Nyquist breezes in Kentucky Derby

May 9, 2016

For all the doubters, Nyquist had the answer – a Kentucky Derby win.

The bay colt, named for Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist – the horse’s owner, J. Paul Reddam, is a big hockey fan – became the eighth undefeated horse to win the Derby and improves to 8-0. Next up is the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland May 21.

Exaggerator – our friend Thomas DeChiara’s pick – was a hard-charging second and looks to be a worthy rival. Gun Runner was third.

But really, it was all Nyquist, who bided his time close to the lead and then found that extra gear that defines the true champion. ...

Can Nyquist stop the ‘neigh’-saying?

May 7, 2016

Boy, it’s a good thing horses can’t read. Because if they could, they might be really depressed.

Take Nyquist, the 3-1 favorite for the Kentucky Derby later today. He’s undefeated coming into the Derby and has bested many of the challengers. But you’d never know that from the coverage. “Despite His Credentials, Nyquist Has His Doubters” The New York Times headline blared.

There are many reasons for this. There’s nothing in betting on the favorite. The more you win, the closer you are to losing. And people enjoy tearing down a winner perhaps even more than they enjoy getting on a winner’s bandwagon. ...

Rafa, Nyquist on a roll?

May 3, 2016

Like Mark Twain’s death, reports of the demise of Rafael Nadal’s career – often instigated by Rafael Nadal himself – have been greatly exaggerated.

It was just a short while ago as Novak Djokovic blazed through the winter season that Rafa was questioning whether he should go on.

Oh, what a difference a spring (and, let’s face it, Rafa’s favorite surface, clay) can make. Having won in Monte Carlo – where Nole exited early – and Barcelona, Rafa’s back. As if there were any doubt that he would be. ...

‘American Pharoah’ book breezes along

May 3, 2016

If the Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 7 has you nostalgic for American Pharoah, Joe Drape has the antidote.

The New York Times sportswriter and Eclipse Award winner for outstanding coverage of Thoroughbred racing is off and running with the new “American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s Legendary Rise” (Hachette Books, 292 pages, $27). Though it may lack the juiciness, pathos and laugh-out-loud humor of “Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar, and Racing’s Greatest Rivalry,” it, too, is a great story well-told with a fabulous cast of characters supporting our innocent, noble hero, AP, on his equine Pilgrim’s Progress. ...

‘SHE’ and ‘the woman’s card’

May 2, 2016

With apologies to Dickens, this seems to be the best of times and the worst of times to be a woman.

At a moment when women dominate higher education and professional schools, they stand on the threshold of one of their own achieving for the first time the highest office in the United States and becoming the most powerful person on the face of the earth.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton’s opponents seek either to demonize her and her sex, ridiculing her for playing “the woman’s card” (Donald Trump), or to throw chivalry into sharply false relief by confining women to the gilded cage of the pedestal (Ted Cruz) and the nostalgia of the kitchen (John Kasich).

And that’s the good news. Murder; rape; genital mutilation; sex slavery; child marriage; forced conscription into terrorists squads; a lack of access to education, employment, health care and reproductive rights; cyber death threats to and bullying of female sportswriters (a subtheme of my forthcoming novel, “The Penalty for Holding”) and, that old standby, unequal pay for more-than-equal work: The challenges and atrocities that women face are staggering.

All of which makes the incandescent “SHE: Deconstructing Female Identity” – at ArtsWestchester in White Plains, N.Y. through June 25 – a most timely exhibit indeed.

Organized by Kathleen Reckling, the brilliant gallery curator and an avowed feminist, “SHE” considers that identity and the woman’s card through what have traditionally been three power centers for women – their bodies/nature, the home/domesticity and fashion. ...

The figure in Persian and Indian art: Different perspectives from two new books

April 28, 2016

Two richly layered new books from Thames & Hudson capture the contrast between the human figure in Persian art and the figure in Indian art.

“Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture” by Adel T. Adamova and Manijeh Bayani (552 pages, $50) reproduces in paperback for the first time shimmering illuminated manuscripts, miniature paintings and decorated book bindings from the 11th through early 20th centuries. Illustrations from such works as Firdawsi’s “Shah-nameh” (“The Persian Book of Kings”) and Nizami’s “Khamsah” draw on The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait.

“The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works, 1100-1900” by B.N. Goswamy (570 pages, $50) covers roughly the same period. How these books cover these periods, however, is vastly different. ...

True to NFL life

April 26, 2016

Whenever I wonder just how true my upcoming novel “The Penalty for Holding” is about the NFL, I encounter a story that reestablishes my equilibrium.

Such a story is contained in John Branch’s “In Manziel, a Draft Machine’s Human Cost.” It’s a by-now-familiar tale – the rise and fall of a big-time college football star. Johnny Manziel, aka “Johnny Football” – who won the Heisman Trophy as the best college player when he was a freshman quarterback at Texas A&M – was the main event in the 2014 NFL Draft, the 2016 version of which gets underway Thursday, April 28. ...