The Travers Celebration will feature an outdoor cocktail reception, dinner, dancing, silent fireworks and a silent auction in the “At the Rail” pavilion beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The celebration, which will honor last year’s Travers and Kentucky Derby winner, and his connections, is a major fundraiser for the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.) and the Double H Ranch for critically and chronically ill children. In its first seven years, the Travers Celebration has raised more than $700,000 for B.E.S.T., the Double H Ranch and other prominent local charities.
Vaynerchuk has earned national acclaim with his revolutionary online webcast, “The Thunder Show” on http://www.winelibrarytv.com. Known for his bold enthusiasm and vast knowledge, Vaynerchuk has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
Following his victory in last year’s Kentucky Derby, Street Sense ran second in the Preakness Stakes before sweeping the Jim Dandy and the Travers. The colt was the first horse to win both the Travers and Kentucky Derby since Thunder Gulch in 1995, and also broke the “Juvenile jinx” by becoming the first thoroughbred in history to capture the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Kentucky Derby.
Travers Celebration guests will have an opportunity to bid on an extensive selection of premier silent auction items, including an acoustic guitar autographed by music legends Willy Nelson, Trace Adkins, Merle Haggard, Billy Ray Cyrus, Howard Bellamy, and David Bellamy; a second guitar signed by Grammy Award-winning country music star Brad Paisley; a signed basketball from Nate Robinson, and a signed jersey from Stephon Marbury, both of the New York Knicks.
The Travers Celebration is co-chaired by Betsy Senior and Ed Lewi. Senior is co-owner of Senior & Shopmaker Gallery in Manhattan and wife of New York Racing Association (NYRA) President and CEO Charlie Hayward; Lewi is president of Ed Lewi Associates, a public relations firm in Clifton Park, NY.
The Travers Celebration is sponsored by NYRA, Centerplate, Grey Goose and Joseph Carr Wine.
The 139th edition of the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes presented by Shadwell Farm will be run on Saturday, August 23. Post time on Travers day is 12 Noon, gates open at 7 a.m.
The Travers is the centerpiece of a blockbuster day of racing at Saratoga that will also include the Grade 1, $250,000 NetJets King’s Bishop; the Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch H.; and the Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride..
For more information about Saratoga Race Course, call (518) 584 – 6200 or log onto http://www.nyra.com. For additional information about events at Saratoga Race Course, visit http://www.nyra.com/saratogaevents.
