Vic Zast Saratoga Diary

On to Belmont

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:07:00 GMT

Most people would think that winning the Hopeful Stakes with a horse that your friend told you to buy at auction because it wore a hip number that matched your football uniform number was dumb luck. But Jack Wolf’s good fortune with the horse Shanghai Bobby doesn’t compare in the least with the human Shanghai Bobby’s. Robert Burton won a flip coin that determined he’d play football at Murray State University instead of Marshall University a year before the entire Marshall team was killed in a plane crash. But for heads on a quarter he’d be dead.

The human Shanghai Bobby, Bob Burton, at Saratoga

Not since Smarty Jones has there been a 2-year-old speedball with a name as catchy as Shanghai Bobby. After a disappointingly short post parade that inched horses past the finish line before they skedaddled back in the direction from which they’d come, the 2-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday, another of Wolf’s former horses, won the 108th running of the $300,000 Hopeful Stakes (gr. II). The colt sped to victory in 1:22.72, the second fastest time since the race was switched to seven furlongs.

A crowd larger than could fit in track photographer Adam Coliagnese’s wide angle lens celebrated with Wolf and his Starlight Racing partners in the winner’s circle−but not Burton, a pilot for Delta Airlines who a year ago chose to accompany Wolf, a college football teammate, to the sale at which Shanghai Bobby was bought when a flight to Shanghai that he was supposed to fly cancelled. Burton was in Saratoga last week but not this week. One of Starlight’s principles, Donnie Lucarelli, hails from Schenectady, N.Y. and the entire population of Schenectady was here.

Laurie Wolf and the women of Starlight Stable lead Shanghai Bobby into the Hopeful winner's circle.

The Honorable Jack Diamond, mayor of the city of Glens Falls, N.Y., graced the winner’s circle one race earlier. Diamond presented the trophy to Stuart S. Janney, III and the connections of Hit It Rich for winning the $150,000 Glens Falls Stakes (gr. IIIT). Trainer Dominick Schettino saw Ramon Dominguez produce Alwaysin a Tiz as the winner of the meet’s final 2-year-old maiden race. Rosie Napravnik, who won the Hopeful with Shanghai Bobby, rode the winner ofthe season’s finale, as she did its opening act.

Philip Devlin, a retired teacher and coach from Berlin, Conn., won the Pick Six for $26,907. This may not seem so amazing because somebody usually does. But, on Aug. 30, Devlin won the largest consolation Pick Six ever at Del Mar−$145,187.40. On closing day at Saratoga, he singled Always in a Tiz in the sixth and Hit It Rich in the eighth. He doesn’t win by covering every horse.

Repole Stables won the owners’ title, Pletcher the trainers’ title and Dominguez the riding title.John Imbriale called the races. The public address system, which caused fits for the meet’s first three programs, broke down again−during the call of the Hopeful. The foodstands ran out of Travers glasses, bags of peanuts, crackers for the clam chowder and Lord knows what else.

Otherwise, as far as the numbers went, business was up in all areas.

Before the day’s activities began, Wolf and his wife Laurie appeared on morning television. In the few seconds that talk show host Jeanne Wood allowed her guests to sneak a word in, Wolf said that Algorithms, Starlight’s hope in the 2012 Kentucky Derby before the colt incurred an injury, might run in the “See-gar.” On to Belmont.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He looks forward to being at the races in Saratoga next summer – the 48th in a row for him.

Six Fingers Up

aspradling — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 12:38:00 GMT

Early Sunday morning, in lieu of the morning workouts, three turf writers introduced a maiden first-time golfer named Micah to words that they wouldn’t dare use in their columns. The lesson in blue language took place at the Saratoga Spa Golf Course.

Early morning on the Spa Gold Course is where you'll find turf writers now.
Photo by Vic Zast

In recent years, the Spa course, as a result of the massive removal of trees, has improved in the quality of the greens and the tee boxes to the point that players must think seriously about the choice between paying nearly $200 plus cart to golf at Saratoga National or $44 including cart there.

Incidentally, the golf course amenities are improving while the racecourse amenities are regressing. Bill Richardson, the Director of Golf, knows what it takes to make a business go. If, for example, a round of golf required a public address system, he’d install one that works.

Regardless, except for the occasional $2 Nassau and $1 a yard skins game, you can’t bet on the links with the same vigor as you can on the horses. If there’s one area in which Saratoga has thrived it’s in handle. Contributing mightily to the meet’s revenue production are well-balanced fields in which longshots have as much chance as favorites. On the second last day of the meet, the toteboard promoted exceptional value. Nearly $18 million was wagered.

Ticket stub fashion.
Photo by Vic Zast

A fleece blanket giveaway inflated attendance to 59,187. Mike Iovino of Schenectady, N.Y. passed through the turnstiles 20 times to stockpile a load, which should tell you a thing or two about the real count. “You can buy one from me on eBay for $15,” he joked. He was charging triple the price for which they are selling now.

Mike Iovino with his stash of fleece blankets in the backyard.
Photo by Vic Zast

The heavily-favored Teen Pauline came a cropper in the 121st running of the $300,000 Spinaway Stakes (gr. I). Stonestreet’s juvenile miss set a track record in her first start but couldn’t hang on to victory in her second. Maggi Moss’s So Many Ways remained undefeated by beating Sweet Shirley Mae to the finish line.

Right before the Spinaway, jockey Ramon Dominguez rode Unbridled Command to victory in the 1 1/8 miles Saranac (gr. III) for 3-year-old fillies. In winning the Saranac, Dominguez registered his sixth victory, breaking the record of 66 wins in a Saratoga meet held by John R. Velazquez. Later, the NYRA publicity department let it be known that Dominguez really broke the record a race earlier. It was all very confusing.

Dominguez faced the cameras with six fingers up like a contestant on American Idol. Once photographers snapped their shots, he made two quick signs of the cross and dismounted. Javier Castellano must ride 17 winners on the closing day card to tie him for the jockey title. It’s possible, given the lengthy programs that director of racing P.J. Campo has written. But not likely.

Boredom caused the white cap in Section E of the clubhouse to fashion hats from the ticket stubs she collected when seating folks.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Year of the Disappeared

aspradling — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 12:07:00 GMT

An old racetrack goer who’s visited this track for 47 straight summers said the 2009 Woodward Stakes (gr. I) won by Rachel Alexandra was the best Saratoga horse race he’s seen. Stonestreet’s Preakness Stakes-winning filly beat the boys in the “Year of the Girl.”

The New York Racing Association beat the drum for the Woodward that summer−first, by giving away a free ball cap honoring Rachel Alexandra to fans early on in the meet and then distributing posters, decorative pins and banners that were hung around town at the end. When the field hit the top of the stretch with the filly in front, a cheer that was heard miles away went up as if everyone had wagered on her, which, of course, was not true. The cheer kept on building−all the way to the victorious end.

The summer of 2012 at Saratoga wasn’t the “Year of the Girl,” but the “Year of the Disappeared.” There is a woman in charge of the track, yet it often seems like nobody is home. Before the meet began, the former CEO and his sidekick were thrown under a bus for hiding the fact that NYRA was taking a bigger slice of the pie than it should have from exotic wager winners. Anyone who believes they were the only people who knew of the (mis)take is a fool.

On the last weekend of racing, the NYRA employees, who aren’t among the association’s ten VPs, ask openly if you believe that they’ll be around for long. Gov. “No-Show” Cuomo is lying low (the choice of word is purposeful), knowing that a government intervention is feared. New York State made a mess of OTB. Yet, only the most naïve would expect the status quo. The current franchise lost $24 million in 2011.

“I’ve got all, all. I won the Pick Six,” exclaimed Jim McGaughan of Glenmont, N.Y., as To Honor and Serve crossed the finish line ahead of Mucho Macho Man in this summer’s Woodward. Even though there were two races left, all that McGaughan had to do was wait to learn how much he won. The Pick Six paid $155,787.

A longshot specialist, apprentice jockey Wilmer Garcia, saved his bacon with A New York Phillie, the 36-1 winner in the last race. Neatie the Cat, the 3-2 favorite, nipped 14-1 Western Tryst in the 11th race. Had Western Tryst won the race, who knows how much McGaughan would have won.

