Vic Zast Saratoga Diary : colonel john

Poster Boy

rmitchell — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:42:00 GMT

The artist Greg Montgomery is saying that this year's Travers poster is selling like gangbusters. Montgomery has produced a Travers poster every year since 1985, making his series the longest continuing series of sporting art in the world. When he began the series, he never expected the string to last this long. The first poster - a collection of famous racing silks - was meant to serve as a gift for people in attendance at the Travers Ball, that's all.

Well, in any case, this year's poster portrays Colonel John en route to the track for last year's Travers on the horse path to the west of the clubhouse. The path to the track didn't always run here. It used to proceed slightly east of where it's at, bringing the horses through the clubhouse. The path didn't have fences either. Security guards accompanied the runners to make certain they were safe from the crowds and vice versa.

There's a famous photo of the once-beaten Native Dancer making the walk to the track for the Travers surrounded by cops. The public record reveals that onlookers did all that they could to touch the "Grey Ghost," going so far as to pluck hairs from his tail. Tales like this are what prompt zealous officials to react with unnecessary precaution. It would surprise nobody if some NYRA do-gooder would do badly by suggesting removal of the path that brings horses to the walking ring. After all, think of how many more picnic tables you could squeeze in then.

Eoin Harty says he'd like nothing more than to have his WinStar Travers winner take Montgomery's depicted poster path again this summer. If that would happen, it would be for the $500,000 Grade I Woodward on September 5. That's one of the five races under consideration for Rachel Alexandra. Jess Jackson's fabulous 3-year-old filly is working diligently in preparation for something. If that something's the Pennsylvania Derby, the Spa faithful will be greatly disillusioned.

Thursday's stakes race was the New York Stallion Statue of Liberty Division Stakes, the filly counterpart to Wednesday's Cab Calloway for colts. Ramon Dominguez, riding of late as well as humanly possible, kept the 2-1 Mother Russia from giving in to the onrushing Es Mia. Linda Rice trained the winner. Nearly 50 head jammed the winner's circle.

In the first race steeplechase, Dynaski trained by Thomas Voss for Armata Stable, is now three for five over jumps despite hurdling the last fence clumsily. The Giant's Causeway gelding Arcadius came in second, denying his rider's chances for staying undefeated in Saratoga races. That jockey, of course, was Danielle Hodsdon.

Cot Campbell's Dogwood Stable unveiled another top 2-year-old in the second. The 9-1 winner, a filly by Lion Heart, was Calvin Borel's first and only triumphant ride of the meet. Two races later, D. Wayne Lukas hit with another longshot.

Dream Day Afternoon

Blood-Horse Staff — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Gov. David Paterson of New York is ordinarily a pretty good public speaker. But standing in front of the television cameras following Colonel John’s slimmest of Travers victories, Paterson talked too much and said little, and, in fact, got his geography wrong.

New York is only the capital of Thoroughbred racing in August, and only on days like Saturday when the sport shines as brightly as the gold on the Man ‘O War cup, does the State deserve praise such as this. The owners of WinStar Farm will return to Kentucky shortly, and with them, goes unmatchable glory. Tomorrow, NYRA officials will still be looking to New York for bankruptcy relief, a new racing bill, solutions to problems with OTB and the choice of a group to operate the Aqueduct racino.

None of these issues, however, was on anyone’s mind Saturday. There was too much sensory stimulation from other sources to confuse the situation with politics. Travers Day was without this year’s box office 3-year-old, but it had 12 other worthy actors in the $1 million feature, and 12 races overall that every track’s general manager would die for.

As for the 139th Travers, just as everyone in the crowd of 40,723 delirious fans, shocked by the splendor and excitement of a dream day afternoon, was prepared to accept Mambo in Seattle as the do-over for Grasshopper, Garrett Gomez, here on sabbatical from Del Mar, managed to lower the bay son of Tiznow’s nostril an inch in front of him, providing the most lasting surprise of all.

Favorites were beat in each of the last six races on the card, in addition to four of the first six races. The string of extraordinary payoffs began when Alan Garcia, successful in finding the winner’s circle with five of his mounts, rode 30-1 Missinglisalewis to victory. In recent days, there have been several superfectas to flirt with the $100,000.00 mark, and this one, the 14-8-2-5, hit for $89,625.00.

Then Channing Hill took Slambino past Blazing Dynamo in the seventh, and that’s when “lights out” became more than an expression. The tote board went dark for long pauses while the unfathomable calculations were being made.

Hill began Slambino’s frantic dash down the homestretch at the quarter pole, persisted down the middle of the track, and swerved toward the rail and to the left of the leader with 100 yards to go. When 30-1 Key Event came in third, it set up an astonishing superfecta, perhaps the biggest in history. The 14-13-8-3, combination paid $1,523,188.00.

In comparison, the 2-9 exacta in the Travers paid only $86.50. But anyone who witnessed the race should have paid $86.50 to the track for the privilege of being there.

The Real Colonel is Coming

rmitchell — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:07:00 GMT

It was bruited on the backstretch this morning that the “real Colonel” was coming. A few Winstar Farm folks and trainer Eoin Harty were waiting for Colonel John the horse to return from his leg-stretcher-outer when the news leaked. The Travers-intended colt seemed to be enjoying the cool of the morning. Thursday dawned briskly with Adirondack air the way the tourist pamphlets say it’s supposed to.

The “real Colonel,” reported Richard Downey, the crackerjack Kentucky Derby prognosticator, is a U.S. Army reserve lieutenant colonel named John Geider, a longtime friend of Winstar principles Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner. Geider is scheduled to arrive Friday, catch his namesake in the Travers on Saturday and head home to Kentucky on Sunday.

Geider served in Iraq a few years back, and serves now as a “traveling secretary” for the Winstar owners, tending to such tasks as keeping an eye out for trouble and making sure security is in place. He’s an advance man of sorts. And a really good one it seems. “The real Colonel” is a nice friend to have, with the need for security everywhere.

Saratoga’s backstretch is off limits to the public, although each morning 400 people who don’t belong there are there. Visitors arriving by trolley from the clubhouse are met by NYRA docents, and then escorted through the premises – first an introduction to a Thoroughbred, next a look at Clare Court, a short stroll through the barns and a few minutes to watch the workouts. There are five trolleys arriving each morning, and each trolley brings 80 people. If you count the people having the buffet breakfast on the Porch and the people brown-bagging it in the stands, Saratoga hosts more visitors before 10 a.m. than most racetracks host in an afternoon.

A small, but select, field of fillies and mares went postward on the Mellon Turf Course for the 20th running of the $200,000 Ballston Spa Handicap (gr. II). Wait a While, saddled by the meet’s leading trainer Todd Pletcher and ridden by the meet’s leading jockey J.R.Velasquez, beat Carriage Trail, a 10-1 shot, to the finish line. Given a luckier trip, the late-running Rutherienne might have caught them both.

By the way, Wait a While won the Ballston Spa last summer. The gray mare likes the going firm, which is how the two turf courses at Saratoga are playing now. Wait a While, winless since January 2008, was the Champion 3-year-old Filly of 2006, too. Pletcher told David Grening of the Daily Racing Form, “I think she’s as good as she’s ever been.”

In the fifth race, the combination of 6-3-9-8 paid $102,977.00 for a $2.00 wager. Saratoga’s electronic tote boards weren’t programmed to display all these gaudy numbers. So the payout appeared as 02,977.00.

Call Security to find that missing digit. Or wait a day for Colonel John Geider to get on it.