Hopeful Stakes winner leaves three opponents hopeless.
Free tee-shirts inflate racecourse attendance as wedding bells ring at the polo grounds.
An excellent card takes the meet into waning days.
Jockeys aren't measured by how large or heavy they are, but by how well they ride.
The long meet is getting to horseplayers, ball players and pranksters.
Speed was the key for handicappers, but fans have their own ways of picking winners.
A dressage demonstration, golf tournament and the racing results hit the retirement theme hard.
The image of Kantharos winning at Saratoga won't go away soon.
A lottery for Travers picnic tables eliminates the running of the fans.
Some return winners at the Spa tested horseplayers' memories.
Perfect behavior by stakes-winning horses; not so for bad-driving humans.
Horseplayers expected the Whitney to be highway robbery with Quality Road the 1-2 favorite, but Blame won in a street fight.
An international cast of characters converges in the small New York town as the yearlings disappear from the auction grounds.
Business was down but the good weather held steady as a son of Mineshaft burned up the track and The Sheikh took his treasure in horses.
Charlie Zast was there to see Fasig-Tipton opens its new sales pavilion.
Impersonations by a guy playing Elvis and one dressed like Hulk Hogan belied the authenticity of the Saratoga experience.
Low attendance continued to plague the racetrack as the day's most interesting things happened away from it - a town hall meeting, a toast to an unsung hero and a basketball game.
Embarrassed to enter the hat contest, an elegantly dressed owner from Louisville got to hold her head up high when Maybesomaybenot won the Sanford.
The reigning Horse of the Year, although racing at Monmouth Park, became an attraction for fans that remained once the feature was done.
Thomas Allen Pauly's love for painting subjects of Thoroughbred racing was developed somewhat like the intricate portraits he produces from his Chicago-area studio: layer by layer.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
When the owner of a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., gallery learned that a visitor thought a poster commemorating the 1985 Travers Stakes didn't serve the gallery or the race proper respect, the owner challenged the visitor to create something finer.
Monday, July 21, 2008By Vic Zast - Despite their abiding love for sumo wrestling, karaoke, pachinko, and baseball, the celebrants of bounty descended upon Tokyo Race Course, home of the world's third-richest horse race -- the Japan Cup (Jpn-I). Standing a foot taller in a shirt size I can't buy at the souvenir stands, and realizing I know nothing about which horses to bet on or how to even bet them, I am feeling like a gaijin among insiders.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006Ten races on Labor Day concluded the 35 days of Saratoga racing, and it was the kind of high quality card that racing secretary P. J. Campo should have been producing all along.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006Saratoga pulled out the old "give 'em a fleece blanket" promotion, and 66,311 people turned out – or, at least, they paid $3 to go through the turnstiles. The funny part is that many of the souvenir buyers stayed, and how lucky they were as a result. The seventh, eighth, and ninth races were something to witness.
Monday, September 04, 2006Saratoga pulled out the old "give 'em a fleece blanket" promotion, and 66,311 people turned out – or, at least, they paid $3 to go through the turnstiles. The funny part is that many of the souvenir buyers stayed, and how lucky they were as a result. The seventh, eighth, and ninth races were something to witness.
Monday, September 04, 2006Tracy Farmer's dark bay colt by Charismatic has amassed more than $2 million on the racetrack, but even as the 2-1 favorite, he could only finish third in The Woodward (gr. I) on Saturday.
Sunday, September 03, 2006In true Saratoga tradition, "Happy Hour" prices went into effect at 5 p.m. There were price reductions on hot dogs and fries and whiskey and beer. But, other than that, it was another day of trying to pick winners – alas, only three more days of that.
Saturday, September 02, 2006The exodus of August-only residents has begun. And familiar faces in the clubhouse boxes are rare.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006On Sunday, Saratoga ran its Ballerina Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. I) for fillies and mares. But it was the woman known as the "Sticker Nazi," tip-toeing through the lower regions of the clubhouse, who riveted the fans' attention.
Sunday, August 27, 2006The 85-year-old "white cap" - which is the term by which red-vested ushers such as Jake Schmidt used to be called - has handled this assignment for several years now. And what he likes best about it is that he gets to be on television so his grandsons in California can see him.
Sunday, August 27, 2006Some mighty good horses gave race-goers who played hooky from work on Friday a taste of what's upcoming on Travers Day. On yet another perfect late summer afternoon - temps in the high 70s and no humidity - Saratoga Race Course lived up to its old slogan, "the August place to be."