The Wishing Well was the place for winners in the evening. Charlotte Weber of Live Oak Plantation, the owner of To Honor and Serve, Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainer of Saturday’s Forego Stakes (gr. I) winner Emcee, and the meet’s leading trainer Todd Pletcher dined there. Roses decorated the piano in the barroom to commemorate Bob Lee’s passing 10 years ago. Lee ran the restaurant with his wife Brenda, who still operates the Wishing Well with her son Bob, Jr.

Bands were playing on Broadway. Despite the missing, it was not the Titanic.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Prime Time

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 11:57:00 GMT

The 2:30 p.m. post time for Friday’s first race seemed to make the crowd friskier, if not significantly different in size from prior summers. But there was no waiting for things to unfold at a new pace. A flow of energy cursed through the clubhouse and grandstand, unlike the last several days. The music began playing at Siro’s before the eighth race went off−somewhat earlier than usual in terms of the feature but not by the standard for what people believe is the cocktail hour.

“The absolute prime time is between 6 and 7 p.m.,” said Michael W. Stone, general manager of Siro’s. “When races go longer than the normal nine, that’s very difficult to overcome,” he added, making note of the fact that inordinately long programs as well as late posts were a problem. The winner Bravo Habibi crossed the finish line for the last race with two minutes to spare in the golden hour. One hour later, downtown was a sea of people.

Purses in the middle like a bonfire, racetrack fans begin the Siro's dance party right after the last race is run.

The Chamber of Commerce calls the meet’s final weekend the “Final Stretch Festival.” At the races, the final stretch, for the most part, began at the start. Pacesetting horses predominated. Seven of the nine winners led at the quarter pole; the other two were within a half-length of the front. In the fourth race, Manuka Honey, a first-time starter for trainer John Terranova, surrendered the lead to Sustained after speeding a mile in :22.60, :46.90, 1:10.78 and 1:35.91. In the seventh race, Cape Glory held a slim advantage with less than a furlong to go before giving in to Conspiracy.

The Saratogian reported that an Albany man in his mid-60s arrived at the track in a blazer and dress shoes, but returned home on a bus wearing a pair of women’s shorts and flip-flops. His change in attire was provided by a Saratoga Springs resident on Saratoga Lake, who found him chest-deep in a small, mucky creek in the backyard of his Stockholm Road property at 7 a.m. The man had spent the night there before the fire department pulled him out with a harness.

Fridays are fish days. So it comes as some surprise that Moby Rick, a fishmonger for Pura Vida of Hampton Bays, N.Y., has missed being in business for weeks while preparing his new store on Lake Street. Things take longer than they do in a small town. But perhaps Rick is satisfied in selling his seafood on Saturdays off the back of a truck at the farmer’s market. Horseplayers are meat-eaters anyway.

Fishmongers at the Farmer's Market.

The flag in the infield was flown at half-mast. MTV cancelled Jersey Shore.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Anticipation Relieved

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:12:00 GMT

Steeplechase racing makes every Thursday special. But this Thursday there were two steeplechase races and at least two other occurrences to make the day extra special.

As part of the 11-race card, Saratoga hosted the grade II, $200,000 With Anticipation Stakes and the debut of Archwarrior. Archwarrior, of course, was Alto Racing’s son of Arch that’s been heralded to be the fastest 2-year-old in trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn. He’s worked bullets. In addition, he failed to make the entries twice before at the meet, so the “How good is he?” factor figured.

There were more people in the walking ring for the third to see Archwarrior than in the upper deck of Tropicana Field to witness Mitt Romney’s nomination acceptance. One Blood-Horse magazine scribe, completing his two-week stay at the Spa, said the scene had the air of a horse sale, which often occurs in these circumstances. Pletcher refuted suggestions that Archwarrior was a one-turn speedball by saying that the colt, an impressive wave-of-the-stick, one and three-quarters length winner at six furlongs, is destined to improve as the races get longer.

Archwarrior ready to do battle for first time.

Cubist, in his sixth start over fences, won the four-turn $75,000 Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords Steeplechase Stakes for owner/trainer Jonathan Sheppard after You the Man won a 2 1/16 miles claiming hurdle race. The two events closed out the official Saratoga season for the jumpers.

Balance the Books made a furious dash from last to first to better Joha by a head in the With Anticipation. Julien Leparoux got the call and made certain that the late running son of Lemon Drop Kid would arrive in time for the trophy. He failed the last time he tried. Balance the Books, trained by Chad Brown, was an also-eligible entrant.

The With Anticipation is a good name for a stakes race for 2-year-olds. Like the upcoming Hopeful Stakes (gr. II) on closing day Monday, it expresses what horse racing’s about. Who was it that said, “No man with a promising 2-year-old in his barn commits suicide?”

The only other race worth mentioning is between Pletcher and Brown for leading trainer. Pletcher is expected to win. But Brown is only six victories behind him in the standings with nearly 40 fewer starts.

The weather continues to cooperate. Only the New York Racing Association’s marketing team and their public relations agency are complaining of a rough shake from Mother Nature. They’re right that it’s rained on some key dates. Yet, D. Wayne Lukas has saddled winners more often at the meet than rain has interfered with anything. He’s had two.

Post time on Friday is 2:30 p.m. NYRA hopes the late start accommodates weekend travelers. Lawrence Foley of Southport, Conn., the father of child actress Clare Foley who will soon to appear in the 2013 release of “Shakespeare’s Daughter,” is here already.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight years.

Pay the Lady

aspradling — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:09:00 GMT

There were three stakes races, each with a purse of $100,000, on Wednesday. But it was a maiden special weight 1 1/16 mile turf race run between the second and third stakes that took the prize for the most exciting. The 21-1 Hedonemewrongsong, a bay 2-year-old filly by Bluegrass Cat trained by Jonathan Sheppard, topped a superfecta with three horses that few people figured to hit the board. A $2 winning wager paid $96,961.00.

“I wanted the 10 to come in fourth but the nine came in,” complained Cherie Dominski, a retired nurse from East Greenbush, N.Y. who missed winning the gigantic superfecta but had the trifecta. The tri paid $9,686.00 for two dollars. Dominski was pleased with her take but wasn’t completely surprised. “I chart about four hours each night and I’m here every day for every race,” she explained.

Winning trifectas and superfectas is routine for Cherie Dominski. She's been coming to the track since a child.
Photo by Vic Zast

Dominski missed a week of this summer’s meet to attend a funeral. Nevertheless, she’s hit 69 trifectas and 12 superfectas coming into the final weekend. Last summer, she won 96 trifectas and five superfectas. But who’s counting? “Let’s just say I’ve won bigger bets before,” she said.

It was Veteran’s Day and anyone who could prove that he served in the armed forces was allowed in for free. A few guys wore ball caps that said “Army” or “USS Saratoga.” Chuck Wanko of Schaghticoke, NY, who served from 1968 to 1994, said, “I was going to come anyway, and then I realized it was Veteran’s Day.” Wanko left by the eighth race.

The eighth was the P.J. Johnson, the last of the three stakes. An Irish-Bred and raced filly named Watsdachances, running on Lasix for the first time, performed predictably by winning for trainer Chad Brown and jockey Javier Castellano. A day before the stakes win, the rider’s wife gave birth to a son named Brady Ryan Castellano. The new dad must have won on little rest.

Fredericksburg, a lively looking Speightstown juvenile, improved sufficiently for trainer Michael Matz in its second start to take the better of some sleepy colts in the fifth. Summer Shiner was impressive in finishing second. But not finishing first has been a problem for him. It was his third start.

Cross Gate Gallery closes on Sept. 1. The Lexington-based dealer of sporting art has been encamped on the balcony of the Humphrey S. Finney pavilion since the start of the month. Greg Ladd, the founder of Cross Gate, said that the gallery’s first year for selling art in Saratoga was 1978. He expects to be back.

Cross Gate Gallery at Fasig-Tipton's Humphrey S. Finney sales pavilion.
Photo by Vic Zast

For the first time in racecourse history, two canoes are afloat on the infield pond.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Popping Up Pink

aspradling — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Freelance horse racing writer Teresa Genaro epitomizes a press corps that never puts its pencils down. Her work is popping up all over, from the pages of Forbes, to The Saratogian, to The Blood-Horse−a spread that’s as wide as the Hudson.

On Monday, the indefatigable reporter had a front page story about the planned modernization of the Adelphi Hotel. On Tuesday, she wrote in the Pink Sheet about how the Travers (gr. 1) went on as scheduled even though Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn’t present.

