Vic Zast Saratoga Diary : Allan Garcia

Sara...toga...toga...toga

Blood-Horse Staff — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:36:00 GMT

Horses and courses, of the collegiate variety, coalesced at the Big Red Spring as Saratoga held its first-ever College Day. Karaoke began the proceedings prior to the first post at 2:30 pm. The karaoke was followed by Team Trivia and a 7 pm backyard concert. After the running of each race, the name of a lucky person was drawn for $1000 in scholarship money. Students of higher mathematics, meanwhile, focused on winning the Pick Six. The carryover began at $656,422.

In the race before the Pick Six began, two-year-old horses ran 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf course in the grade III With Anticipation Stakes, an obvious prep for one of those new Breeders’ Cup races that a lot of people think are unnecessary. The winner Interactif got a break when Strike the Tiger, previously victorious at Royal Ascot, scratched. On the other hand, it could have been the other way around. Jockey Kent Desormeaux said the Todd Pletcher trainee could be any sort of horse. The son of Broken Vow ran his race on a firm lawn in 1:41.41, reminding some of Big Brown on a September afternoon several years ago.

Horses easy to bet won the races that followed. Bettors who picked six winners correctly were paid $88,747. Three “Ginsburgs” – a term turf writer William Boniface of the Baltimore Sun coined for horses with alliterative names - triumphed in succession. Lovely Lil won the fourth by a mile. Classic Campaign took the fifth by a nostril. Gitchee Goomie beat stablemate In Te Domine to inch Linda Rice closer to Todd Pletcher in the trainer standings. Then Leamington prevailed in the Voodoo Dancer Stakes. It was a pretty nice roster of fillies and mares that she beat.

Allan Garcia rode four winners to none for Ramon Dominguez. Only three victories stand in his way now from being the class valedictorian. Dominguez finished second five times and third once, although that wasn’t good enough to put distance between him and the challenger.

There were no signs on campus that only three days of racing remained. Final grades for the summer semester aren’t official, but everyone knows what they’ll be. Saratoga will earn an “A” in attendance, deportment and effort. Gates open Saturday at 7:00 am so folks can find a spot to camp out on Rachel Alexandra’s day. The forecast is for uninterrupted sun.

John Walsh, the celebrated TV crime fighter, led his Vero Beach-based Shamrock Ranch polo team into competition at the C.V. Whitney field on the northwest side of town. The powerhouse Saratoga Springs H.S. Blue Streaks football squad took on LaSalle, its conqueror in last year’s Class II championship semi-final game. Fall is on the calendar, but summer lingers in the air like the aroma of corn on the cob roasting.

Out with the Up-and-Overs

cdawahare — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:09:00 GMT

By Vic Zast

Inclement weather is wreaking havoc with Saratoga. Yesterday, two men in tights from the New York City Ballet called off their trophy presentation to the winners of the third race because the rain would have ruined their costumes. Tonight, the trainers opted out of their softball game against the Saratoga Springs police force because the field was too waterlogged to play. Horseplayers are hating it.

Even the information booth outside of the main entrance is an island surrounded by a 15 foot moat. You have to shout your questions to the guy manning it from a distance or get your shins soaked. Capital OTB must be reaping a real bonanza. Who wants to sit in the mud with the rain falling down?

Obviously, some people do. A crowd of more than 10,000 people believed that the rain clouds would pass and by the third race they did. But the third race was the second and the second was the first - that's the kind of day it was. Nevertheless, almost $2 million was bet at the track. It would have been more had there not been only nine races to wager on.

NYRA cards a steeplechase race as the first race each Thursday. This Thursday, there was no "up-and-over" for anyone. The rain-soaked sod, although safe for the horses and jockeys, required relief from the beating it would take from the animal's sinking hooves.

"We're 30 feet off the rail, so we'd cause no damage to the regular course, and yes, it's very unusual to get called off," said William Gallo, director of racing for the National Steeplechase Association. "But we understand that NYRA must protect its turf courses. We're delighted to have the race rescheduled for next Wednesday," he said.

Rescheduling is what several horses that were entered but not raced on Thursday must do. In particular, it was a big disappointment to have three horses in the seven horse field for the 94^th Sanford Stakes (gr. 2) scratch. The $150,000 race for two-year-olds lost Notonthesamepage, its pre-race favorite. Desert Party, a $2.1 million yearling purchase by Darley, won. Desert Party has now triumphed on two tracks - one synthetic, one sloppy. Next, the Hopeful?

By the way, Notonthesamepage is trained by Wesley Ward and was going to be ridden by Elvis Trujillo. This duo appeared headed for a banner day with winners in the second (really the first) and fourth (really the third) races, and a close second in the sixth (really the fifth). They then finished last in the eighth (make that seventh) and second last in the tenth (make that ninth).

Prepping for the Travers, Visionaire, closing inside the leaders under Allan Garcia, won a sprint. Kent Desormeaux had three losing mounts. In the twilight of Friday, the Big Brown man should lift his 4,999 career win total to 5000.