes this photo (taken from a 1976 New York Department of City Planning revitalization proposal) of a long-closed Montague Street OTB branch:

Google Maps, oddly, still locates the betting shop at 180 Montague, even though the street-level spaces are now taken up by a grocery store, bank, and parking service — which I think is a real loss, since it sometimes would be pretty convenient to have an OTB right around the corner. And who wouldn’t want these guys in their neighborhood? Check out the dapper man in the back — he’s styling in his pork pie hat.

Posted in Miscellany on March 26, 2009 / Tagged Brooklyn, Montague Street, OTB