At this time next summer, the old Adelphi should look spanking new in its rooms and appointments. Its new owners are promising to return the nostalgic hotel to its rightful place on Broadway as the city’s most iconic building. Should Northshire Bookstore of Manchester Center, Vt., take up space in the shuttered Borders a few doors to the north, as is rumored, the west side of the street may soon rival the east side in popularity. With a new Maestro’s restaurant in the Rip Van Dam and Druther’s Brewery drawing drafts in and fans to its beer garden, the block between Washington and Division streets has flourished.

Regarding Genaro’s story on the governor, there will be disagreement. “No-Show Cuomo” had no choice but to snub the New York Racing Association. It would not have been politically astute for him to rub elbows with people whose behavior he publicly chastised and whose employment he may soon eliminate. Yet, you didn’t have to be in the press box with Genaro to read into her piece the blood boiling beneath her fingers as she pounded the keys on her laptop while writing about his alleged truancy. He’s a polarizing figure with the future of the sport in New York in his crosshairs.

The stands were near empty again at the racecourse on Monday. Jockey Joel Rosario took longer than expected to return to the Saratoga winner’s circle after day-hopping to Del Mar to ride Dullahan to victory in the Pacific Classic (gr. I). He won the seventh race aboard 15-1 Sensational Appeal.

End of season racing at Saratoga means empty seats. Section L in the Clubhouse, race 4.
Photo by Vic Zast

There were more accomplished winners than See Me Proud in the sixth race, but none prettier. By pretty is meant the bay son of Proud Citizen was pretty in pink−pink quarters and hoops on his rider’s silks, a pink and grey cap on his rider’s head, the pink number eight saddlecloth and four pink leg bandages to boot.

Equine artist Nick Martinez has been selling pretty paintings at Saratoga for 25 years. “It’s been a stellar year−the best I can remember,” he said, despite having his booth moved to the far end of the trinkets ‘n trash row of tents that lead to the Carousel. “Business is good because I work,” he explained. Simple concept.

Equine artist Nick Martinez at work at the track.
Photo by Vic Zast

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

The Difference a Day Made

aspradling — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:31:00 GMT

What a difference a day made. Saratoga Racecourse went from being wall-to-wall with fans on Saturday to being a barren oasis on Sunday. The exodus has begun. Starting Monday you’ll be able to see the horse transport semis on the backstretch. By Friday - the start of the Final Stretch weekend, it’ll seem like fall and you’ll wonder where the time went.

Social Media Day, a trumped up promotion that was geared toward helping the New York Racing Association gain followers for its Web sites, took a back seat to Travers reminiscence. Two cast iron jockeys in the walking ring were painted in the silks of the Travers winners and were quickly identified as photo subjects.

Jockeys in paddock painted with wining colors of dual Travers winners.
Photo by Vic Zast

Siro’s, not Saratoga, is the true social network, said one fan. About a dozen people with smart phones sat around in a roped-off circle of picnic tables near Big Red Spring while some guy encouraged them to wait for a jockey to arrive. Yet, 1000 people walked home with a FREE tee-shirt for simply signing up to “like” NYRA’s Internet sites. That’s if there were 1000 people who ambled by the area.

Social Media Day participants line up to "like" NYRA Web sites.
Photo by Vic Zast

Speaking of ambling, several races were held in which horses ambled. Speedy’s Gal in the first, Mr. Cowboy in the fifth and Screenplay in the eighth covered 1 1/16 miles on the grass in about two seconds more than Zagora did yesterday while setting the course record. Regardless, there was excitement to prevent people from losing interest completely.

The fourth race was a New York-Bred stakes called The Clever Electrician. Alan Garcia aboard Fiddler’s Afleet beat David Cohen, one of the two Travers-winning jockeys, aboard the favorite Sailmate. In the day’s second stakes called the $600,000 Gr. I Personal Ensign, only six horses ran but one was the reigning Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic champion Royal Delta.

It’s Tricky, the second choice, stumbled twice in the race’s initial stages. She kissed the ground with her snout in the first instance. Eddie Castro might have made a tactical riding error by rushing her up in contention because when the Godolphin filly hit the stretch she had nothing left to give. Green Hills Farm and its trainer Todd Pletcher were the biggest beneficiaries of whatever took place. Their 10-1 Love and Pride, a daughter of A.P. Indy with John R. Velazquez in the irons, earned the trophy.

For the second day in a row, a NYRA bigwig was seen among the great unwashed. On Travers Day, NYRA’s current board chairman traveled as far away from the clubhouse boxes as a board member has, all the way to Section H. On Sunday, two vice presidents strayed even farther into no man’s land to buy ice cream.

The track went dark on the Sunday after the Travers last year. Hurricane Irene came a-callin’.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Canoe Issues

Blood-Horse Staff — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:42:00 GMT

The first words from trainer Kiaran McLaughlin at the post-Travers press conference were, “What are they going to do with the canoe?” A Mohican on patrol at the Wishing Well in search of the tribe’s missing Chief Louis was told by a New York State racing official that there are going to be two.

One will be painted in Godolphin Racing blue; the other in Magic City Thoroughbred Partners green, blue and orange. The 143rd Travers was a dead heat, the first since 1874 when some guy eyed the finish between Atticus and Acrobat as too close to call and declared both horses hit the end line together.

McLaughlin felt a few seconds of despair before feeling elated as racecourse officials posted the three worn by Golden Ticket above the six worn by Alpha. Seconds later, the words “dead heat” in red became posted. Forty-six thousand five hundred twenty-eight fans were as stunned as he.

The winners provided a stunning contrast. Alpha’s owner was a sheikh from Dubai, a man winning his fourth graded stakes of the meet on the same day that he was awarded a gold medal at the World Endurance Championship riding a horse over 100 miles of desert. Golden Ticket was the first horse purchased at auction by Magic City. The colt’s trainer Ken McPeek admitted to “calling an audible,” passing up on an allowance race to race in the Travers. McPeek praised jockey David Cohen, who, at least in this instance, kept even with Ramon Dominguez.

Travers Day was a brilliant depiction of the sport from the get-go. Trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Rafael Bejarano, who teamed up on two winners on the card, fashioned Brigand’s easy victory in the first race. Trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John R. Velazquez accounted for Delhomme’s defeat in the second. The bay 2-year-old colt by Dixie Union had never run but was expected to win, according to experts. Yet, he failed to catch Honorable Dillon. A race later, Pletcher made amends with Slamarama.

Four graded stakes, including the Travers, composed a Pick 4 with a $1 million guaranteed payoff. Zagora won the grade II Ballston Spa Stakes and Contested won the grade I Test Stakes. Then all hell broke loose. Willy Beamin upset the Foxwoods King’s Bishop (gr. I). Trainer Dick Dutrow, Jr. sent the New York-Bred gelding into an open company stakes after winning a state-bred stakes only three days earlier. He achieved a similar feat with the same horse on four days rest in late June at Belmont.

Saratoga had an air that you don’t breathe at the track often. Fans were dressed to the nines. Sam the Bugler was working the crowd, playing musical requests at the slightest hint of pocketing a tip. Greg Montgomery was selling posters as if paper and ink were endangered commodities.

Even horses got a treat on Travers Day. Joe Campbell, NYRA blacksmith, feeds Brasso a peppermint.

Artist Greg Montgomery was situated in a new area, but sold his Travers posters with success anyway.

Michele Riggi led the fashion parade with her hat and ensemble.

A view of the huge crowd from the clubhouse.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Men will be Boys

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:23:00 GMT

Joe Moran of Boston, Mass. visited Saratoga for 45 summers before passing away a couple years ago. His tradition has been taken up by his son, another Joe Moran, who’s achieved a third of his old man’s record of coming here─15 straight summers and counting now. Moran and his friends rent a house in the Five Corners section every Travers week.

“We wake up in the morning, read the information and walk to the track every day,” said Moran, as his group awaited bread pudding at Winslow’s on Thursday evening. The roadside restaurant ran out of roasted turkey for the main course, which is why the men went there. But the men seemed unflustered and happy.

Joe Moran (left) enjoying an evening of Travers Week friendship.

“When we tell friends that we’re going to Saratoga, they ask why we’re going to Florida in summer,” Moran laughed. A light-hearted fellow, he scattered his dad’s ashes in the paddock and made up tee-shirts to celebrate his life.

