In 1867, the six-day summer meeting at Saratoga Race Course began on Aug. 7. The New York Times offered a glowing preview, praising the beauty of the women in attendance, the “unclouded brilliancy” of the sun, and the condition of the racing surface. That fourth season of racing in Saratoga, The Times claimed, “promises to…
This Friday at Saratoga Race Course will see the last of the 13 stakes races carded this summer for horses bred or sired in New York. Saratoga Showcase Day was added to the racing calendar in 2014 and scheduled for Travers weekend, increasing the visibility of the state’s breeding program on the biggest racing weekend…
Seven years ago, the New York State Gaming Commission undertook a daunting mission: to locate every New York-bred Thoroughbred that raced between 2010 and 2012 and didn’t race after 2012. A year later, in 2016, the Commission released its findings. The number of horses that fit the criteria was 3,894. The Commission was able to…
By most measures, Lee Einsidler lives an enviable life. The grandson of a man who ran a speakeasy during prohibition, he worked in his father’s liquor store, then rose to the top of the liquor distribution business, first as the CEO of Sidney Frank Importing Company, which created and launched Grey Goose vodka, and now…
Following the monumental success of the Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale earlier this week, a sale that saw gains in gross sales and in average and median sales price, and at which 14 horses sold for more than $1 million, a record for this sale, attention will now turn to the company’s sale of preferred New…
Paula Curtis-Carter stood in front of the dozens of people assembled at the Principessa Elena Society in Saratoga Springs on Thursday. She held aloft a cup containing a couple of fingers of Guinness, preparing to lead a toast to her husband Allan Carter, who died in April. Before spending 15 years as the historian at…
Michelle Borisenok may have raised a few eyebrows with her comments at a conference for new and existing racehorse owners last week. “It’s not so much about winning,” she said of Brown Road Racing, a partnership that she founded in 2018. “For us, it’s about education and it’s about the experience.” A week later, talking…
“Improbable” would be a generous way to describe Robin Sparkles’ route to the winner’s circle for a graded stakes race at Saratoga Race Course. Her dam, My Sparky, was modestly successful, winning five races from 17 starts and earning $147,000. In 2014, My Sparky was sold at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale, a sale…
During the more than 20 years that Leroy Clement worked for the New York Racing Association, his family didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him in the summer, when his security job moved from the New York metropolitan area to Saratoga Springs. His wife Sonia worked as a nurse in New York…
On Tuesday morning at around 10:15 a.m., the main track at Saratoga Race Course had closed for training, and the tractors were out to groom the surface. Pretty much business as usual. Except for the half-dozen jockeys, in street clothes and safety vests, hanging around the track’s first turn, ready to ride horses whose names…
You know that feeling when your phone storage is getting low, and you realize you have 10,000 photos on it, and you keep avoiding going through them to figure out which ones you should keep? Multiply that by 250, and you’ll have some idea of the daunting task that faced award-winning photographer Barbara Livingston when…
Carson Gambaro admits that the enormity of his new summer job may not have quite hit him yet. “I’m going to practice this lick over and over and over again,” he said recently, standing in the yard of his home on Saratoga Lake. A couple of weeks ago, Gambaro was a recent Syracuse University graduate…
When we launched our 2021 contest, it had been only five months since the 2020 edition had concluded. As we launch this year, we’re still not sure whether last year’s winner will remain the winner. As always in horse racing, there’s never a dull moment. When I launched this in 2009, we were able to…
Family connections and the power of pedigree fueled particularly sweet victories for the connections of City Man and Giacosa, winners of the turf events for older horses on New York-bred Showcase Day at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 27. The owners of both winners also raced their sires, millionaires whose bloodlines are infusing the New…
The winners of the Fleet Indian Stakes and the Albany Stakes at Saratoga Race Course are both lightly raced three-year-olds, but beyond that and their stakes wins on Aug. 27, the horses represent very different paths to New York-bred stakes success. Albany winner Americanrevolution boasts elite connections: bred by notable New York breeders Fred W.…
Brooklyn Backstretch 