Remembering Racing Historian Allan Carter

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…

Brown Road Racing And A Legacy of Women’s Leadership

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…

Robin Sparkles’ Improbable Trip To A Graded Stakes Win

“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…

The Late Leroy Clement Honored At Saratoga

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…

Wilson Chute Makes A Saratoga Comeback

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…

The Raftery Exhibit, Thanks To Barbara Livingston

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…

Meet the new buglers at Saratoga Race Course

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…

Kentucky Derby Charity Contest, 2022

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…

Green Machines: Turf Winners on Saratoga Showcase Day

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…

Varied Paths to Victory on Saratoga Showcase Day

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.…