Another group of men called the “Mohicans” began their Travers week with golf at Saratoga National. They attended NYRA’s $175 a ticket celebration on Thursday evening, grilled Italian sausages on Friday night in the 5th Avenue backyard of their group leader Bob Devlin, and will watch the Travers from the Clubhouse Terrace restaurant and spend whatever wampum is left at the Wishing Well afterwards.

Michael Devlin hangs flag from the balcony over the patio where Mohicans met.

Devlin, the silver-haired guy with the Panama hat who drives to the track in a red ’58 Mercedes Benz convertible, quit the life of a high-flying insurance executive several years ago and now owns Curragh Stables. A ride at a different altitude. Moran is an insurance salesman.

Those folks who went to the track Friday had a choice of watching Gregg “Free Beer” Daniels and Chris “Hot Wings” Michaels host their radio show in the morning, sampling beer at the “Battle of the Brews” in the backyard or knocking themselves out trying to make money despite favorites winning.

Popular radio show hosts engage a large breakfast crowd at the track.

Glasses being filled at the Battle of the Brews in the backyard.

Several horses resisted the starting gate. The second half of the first Daily Double, a maiden 2-year-old fillies claiming event, was a frustrating race. Bozique was a late scratch. Desert Traveler and Go the Distance wouldn’t load. Star Black took the turn wide.

Ramon Dominguez proved in the third race why he’s the meet’s leading rider. He took the rail on the far turn with a horse that broke from the far outside. The move easily represented the 2 3/4-length margin by which Reserved Quality won.

The $500,000 Ballerina Stakes (gr. I) marked the first time for Todd Pletcher to saddle and John R. Velazquez to ride Turbulent Descent and they made the first time a time to remember. Last fall’s Sentient Jets Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (gr. I) favorite had no real competition in crossing the finish line first. JR gave her a hand ride.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:07:00 GMT

Thursday afternoon produced a perfectly blissful day. But the bliss had little to do with the horse racing. A trio of early races, fraught with unconventional circumstances, were practically unbettable.

The opener was a steeplechase. It scared away gamblers who require an unsportsmanlike amount of certainty. A 1-5 favorite dominated the second race, destroying value for punters who view risk as frivolous. In the third, there were only four horses to choose from.

Demonstrative, the 15-1 winner of the Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes on July 26, took the 71st New York Turf Writers Cup Steeplechase Handicap, which carries a grade I designation from the National Steeplechase Association. Following the race, a radiant Rachel Robinson, wife of baseball great Jackie Robinson, presented a shiny silver cup to an animated Jacqueline Ohrstrom. Two horses, including the leader Divine Fortune, fell to the ground unseating their jockeys while leaping over the last fence. Both horses escaped injury. The riders drank beer in the Jim Dandy Bar afterward as if nothing untoward occurred.

Rachel Robinson, wife of baseball great Jackie Robinson, in the winner's circle.

The NSA’s Bill Gallo, wearing a nifty bow tie like Pee Wee Herman, noted later, “A jumper very rarely is hurt when it falls. We have almost no casualties.” On the other hand, the winner had a slice on his left hind leg that left blood on the mat of the winner’s circle.

Saratoga has two more steeplechase races next Thursday. Jumping returns to the track for four more non-betting events over fences and a bumper on Sept. 15. On that date, with fall in bloom, a bite in the air and more give to the ground, a crowd of 10,000 people is expected for the inaugural Steeplechase Festival of Saratoga. The infield will be open for viewing.

Saginaw, one of two New York-breds in the second race, was beat like a drum with a stick by David Cohen as he came down the stretch while winning a seven-furlong sprint. If Saratoga was England, the overzealous jockey would get days straight away.

Three horses scratched from the third race. Kent Desormeaux aboard Crooked as Can Be tried a crooked path–first from the outside and then on the inside–to catch Original Art, but he couldn’t.

Visitors to Saratoga like Jack Smith, 88, and Gene Hedrick, 78, of Salem, Ind. came to Saratoga to bet horses. When a rumor began that Kim Kardashian was about to appear at the racecourse, they began dreaming of other things. “I’m from a small town. We don’t see shoes like yours very often,” Smith told Ann Marie Flores in the walking ring, obviously noticing the wrong accessories.

In search of rumored racecourse visitor Kim Kardashian, Jack Smith found Kelly Zenella (left) and Ann Marie Flores instead.

The old Travers Celebration is no more. Last year, the traditional dinner dance was replaced with a fancy cocktail reception. The startling change has caused some people who used to attend the event to stay home.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

The Look of Leftovers

aspradling — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:41:00 GMT

Suddenly, with the onset of Travers Week, the tone of the racecourse has shifted to horse racing. Saturday alone will feature four graded stakes. The horses that will race are among the best of their generations. NBC Sports is setting up on the grounds to allow the world to see them run. Just about all the final morning works of the upcoming weekend’s competitors have been logged in the clockers’ books.

The emphasis on horse racing is not to say that there won’t be some distraction at the racecourse for fans who simply want to take in the air and be part of the scene. The New York Racing Association has created a few more excuses to lure warm bodies to the track. There was an ice cream eating contest on Wednesday for 31 people who looked like they’ve eaten a ton of it. On Friday, there’ll be a beer drinking festival and, on Sunday, a social media day. By one definition, crazy is doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different result. At least in the case of Social Media Day, NYRA is trying something new to boost its dropping numbers.

Stand-ins for Saratoga’s embattled racing department announced the Travers Stakes (gr. I) lineup at an 11 a.m. press conference. Two bits of news occurred a couple hours beforehand. The first was that Frankel, the European wonder horse, won his 13th straight race in the 10.4 furlong Juddmonte International (Eng-I) at York, England. The second was that Hansen, the reigning Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) champion, had been scratched from Saturday’s 143rd “Midsummer Derby.’

With Hansen joining Union Rags, Gemologist, Paynter and Bodemeister as recently announced no-shows, the Travers has the look of leftovers. Alpha, the useful Godolphin Racing runner that has triumphed on two prior Spa occasions, was installed the 5-2 morning line favorite. He finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). Of the 10 others that’ll face the starter, only Liaison ran for roses and none for black-eyed susans. Godolphin, the meet’s leading stable in terms of money won, has won with three of the six runners it has sent to the post at Saratoga this summer.

In the p.m., Wilmer Garcia rode a second in the third that paid $21.80 to place. The betting favorite, Willy Beamin, was a facile winner of the featured Albany Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds. Alan Garcia was in the irons for trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. and owner James A. Riccio.

The Belmont Child Care Association honored Barbara Banke of Stonestreet at the Gideon Putnam. Each year on the Wednesday preceding the Travers, lots of very thoughtful people contribute to this worthwhile charity by paying $250 per plate to wear jeans while drinking margaritas. There are no leftovers at this party, only hangovers.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Slipping By

aspradling — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:34:00 GMT

Time seems to fly by more quickly the older you get. That’s because a mere day represents a larger percentage of the time you have left than it did when you were young. The 2012 Saratoga meet has advanced to a point that is roughly 70% of its 40 afternoons. There are many things to do in the little time remaining.

If you haven’t been to the Mouzon House for a New Orleans dinner, get yourself there in a hurry. If you haven’t sipped cocktails on the front porch of Maestro’s, it’s not too late. The museums and theaters in Glens Falls and Cooperstown, N.Y., Williamstown, Mass., and Dorset, Vt.─quaint towns that are a short drive away─deserve that you hit the road on the last remaining Tuesday, the dark day. With a little more wear and tear on the tires, you can make it to Hyde Park, N.Y. Visit the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. You won’t regret it.

Prize ribbons on the wall of the horse barn at FDR's estate in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Photo by Vic Zast

The Union Avenue Stakes was the fifth and feature race on Monday. But it was the second race that caused the most excitement. A jockey was taken to hospital. A horse was euthanized. The casualty was the third of the season, the sixth if you count the three steeplechase horses that succumbed as a result of an accident on Preview Day. Junior Alvarado, the rider who was injured, will be OK to ride on Wednesday.

Kent Desormeaux continues to do well when given the chance. Trainer John Hertler provided him the ride in the fourth aboard Half Wildcat and the Hall of Fame jockey steered the 5-1 hope to the finish line first. Desormeaux had four other rides on the card, an improvement on the number he’s been handed before. His weight, not his attitude, is the issue.