Saturday, August 26, 2006And speaking of stamina, nobody is certain of how far Discreet Cat – a son of Forestry – can run, yet everyone who saw him win the third race was asking why he wasn't entered in the Travers.
Saturday, August 26, 2006The steeplechase set has a different look than the flat racing crowd. The men wear Gucci loafers with d-bits and seersucker suits with striped ties, and the women have Pucci dresses with retro patterns and hairdos that look like the hats that Bonaparte wore.
Friday, August 25, 2006One more scrambled eggs and bacon meal is not what the doctor's ordered, but, then, hey, it is Saratoga and the "vittles" were there to be gobbled up.
Thursday, August 24, 2006Monday signaled the start of Travers week and two of the season's grandest galas. On Thursday, the New York Racing Association will host its annual event to benefit B.E.A.T (Backstretch Employees Assistance Team), and on the evening preceding that, Wednesday, the annual Belmont Child Care Association (Anna House) benefit will be held at the Gideon Putnam.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006Richie Migliore, who has been uncharacteristically non-productive at the Spa this season, rode two winners on the card Sunday. But the Mig's two-bagger was not the best riding performance of the afternoon.
Monday, August 21, 2006The classy black silks with cherry red cap of the Phipps Stable flooded under the finish line first in the Alabama Stakes on Saturday. And with the presentation of the trophy to family members in the winner's circle - beneath cloudy skies befitting the politics surrounding the racetrack - memories of the Vanderbilts, Mellons, duPonts, and Whitneys came rushing to the surface.
Sunday, August 20, 2006When it comes to decor, Gotchya's is to classy as Martha is to chaos. It's a noisy joint -- owing to the tight quarters and bare floors -- and cheesy, with black and white photos of Al Capone and the Rat Pack looking down at you from the walls as you dine.
Saturday, August 19, 2006On Wednesday, jockey Chantal Sutherland rode the mechanical horse at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Her turn on the horse race simulator was Sutherland's first ride of three on the day, the second of which was a fill-in for Rudy Rodriquez and the third, a longshot in the ninth that she booted home 11th.
Thursday, August 17, 2006Saratoga's first three weeks were marked by muggy hot weather followed by splendid cool days and nights, a card cancellation, upsets, an onslaught of New York-bred races, declining attendance, numerous mishaps at the starting gate, and soap opera politics. Will the next 18 days be as rocky as the past 17 days?
Tuesday, August 15, 2006Galas like this don't exist in many parts of the country, but - in Saratoga - they make a Saturday betting horses a battle with fatigue. 'Hung over in Saratoga' is redundant.
Sunday, August 13, 2006Twenty years between winners for a trainer is a long time. But that's about how long it's taken Saratoga Springs home-owner Roger Laurin, the trainer of the first-ever Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) champion Chief's Crown, to get back to work.
Saturday, August 12, 2006Charlie Hayward, the racetrack's president, credits Bill Nader, his newly-promoted chief operating officer, with coming up with the "Grand Slam." Nader pushed for the innovative bet hoping that it would give horseplayers a tantalizing way to wager on several races.
Friday, August 11, 2006Life in Saratoga changes when the yearlings are in town. The horses drive the bats out of the barns that have been their homes for nearly 11 months, and sales of tennis rackets soar, since they are the most effective weapons for shoo-ing the night-flying pests from the attic.
Thursday, August 10, 2006"There is no crying in horse racing" - at least, there's not supposed to be. But at the induction ceremony for new members of the Racing Hall of Fame on Monday, tears seemed a requirement.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006How did the New York Racing Association choose the name Cab Calloway for one of the divisions of its Saratoga stakes for New York stallion-sired horses?
Monday, August 07, 2006Whatever the reason, they missed the full effect of a perfectly delightful day. Racing doesn't get much better than the product put forth at Saratoga on Saturday.
Sunday, August 06, 2006Ever since 1777, when General Kosciuszko of Poland held the British back from advancing in the Battle of Saratoga, visitors to this city of 35,000 people have been welcome. Friday night rock 'n roll offers one of the many reasons why they're drawn.
Saturday, August 05, 2006Jack Wolf was looking forward to the first running of the Ashado Stakes. He believed all along that if any track was to have a race named after his Eclipse Award winner, it should be Saratoga Racecourse or Belmont Park, the scenes of some of his filly's biggest triumphs.
Thursday, August 03, 2006In any regard, despite a mid-afternoon downpour that disrupted the turf action on some of the scheduled events and made the main track sloppy, racing returned to the Spa at the level we've all come to expect.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
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