Big Brown Gets Off the Smack Just in Time for BelmontDid you know it was legal for horses to use steroids? Neither did we. But now that he’s off ‘em, we suspect the favored horse is just making excuses for himself.
the morning line
Going Your Way, Slowly
• Breaking news! After a comprehensive study, the MTA can now tell you that numbered subway lines are overcrowded, and that Lex lines often run behind schedule. (Who knew?) Apparently there’s nothing officials can really do about it, as those lines are already operating at capacity.
the sports section
A Day at the Races, With Drunken I-Banking Ivy Leaguers
We were offered “party-bus” rides to the Belmont. We knew what we were getting into, or thought we did, and we were okay with that. As scheduled, we arrive at 11:30 Saturday morning at a rooftop bar in Murray Hill. There are the requisite young investment bankers, from the requisite smatter of Ivy League schools, dressed in the requisite popped pastel collars. There is talk of bets, of mixed drinks, of the two buses charted by Dartmouth-alum Deutsche Bankers. It is as expected.
gossipmonger
RIP, IsabellaThe death of Isabella Blow by either cancer or suicide dominated conversation at the Costume Institute Gala last night. (We’ve got a Costume Institute slideshow and a tribute to Blow by Harriet Mays Powell and Amy Larocca.) Tom Brokaw won’t return to the anchor’s seat at NBC News despite the network’s slip in the ratings. While out shopping, Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson had difficulty getting into Tom Ford’s new store. The widow of Dr. Robert Atkins is embroiled in a legal battle for her late husband’s $100 million trust. Rosie O’Donnell is angling for the host slot on The Price Is Right. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett upgraded their West Village digs. Dan Abrams broke some cuff links, so he had to use dental floss to fasten plastic clips on his shirt. Like every other actor in New York, Cynthia Nixon will appear on an episode of Law & Order.
the morning line
Spitzer: Budget Cuts for Everyone!
• First hospitals, now prisons. Governor Eliot Spitzer considers closing or consolidating some correctional facilities, in part because crime has plummeted in New York City. But he’ll face opposition from pols upstate, where the clinks employ thousands. [NYT]
• And he also wants to cut $328 million in aid to the city, which has Bloomberg none too pleased and on his way to Albany to complain about it. [NYT]
• Seabiscuit meets Snakes on a Plane in a bizarre grand-jury probe of whether Saratoga racehorses were doped up with painkilling serpent venom to enhance their game last summer. [NYP]
• The Reverend Al Sharpton may file a racial-profiling lawsuit in response to new NYPD stats that 55 percent of cop stop-and-frisks in the city happen to blacks. Such data were mandated after the 1999 police shooting of Amadou Diallo. [NYS]
• Talk about rolling out of bed: An actor on the HBO hit Oz was arraigned in the death of a Bronx man who fell five flights to his death down the elevator shaft of trendy Chelsea nightclub BED. [amNY]