Mike Repole’s cleverly-named Notacatbutallama had a little trouble loading into the gate for the seventh. But once that was behind the New York-bred colt by Harlan’s Holiday, he ran off to a 6 1/2-length victory as the even money favorite.

Notacatbutallama was another in what seems to be an endless pageant of 2-year-olds winning for trainer Todd Pletcher. Curragh Stable’s Irish Jade, trained by John Terranova, finished second like a horse to bet on next time.

In contrast to the expectancy of Pletcher’s achievements, trainer Juan Coronel notched his first-ever victory at Saratoga in the Union Avenue. “I have been waiting for this moment for so long,” Coronel told the press. His New York-bred filly Risky Rachel overcame a clumsy start, raced wide leaving the backstretch, but slipped by Final Mesa down the homestretch.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Weekend Finale Fireworks

aspradling — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Sunday served as an enjoyable finale to the weekend. Good weather, marked by sunny skies and temps in the low 70s, kept the main racing surface fast and the turf courses firm. An announced crowd of 58,701 people, presented with the incentive of a free beer glass with each paid admission, filled the backyard, the apron and all sections of the grandstand including the last three. Up until Sunday, sections W, X and Y have seldom been occupied.

Beer glass giveaway helps to bloat Saratoga crowd.
Photo by Vic Zast

Form continued to dominate the results. Six of 10 races were won by the wagering favorite. The most popular favorite to win was Kimono. The most accomplished favorite to win was Stephanie’s Kitten. Stephanie’s Kitten won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. II) last November. Yet, she was one for three in 2012 and so Sunday’s Gr. II Lake Placid Stakes victory was especially satisfying to her trainer Wayne Catalano. He gave jockey John R. Velazquez a big smooch in the winner’s circle.

By the way, Velazquez worked miracles in the homestretch. He was trapped behind horses on the rail and none relented in terms of providing him an opening to move onward. With little time to spare, the Hall of Fame rider coaxed Stephanie’s Kitten to the leaders’ right and, under a hand ride, the daughter of Kitten’s Joy gobbled up three lengths in a half dozen bold strides.

Kimono’s victory at 1-5 was less important in terms of appearance than significance. Her entry-mate Kansas provided her lone competition. Nonetheless, it must have been a redemptive experience, in a sense, for her trainer Todd Pletcher. Pletcher is the meet’s leading trainer in races won and purses collected by far. But on Opening Day, when he was still in some kind of dysfunctional funk, Kimono lost as the 6-5 favorite in her first career start.

It took four races for another aspect of the meet to return to normal. Ramon Dominguez struck with Cosmic Energy, the first of two winners he rode on the card. Then D. Wayne Lukas, who’d been zero for Saratoga with horses he’d saddled, finally got one to win in the fifth. Knowing Lukas, he must now believe the filly is stakes-caliber. Jockey Rajiv Maragh, who helped to break the drought for him, had two winners. Javier Castellano accounted for three.

Polo continues to be played on Friday and Sunday evenings at Whitney Field. Earlier this week, developers revealed plans to build a resort on the grounds. When and if that happens, another tie to a simpler, more sophisticated, vintage Saratoga Springs, to say nothing of a breathtaking view, will disappear.

The Philadelphia Orchestra ended its 47th summer of residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with an all-Tchaikovsky concert and fireworks on Saturday night. Cannons fired during the playing of the 1812 Overture.

Vic Zast is the author of "The History and Art of 25 Travers." He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Like an Arrow

aspradling — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:57:00 GMT

Racecourse regulars have been waiting for that breakout day–the one that you think about for weeks and months, even years, afterwards; a stellar day in which the weather, the crowd, the racing and the thrills come together in an exuberant display of the elements.

Saturday was that day.

Questing, a Godolphin filly, won the Alabama Stakes (gr. I) in memorable style. She flashed to the front and set fractions that nobody expected her to maintain. Through the stretch, she looked like an arrow.

Horse owner Ed Motter of Lancaster, PA, who watched her move through the stretch from the rail, said, “She had her head down, the jockey was flat on her back and together they formed a perfectly straight line. All the jockey did was hang on.”

The rider was Irad Ortiz, Jr. Ortiz fell off a horse the day before and was lifted up off the turf by some men and placed in an ambulance. He thought he had broken or badly sprained his ankle, but an MRI proved that only his psyche was damaged.

Three of the meet’s leading jockeys, Ramon Dominguez, Julien Leparoux and Jose Lezcano went on a working vacation to Chicago. Nothing changed for Dominguez’s routine. He rode Little Mike to victory in the 30th Arlington Million (gr. I). There was much enthusiasm at Saratoga for the Million as dozens of horseplayers stood in front of TV monitors watching the simulcast of it and the other big races from Arlington Park.

The Alabama’s been run 102 more times than the Million. Perhaps that’s why its 132nd anniversary included more than spectacle. Tom Durkin added to the action with his especially energetic call. The captivated crowd let up with a whoop when the field took its first steps like it does for the Travers (gr. I).

It was either the memory of bygone Alabamas or that so many stars from this year’s 3-year-old filly division participated in this noteworthy renewal that kept people for 11 races. A white cap mistakenly said, “Well, there’s only one more weekend for racing.” As a matter of fact, there are two.

The Phipps Stable’s Point of Entry, trained by Shug McGaughey and ridden by John R. Velazquez, two Hall of Fame members, won the 1 ½ mile Gr. I Sword Dancer.

Apprentice Wilmer Garcia proved that he could win on horses that have a chance at winning as well as those that the public believe don’t. He did a nifty job of keeping the front-running gelding Nelson Avenue out in front in the fifth.

Saratoga Springs socialite Michele Riggi wore a hat that appeared to cost more than several of the horses that ran in other races while presenting the National Museum of Dance trophy to the winner of the fourth.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Pink and Rosie

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:30:00 GMT

Fans wearing pink were allowed into the racecourse for free. Friday was Fabulous Fillies Day, remembering Evelyn H. Lauder, honoring Virginia Kraft Payson and benefitting breast cancer research.

There were free faux diamond pendants for early arrivers, complimentary pink hair extensions for anyone who wanted one and a Sizzling Hot Pink Saratoga Hat Luncheon in the “At the Rail Pavilion” for those with money to burn - just enough frivolous stuff to enable women to have a “girl’s day out,” which is the way a Ladies Day should be.

Fourteen-year-old Elinor Wolf, daughter of Jack and Laurie Wolf of Louisville, KY and Saratoga Springs, NY, may have been the youngest and prettiest woman at the Sizzling Hot Pink Saratoga Hat Luncheon.

Pink bunting hung in the clubhouse entrance ways. A blanket of pink flowers draped the base of Sea Hero’s bronze in the paddock. A red carpet was rolled out from the turnstiles toward Union Avenue. Fashion-conscious women of days gone by would have frowned at the color combination. But modern redheads wear red lipstick and carry purses that don’t match their shoes. It all works when you have a purpose.

The Sea Hero bronze in the walking ring, surrounded by a sea of pink flowers.

Women presented the trophies. The racing secretary wrote only races for fillies and mares. The two best races came early as the second and the fourth on the card. The most exciting was squeezed in between. Jockey Rosie Napravnik showed the men what women are made of. Her daring-do in the third led to a narrow victory by the 6-1 Stack the Storm.

Napravnik was dumped from her saddle three times trying to enter the starting gate on Stack the Storm. The Gulf Storm filly was fractious throughout the warm-up. Meanwhile, two other horses scratched. Irad Ortiz, Jr. fell from one, causing the third to act up, and was carted off on a stretcher and packed into an ambulance. Fourth time was the ticket for Napravnik. Her recalcitrant mount was finally loaded, kicking and bucking, after delaying the start 14 minutes. Stack the Storm jogged in back of the field for most of the grassy mile before snatching victory from the jaws of distress.

The start of the third race was delayed 14 minutes as two horses scratched and a third dumped her rider three times at the gate.

A filly with an appropriate name for the day, Lady Cohiba, upset the $100,000 Summer Guest Stakes at nearly 14-1. A dawdling pace did the favorite Ciao Bella in. The David Donk-trained Hessonite accounted for the $150,000 Yaddo. Kieran McLaughlin saddled Darley Stable’s 3 to 5 Dance Card to win the sixth. Ramon Dominguez and Javier Castellano each rode three winners.

