Friday, August 01 2008

Saratoga Race Course to Commemorate 140th Season of Racing with Day-Long Celebration at the Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saratoga Race Course will celebrate the history, culture and tradition of thoroughbred racing at the Spa with a day-long special event in honor of Saratoga’s 140th meeting, Saturday, August 9.

“Tradition Turns 140” will highlight nearly a century and a half worth of history which has earned Saratoga Race Course the title of one of the nation’s top ten sports venues.

“THE FRANCHISE HORSE” RETURNS TO SPA IN THE TEST

When they talk about Indian Blessing around trainer Bob Baffert’s barn, they don’t always call the Eclipse award-winning filly by name.

Sometimes they simply call her “The Franchise Horse.”

“She has been a blessing,” said Baffert of Indian Blessing, who heads a field of six for Saturday’s 83rd running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Test for three-year-old fillies. “She’s been so good to us all along. Around the barn she’s a real sweetheart, but when she gets on the track she has that competitive edge.”

Thursday, July 31 2008

VON HEMEL TAKES ANOTHER STAB AT HONORABLE MISS

Last summer, trainer Kelly Von Hemel ran his first horse at Saratoga Race Course.

Naturally, the Spa’s history and standing as racing’s premier meet was not lost on Von Hemel, who is based at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, located about five miles from Des Moines. When he ran fourth in the Honorable Miss with Miss Macy Sue, Von Hemel knew he would love to come back for another chance at the Spa.

SARATOGA NOTES, JULY 30, 2008

Today’s ninth race is the $80,000 Fleet Indian Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at seven furlongs, and for the second year, it will herald the presentation of the Fleet Indian Scholarship.

Named for the Todd Pletcher-trained New York-bred champion who won eight straight races, including Saratoga’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign and Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Beldame in 2006, the scholarship was founded by Fleet Indian’s owner, Paul Saylor, to help New York students hoping to pursue a career in the Thoroughbred racing industry.

Tuesday, July 29 2008

BROWN’S EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE PAYING OFF AT SARATOGA

Chad Brown’s dreams of being a successful trainer and a hometown hero may finally be coming true at Saratoga Race Course.

The 29-year-old Brown, a native of nearby Mechanicville, won the first race of the 140th Saratoga season last Wednesday with Star Player. Two days later, in his third start of the meet, Brown won with Midtown Bullet.

“I’m not surprised that we are winning races; I am surprised that it is happening this fast,” said Brown. “We had planned all spring to run horses at Saratoga. Everything has fallen into place. You also need a little bit of luck, and we’ve had that.”

SARATOGA MEETING ON THE IMPROVE AFTER SOGGY START

Business through the first week of the 2008 meet at Saratoga Race Course, while trending down from the record on-track handle posted in 2007, is improving after unrelenting and torrential rain on Opening Day Wednesday and Thursday, according to the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA).

Attendance is off 25.7 percent, on-track handle down 12.6 percent, and total all-sources handle declined 13.7 percent compared to 2007 opening week figures.

AT 85, HERNANDEZ TURNS BACK THE CLOCK AT SARATOGA

Question: Who is the oldest active trainer on the New York Racing Association circuit who has been saddling winners at Saratoga Race Course since 1991?

A. H. Allen Jerkens

B. Frank “Pancho” Martin

C. Ramon “Mike” Hernandez

AMSTERDAM RECAP

Vinery Stables and Fox Hill Farm’s Kodiak Kowboy needed the entire length of the stretch, but finally caught front-running Desert Key to win Monday afternoon’s 16th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Amsterdam for three-year-olds at six and a half furlongs at Saratoga Race Course by a head.

It was the second career Spa win in as many starts for Kodiak Kowboy, a Posse colt who won the Saratoga Special at this distance as a two-year-old here last year.

SARATOGA NOTES, Monday, July 28, 2008

With owner Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, looking on, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin worked five furlongs in 1:03.99 over the Oklahoma training track this morning under exercise rider Carmen Rosas.

“He’s such a tremendous horse,” said trainer Steve Asmussen of Curlin, who finished second to Red Rocks in his first test on the turf July 12 in the Grade 1 Man o’War at Belmont Park in his last start. “The remarkable thing about him is, when you watch him come back, you can’t tell whether he’s jogged, galloped or breezed. He’s got an air about him, he sure does.”

Monday, July 28 2008

DESORMEAUX GETS 5,000 ON A RAINY SARATOGA AFTERNOON

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux reached a historic milestone at Saratoga Race Course on Sunday afternoon when he guided Gumpster Stables’ Bella Attrice to win the seventh race and notch his 5,000th career victory.

“Last week, I was thinking it was just another number, but I got to dwell upon it and to think about it all week,” said Desormeaux, who had reached win No. 4,999 here on Opening Day, July 23. “I’m in awe of the number. Five thousand, WOW! It’s a long way from 10,000 (Russell Baze, all-time leading rider). Those numbers were attained in California and New York, the “A” league, so I am proud of that.”

`MACHO’ COMES UP MUCHO IN JIM DANDY

West Point Thoroughbreds’ Macho Again ended a two-race losing skid and stamped himself as a major player this summer, holding off favored Pyro by a half-length to win the 45th running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy for three-year-olds at nine furlongs on Sunday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course.

The Macho Uno colt will now point for the meet’s biggest race, the 139th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Travers presented by Shadwell Farm on Saturday, August 23. The last three Jim Dandy winners – Street Sense (2007), Bernardini (2006) and Flower Alley (2005) – went on to win the Travers, the 1 ¼-mile “Mid-Summer Derby” that is the nation’s oldest stakes race for three-year-olds.

SARATOGA NOTES, Sunday, July 27, 2008

Saturday’s Whitney Day card produced a total handle of $25,017,332, the third-highest, non-Travers Day total in Saratoga Race Course history.

Additionally, the $500,000 guaranteed all-stakes Pick 4 resulted in a total pool of $734,523.

* * *

Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito gave every credit to Commentator after the 7-year-old gelding won his second Grade 1 Whitney Handicap by 4 ¾ lengths over Student Council and Grasshopper. Zito was thrilled that the New York-bred, owned by Tracy Farmer, can now be counted alongside multiple Whitney winner Kelso.