Jockey Calvin Borel, winner of this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), and veteran trainer Rick Violette will be panel members for the Saratoga Preview program July 23 at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Other panelists for the annual event are New York Racing Association president and chief executive officer Charles E. Hayward, NYRA racing secretary P.J. Campo, and Kyle Brownell of the Glens Falls Post-Star, last year’s leading public handicapper at Saratoga Race Course.
Saratoga Preview begins at 7 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Gallery. The roundtable discussion typically involves a review of the previous season and a preview of the upcoming meeting at Saratoga. Free and open to the public, the program is driven by audience questions.
Mike Kane, the museum’s communications officer, will moderate the discussion.
Borel, 40, a respected veteran, gained national recognition in May with his Derby victory on Street Sense.
Street Sense has been off since finishing second in the Preakness (gr. I) and is being prepared for a summer and fall campaign likely to include a start in the Aug. 25 Travers (gr. I). The colt is scheduled to be shipped from Churchill Downs to Saratoga July 21.
Violette will have several top stakes horses in his barn at Saratoga, including Prioress (gr. I) winner Dream Rush, expected to be a leading contender in the grade I Test Aug. 4. Dream Rush and Tom Fool (gr. II) winner High Finance are owned by West Point Stable. High Finance is being pointed toward the grade I Forego on the final weekend of the Saratoga meeting.
After working as an assistant trainer, Violette opened his own stable in 1983. His leading stakes horses have included Read the Footnotes, Citadeed, Nijinsky’s Gold and Savedbythelight. Violette is former president of the National Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and recently was elected president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
Hayward was named NYRA’s president and CEO in November 2004. Campo was appointed NYRA’s racing secretary and handicapper before the 2005 Saratoga racing season.