About a thousand backyard squatters have been displaced from their favorite area on the grandstand bend of the walking ring. They’ve surrendered their spot to a 75’ X 75’ tent and a 75’ x 25’ fenced-off porch. The tent went up during Fasig-Tipton sales week and has not come down. “I don’t like it,” complained Kevin Gill of Boston, Mass. “We come up every year. It’s a beautiful view. But now it’s gone,” he said.

Nick Kling was the Pink Sheet’s best handicapper on the pink day. Kling selected five winners in the newspaper.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Mornings on the Backstretch

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:19:00 GMT

The backstretch was a beehive Thursday morning. Joe and Anne McMahon, wearing blue ball caps honoring their fine sire Utopia, lingered with family members and stopped to greet friends. McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, the outfit that produced Funny Cide, has bought two TVCs on the MSNBC telecast of Saturday’s Alabama.

CandyLand Farm’s Herb and Ellen Moelis, who manage Thoroughbred Charities of America, had their two mile walk around the track interrupted by well wishers when they passed by the Morning Line coffee stand. The Moelises meet so many people on a stroll that it doesn’t seem as if exercise but a social engagement.

A cup of coffee at the Morning Line foodstand on the backstretch provides a different perspective to the sport.

Marilyn Lane, representing Saratoga War Horse, was buoyant with news that ESPN will be back in the fall to film interviews with Bob Nevins who started the program. Nevins’s program uses horses as a conduit to re-connect returning military veterans with society. “We’re not a rescue program,” Lane said. “We’re more about helping people,” she said.

Trolleys deliver hundreds of casual horse racing fans to backstretch tours, adding to the morning's activity.

D for Democrat and R for Republican are on both ends of the word “dollar.” That’s why the buzz about Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo asking Republican John Hendrickson to be the New York Racing Association’s future board of trustees chairman won’t subside. The racecourse’s continuing decline in attendance has prompted some politicians to say that VLT proceeds to horse racing should be cut. We Need V L T’s, a 5-year-old mare owned and trained by Linda Rice, finished last in the seventh race on Wednesday.

Steeplechase fans were treated to two jump races instead of one on Thursday afternoon. In the second race, jockey Kieran Norris on Cornhusker miraculously stayed on his mount as it fell to the ground hurtling the last jump. While ahead by a neck in a drive with the winner History Boy, the British-bred son of Dynaformer skidded head first on his belly for a couple dozen yards before springing up. Yet, he managed to keep fourth.

The 2-year-old colt Show Some Magic broke his maiden in the third race by beating Gombey Dancer. Will Take Charge dumped his rider in the loading process, as if the events of the second were contagious. Midnight Poppa finished third but looked like a colt with a future. His trainer Nick Zito rarely wins with a firster.

The betting favorite finished first in the third, fourth, six, seventh, eighth and 11th races and second in the fifth and the ninth. A cooling rain broke the stifling humidity and greeted the runners in the paddock for the 10th, the featured $150,000 West Point for New York-foaled horses. Until then, the horses were mainly wet from their body sweat. Lubash, a son of Freud that was ridden by the turf-adept Jose Lezcano for the turf-superior Christophe Clement, won the stakes.

Regarding the last race, say like Tom Durkin said, “They have Kibosh to catch” quickly without twisting your tongue. You can’t and they couldn’t.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Bridgetown, Bartenders and Bingo Night

aspradling — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:32:00 GMT

NYRA scheduled the best horses to race Wednesday in the fifth race instead of the ninth or the tenth. If by next summer the $100,000 Troy isn’t a graded stakes, there is something amiss with the way the American Graded Stakes Committee reads a Daily Racing Form. Arguably, three of the sport’s most accomplished turf sprinters ran in the 5 1/2 furlong Troy, including Regally Ready, the defending Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IIT) champion.

Bridgetown, last year’s Troy winner and a winner of six stakes now, won by a half-length over another multiple stakes winner, Perfect Officer. John R. Velazquez rode Bridgetown. Trainer Todd Pletcher took the trophy from the hands of Mayor Lou Rosamilia of Troy, N.Y., after usher Dave Smith surrendered it from custody.

Perhaps nobody has thought to ask Agnes Peace where the plaque for the Builder’s Kitchens, Inc. and Empire State Stone purse will go in her trophy room. Peace’s slightly-favored Boots Ahead won the sixth race, a $35,000 claiming event around two turns on the inner turf course. There was much ado about Boots Ahead wearing aluminum pads and four leg bandages. But whatever he wore obviously helped him.

The Dunkin’ Donuts─America Runs on Dunkin’ race went to Eden is Burning; the Miller Lite Taste of Saratoga race to Parent’s Honor. Earlier in the day, Billboard Hit took the Doherty Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill and Wild Target won The Paul Bradicich Legacy. These five races represented $285,000 in purses. Question their names but not their worth.

The same people who give of their time and their money to help others were at it again in the evening. Velazquez, Edgar Prado, Javier Castellano, Rajiv Maragh and Maylan Studart tended bar at the Saratoga National Golf Club to raise money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. About 220 donors attended the event, although a congressman who’s not one of horse racing’s friends had a fundraiser that was three times that big at the same time in the same place. Fancy cars owned by people of means were parked on both sides of the driveway the length of the first fairway, which measures 416 yards long from the back tees.

Jockey Rajiv Maragh pours a martini at fancy fundraiser.
Photo by Vic Zast

In contrast, John Hendrickson─a man who contributes more to the happiness of plain folks than any politician─grilled chicken patties for 300 backstretch workers. Hendrickson’s guests walked or pedaled bikes to a tent near the barns for their supper. Wednesday evening is Bingo Night. Race caller Tom Durkin often pulls the letters and numbers out of the spinning tumbler to get the fun going. Hendrickson rarely misses the chance to work.

New York Racing Association officials were MIA at another public forum in which they used to participate. About 200 industry leaders took part in the Saratoga Institute on Racing and Gaming Law conference where the precarious status of VLT revenues was discussed.

Bingo Night tent on the backstretch is play to go for 300 people each Wednesday evening.
Photo by Vic Zast

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

New Round of Night Life

aspradling — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:51:00 GMT

There have been 22 days of horse racing in Saratoga this summer─two fewer than the 24 mandated by the Harriman Law in 1962 that gave permanency to an exclusive season and 18 shy of the 40 that’ll be run before the leaves turn.

A new round of night life has ushered in the meet’s second half, replacing such tonier musings as black-tie affairs, over-priced fundraisers, and Hall of Fame ceremonies. The jockeys sang karaoke at the Vapor Night Club to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund on Monday night. They will tend bar tonight at Prime on the Saratoga National Golf Course.

The karaoke concert was a hoot, as trainer Todd Pletcher, a judge of the competition, displayed a sharp wit he never exposes in public. Rosie Napravnik, seen regularly in blousy, unflattering jockey britches, revealed her feminine curves in skin-fitting leather pants. Rubber band man Ronnie Eubanks poured his heart out over two selections and landed up with a golden microphone trophy. Heriberto Rivera, Jr. won a trophy also for singing “Lady” by Lionel Richie.

Jockeys on Vapor Night Club stage for PDJF Karaoke Championship finale.
Photo by Vic Zast

Tom Durkin’s melodious rolling Rs rang out four times for jockey R-r-r-r-r-amon Dominguez on Monday afternoon. Dominguez’s most fascinating winner was Ea, a long-winded, 8-year-old gelding that won a 1 1/8 mile race only seven days earlier. Ea appeared to be caught near the end of the grueling two mile eighth race but kept running. The field departed the gate in the chute and made three left-handed turns before finishing. One horse, Sumo, never crossed the finish line.

Six of the seven leading riders saddled up for the seventh race. It was a 5 ½ furlong dash on the Mellon Turf Course among seven first-time starters and a non-winner of three races, thus a good indication of the respect that the men had for the field. Coconut Shrimp, a daughter of Giant’s Causeway, won handily for Javier Castellano.

Xavier Perez, on his first Saratoga mount, made it a winning one. He rode Sensible Lady to victory in the $100,000 Coronation Cup, another of the routinely-scheduled turf sprints, this one for 3-year-old fillies. The betting machines were locked shut a minute or two before they should have been by a NYRA steward who saw the gates open for a race from another track on TV. One last minute bettor, a horseplayer named Joe from Massachusetts, blustered, “Put this in your blog.” He was aggravated.
Lou Raffetto, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California and a person with 30 years experience of operating racetracks successfully in Maryland, New Jersey and Boston, was on the grounds, looking snappy. If the appointment of a new general manager for Saratoga was left up to fans, he’d be the selection.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Harvey Pack and Picnic Mats

aspradling — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:33:00 GMT

In the last several years before he retired from serving as emcee of the Daily Racing Form’s morning handicapping show at Siro’s, Harvey Pack used to retry old gems on pet topics.

Regarding The Jockey Club Round Table, Pack would say it’s the same old guys promising change and never delivering it. Pack’s hackneyed comment might not be true any longer.

Last year, reacting to a McKinsey and Company report that encouraged The Jockey Club to become active promoting the sport to young people, the old guys funded America’s Best Racing and, in turn, America’s Best Racing came up with a website─followhorseracing.com.

This year, on Sunday, in support of its interest in curtailing the use of race-day medications, The Jockey Club invited Travis T. Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, to further that agenda.

Racing fans that arrived at the admissions gate after the third race found that vouchers for the picnic mat giveaway were gone already. Those that stayed for the horse racing were nevertheless entertained.

Picnic mat giveaways made for good ground cover from the mud that's replaced the lawn in the backyard now.
Photo by Vic Zast

When the gate crew had to push 23-1 longshot Alykela back end first into the starting gate, her owners must have just about given up hope entirely. To restore the faith, the young apprentice Wilmer Garcia, relying on a ten pound break in the weights, rode the 5-year-old mare into the lead with a quarter mile to go and kept her there. Alykela paid $48.60.

Only two races were kept on the yielding turf─the seventh and eighth. First, Kitten’s Dumplings, a bay 2-year-old filly by Kitten’s Joy, won a 1 1/16 mile test on the Mellon Course. Then, Tapit Dancer, a gray 4-year-old daughter of Tapit, won a race of similar length on the inner course.

As for the features, the Todd Pletcher-trainer Kauai Katie ran the first quarter of the 96th running of the $200,000 Adirondack Stakes (gr. II) for 2-year-old fillies in a little over 21 seconds. She stepped the next quarter mile in a little less than 24 seconds. That was all for any other horse that challenged her.

A slight fever kept the morning line favorite Shanghai Bobby from the Saratoga Special (gr. II). Spurious Precision, a son of High Cotton trained by Rick Violette, whistled home like a Lawrence Welk Show performer. It was the 107th running of the fixture.

NYRA management gave the public two more reasons to believe that they didn’t care about customers. Both the Special and the Adirondack were run after 6:15 p.m., breaking well into the finals of the Whitney Cup polo tournament and the cocktail hour.

After being scratched from a race on Saturday because of the sloppy track, the 2-year-old Archwarrior worked five furlongs in company with the Travers Stakes (gr. I) winner Stay Thirsty at the Oklahoma training track on Sunday and beat him, getting the distance in 1:01.47 compared with 1:01.69 for his older stablemate.
Fasig-Tipton’s New York Bred Preferred Yearlings sale concluded with impressive advances.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Weiner and Fourstardog Champion

aspradling — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:34:00 GMT

Three of Saratoga’s best five hot dogs are found on or near the racecourse grounds. The other two are only a short drive away – one to the west of the racecourse at the end of Nelson Avenue and the other in the opposite direction where East Avenue turns into Excelsior.

PJ’s Barbecue, now called Bar-B-QSA, abandoned most things Buffalo, N.Y. in its conversion to a national franchise business. But the char-broiled hot dogs, made with premium pork and beef Sahlen’s wieners, are not among the casualties.

Saratoga Awesome Dogs, established in a roach coach in a parking lot, uses Sabrett’s all-beef wieners and smokes them. The main selling-point for these is the meat sauce.

A mountain of meat greets hungry patrons at Saratoga Awesome Dogs.
Photo by Vic Zast

At the racecourse, Christopher Lally of Rexford, NY swears by the boiled $2.00 Sabrett’s hot dog with sauerkraut that’s sold in the backyard. In the days before Shake Shack, many NYRA executives would stroll to the Trackside stand located just outside the Clubhouse gates during lunch hour for a sweet-tasting, all-beef dog that slides off a roller. But now that there’s Shake Shack, it’s tough for any hot dog to compete with the Shack-cago Dog.

Liz Olson of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. presents Shake Shack's Fourstardog champion hot dog.
Photo by Vic Zast

While not technically a Chicago-style hot dog, a Shack-cago Dog is a treat that’s been “dragged through the garden” like the dog that inspired it. This all-beef frank has been grilled instead of steamed and does not rest in a poppyseed bun. Yet, it has the requisite pickle relish, dill spears, diced tomatoes, mustard, sport peppers and celery salt, and that’s all any Chicagoan would want.

Wise Dan is a hot dog of a horse. Saturday, he took the $500,000 Fourstardave (gr. II) as if there was nothing to it. The course was yielding for the grassy mile and he had Get Stormy, previously four for six at the Spa, to beat. But Mort Fink’s son of Wiseman’s Ferry presented Hall of Fame rider John R. Velazquez with a convincing five-length triumph. Because NBC Sports couldn’t air the stakes at its usual time because of the Olympics, NYRA scheduled the Fourstardave at 6:45 p.m.

It was a day of many disappointments, with bad fields, few close finishes and no turf racing but for the Fourstardave. Majestic Hussar won a maiden 2-year-old sprint that was supposed to unveil Archwarrior, a runner that was burning up the mornings for Todd Pletcher. But he scratched. Air Squadron, a late-running, long-striding colt by Curlin that finished a troubled fourth, is worth keeping an eye on.

Ron Turcotte, a Hall of Fame jockey that rode Secretariat and Northern Dancer, was on hand to sign autographs and sell Secretariat memorabilia. “Big Red” won the Triple Crown nearly 40 years ago and his memory still draws a crowd.

Secretariat memorabilia still popular after all the years.
Photo by Vic Zast

The National Museum of Dance held its Song and Dance Gala. Ben Vereen became an inductee of the Museum’s C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame.

At SPAC, the Philadelphia Orchestra played the score to Wizard of Oz while the film played on screens overhead. Wizard of Oz was first screened in 1939.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Hall of Fame Day

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:38:00 GMT

As has been customary the last several seasons, a standing room only audience gathered in Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney pavilion for the Hall of Fall induction ceremony on Friday morning. Sam the Bugler, wearing an outfit that was not what you’d expect─his red coachman’s coat and top hat─but a black polo shirt with the uneven tails out of his ballooning white pants, called the participants to post at 10:30 a.m.

Race caller Tom Durkin wrote an eloquent overture and delivered it well. The Selection Committee chairman Ed Bowen introduced 16 trainers and jockeys who had been inducted to the Hall in prior years. With each introduction, the applause for each person grew longer and longer until, by the last of the introductions, the applause lasted longer than their biographies─in need of a trim themselves.

If you were looking for poignancy, there wasn’t much in the inductees’ speeches. Trainer Roger Attfield raised the issue of a “few bad apples in the fresh basket.” Role model, family man, benefactor, industry leader, and jockey John R. Velazquez, saved for last on the program, became choked up and couldn’t talk. Coaxed back to the lectern several times by applause, Velazquez gave thanks to a long list of relatives, friends, and mentors.

Otherwise, the entire hour and 30 minutes had an easy way about it. D. Wayne Lukas in aviator sunglasses despite the cloud cover, Leona Velazquez rushing up to the stage to stand by her man when she saw he was overcome with emotion, Velazquez’s mother wiping away tears as her son talked about how she wished that he wouldn’t leave Puerto Rico to become a jockey, the chic ensembles of Cheryl and Barry Schwartz, the noblesse oblige of John Hendrickson selecting a seat in the back of the taxed auditorium, even though he could have insisted on being up front─these were the highlights for people watchers.

Photographers swing into action to capture history at Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Leona Velazquez became an endearing figure when she came to the side of her man in a moment of need.

Rain made the races mad dashes, even at the longer distances. Almost every horse that gained the lead from or near the start couldn’t be caught. Favorites won the second, third, seventh, eighth, and 10th races in that manner. Turf racing was scrapped.

Horseplayers who wagered on the 6-5 favorite Csaba in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (gr. II) were worried that he wouldn’t get the 1 1/8 mile distance. Well, the sloppy conditions allowed the son of Kitten’s Joy to get most of it. Even with his lineage, it is doubtful that grass would have advanced him.

Quick Wit, by Sharp Humor, obviously liked the change of surface. Quick Wit won by a head bob after a stretch duel with Csaba.

The appropriately named Regal Strike won the third race─”The Spa Welcomes Mo” purse. Mo is New York Yankee Mariano Rivera, the king of relief pitchers and a certain future member of Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

New York, New York

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:24:00 GMT

One of the meet’s best innovations has been having jockeys sign autographs and pose for photos on Thursday mornings at breakfast on the Clubhouse Porch. Considering the good that the program serves all people involved, you would hope that NYRA could figure out how to get it in an extra day or two a week.

“We’ll do even better when more people learn about it,” said Stephen Travers, Vice President and Director of Hospitality and Guest Services. Pointing to the people waiting their opportunity to meet Julien Leparoux and John R. Velazquez, Travers said, “They’re as excited as the people in line for an autograph in the afternoon.”

Jockeys John R. Velazquez and Julien Leparoux signing autographs at breakfast.

A jockey is a celebrity in these parts. Edgar Prado, Javier Castellano and Irad Ortiz, Jr. participated in the new breakfast program earlier this meet. Velazquez is legendary for engaging the public. Wait until Friday morning when the Museum of Racing inducts him into the Hall of Fame. The walls of Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney pavilion will come down in a torrent of applause.

On Monday evening, Velazquez and a dozen jockeys will perform karaoke at the Vapor Night Club to raise money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. If journeyman jockey Dean Mernagh comes to lend his support, as he has in the previous two years, guests will hear a rendition of “New York, New York” that’s the equal of Sinatra’s.

New York, New York is a recurring theme. The Fasig-Tipton barns are filling up with New York-bred yearlings for the upcoming auction. “We’ve got 18 to sell,” said Craig Bandoroff of Denali Stud, whose outfit sold the second highest priced horse at the first night of the recently-concluded Selected Sale.

Another New York Stallion Series stakes, called the Statue of Liberty, was run. A lot of horseplayers expected that I Bet Toni Knows, a 3-year-old bay filly by Sunriver that had won three of her six career starts, would win. But she reared in the gate and hurt herself and became a last second scratch. My Jopia gave jockey Ramon Dominguez his fourth winner on the card in a four-horse photo.

The irrepressible Wilmer Garcia struck again with a longshot. Somebody had better start taking him seriously and begin to give him good horses to ride. The bug boy piloted the 29-1 shot Warrior Up to victory in the 10th race. With a $40 wager on Warrior Up, Emad Himaya of Lindenhurst, NY jumped into the lead and captured the $100,000 grand prize in the “Battle of Saratoga” handicapping contest─lots of moolah for picking horses.

New York was passed over as a host for the 2013 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. But it’s only a matter of time before New York Racing Association stops giving the selection committee excuses for not placing the event at Belmont Park.

Horsemen have made 106 claims during the meet. The casino revenue-enhanced purses are driving the frenzy.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Fashion on Parade

aspradling — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:25:00 GMT

Mechanicville, N.Y. has 5,000 residents. One in 10 attended Ray Price’s 15th annual “Stakes at Saratoga” party in the backyard of Saratoga Racecourse.

“I started with 10 people,” Price explained. “By the third year I had enough people coming that I began to make tee-shirts.”

Tee-shirts commemorating Ray Price's party hang between trees in the backyard.
Photo by Vic Zast

All 13 tee-shirts hung on a clothesline strung between trees, over tubs of beer and soda and near the food tent as you enter the track on Union Avenue.

“Everyone from Mechanicville is here,” said Susan Bolesky of─well, of Mechanicville.

Susan Bolesky of Mechnicville, NY models this year's tee-shirt.
Photo by Vic Zast

A ticket to the party costs $60 and that includes drink, food, admission and a share of a betting pool managed by Price and some horseplayer buddies. The food ranges from steak to ziti to pasta fagioli to greens and beans. By the end of the eighth race, the amount in the betting pool stood at $8,000.

Price’s party is organized to such a degree that you’d want him to be the track’s new general manager. Attendance has increased each year as word of mouth promotes the event. “We love him. He makes coming to the track a ball,” said a guest who’s been coming to the parties for four years. “I won’t miss one,” he declared, even though he played hooky from work to attend.

Fashion was on parade at the racecourse in more forms than tee-shirts. Avram Freedberg, whose 6-year-old gelding Jess Not Jesse won the second race, wore a sport shirt made to look like the silks that his jockey wore, only 10 sizes larger. The artist Frankie Flores sported a vest with a dynamic blue horse’s head on the back.

Saratoga Springs artist Frankie Flores keeps up with the fashion parade.
Photo by Vic Zast

Even the undefeated champion My Miss Aurelia had her mane up in braids. Give credit to jockey Julien Leparoux for keeping his cool despite the 88-degree heat and having My Miss Aurelia stumble while leaving the starting gate. Leparoux relaxed the 1-5 favorite, let her settle into last place, swing four wide and then run on her own through the lane. The heady ride put the talented filly on top at the end of the 6 1/2 furlong, $100,000 Mandys Gold Stakes.

“Serve notice here, the champ’s back,” announcer Tom Durkin said when the Eclipse Award and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) winner crossed the finish line. Still, My Miss Aurelia looked tired, with her head down as she walked past a couple dozen fans on the rail en route to her stall at Oklahoma after getting her picture taken.

Maureen O’Brien, the wife of a sportswriter, wagered on Sportswriter to win the $100,000 New York Stallion Series Stakes. And he did, defeating the odds-on King Kreesa. That’s how you take home money.

Away from the racecourse, Planned Parenthood held its annual “Race for Choice” fundraising luncheon at Union Gables.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.

Time and Hope

aspradling — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:34:00 GMT

The media took about a nanosecond to realize that both trainer Roger Attfield and jockey John Velazquez, who teamed up to win Monday’s feature race with Kissable, were about to enter the Hall of Fame on Friday. Attfield sent Kissable down from Woodbine for the 1 ½-mile, $100,000 Richmor Aviation Waya Stakes. He proved to be more than a man with a mission by hiring a rider who was rolling along at a 25% winning clip.

Eighteen-year-old Dylan Davis, the son of former New York circuit jockey Robbie Davis, took a bit longer than a nanosecond on Monday to ride in his first professional horse race. As a matter of fact, the recent Saratoga Springs High School graduate waited three races─two in which his mounts scratched and the other in which he didn’t have a mount─before getting the leg up on Black Rhino from trainer Wesley Ward.

Dylan Davis being congratulated for first ride prior to finishing fourth.
Photo by Vic Zast

Hope, the virtue on which horse racing is based, laced the walking ring as Davis entered it. But the boy rode like a man in need of a race. Black Rhino finished fourth. By the way, how good was it of Ward to entrust Davis with a horse with a 5-2 chance? Time passed quickly for most fans as the Saratoga card unfolded with even more excitement following that.

Over the Counter nipped Laguna Girl by a nose and Laguna Girl nipped My Kinda Party by 1 1/4 lengths in the fifth. In the sixth, four horses ran four across for the last 200 yards until two horses separated themselves by a neck from the two others. Just for Today, ridden by Joel Rosario, took a pose for the winner’s circle photo. In the seventh race, Lucci the Lion held off Maintainer in a nail-biter. Maintainer is by a sire─Wildcat Heir─that wins at a rate of 21% with 2-year-old first-time starters.

The first evening of the two-night Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling sale drew gasps, but not as many as the auctioneers expected. More cocktails than yearlings were sold. Revenues were off about 20%. President and CEO of Fasig-Tipton Boyd Browning said sales would go better on the second night. They bounced back so high that the two sessions combined became nearly a match for last summer’s auction.

The sales for many people are another occasion to party in Saratoga.
Photo by Vic Zast

The Tuesday morning Saratogian reported that the racetrack is down in attendance. A few promotions planned for the week ought to remedy that, but don’t count on it. The citadel of New York horse racing needs an overhaul, a shorter season and trustworthy management.

Mariano Rivera, the New York Yankee relief pitcher, is visiting on Friday. Some sort of picnic mat will serve as a giveaway on Sunday.
The pink and white striped party tent went up next to the swimming pool in Peggy Steinman’s backyard. “Ted” continues its run at the Malta Drive-In.

Vic Zast is the author of The History and Art of 25 Travers. He has attended the races at Saratoga for 47 straight summers.