In Friday afternoon’s Curlin Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, trainer Tom Albertrani’s Romansh crossed the wire second, but within seconds of the finish, he knew he had the winner. Standing on the track and watching the race replay next to a flashing “inquiry” sign, Albertrani was fairly confident that the winner, Transparent, would be taken…
A year ago this month, multiple stakes winner Stud Muffin was on a farm just outside Saratoga, resting up for a fall racing campaign. Then eight years old, he hadn’t hit the winner’s circle in 2012. He raced twice more last year, non-competitively, and it was clear that his best racing days were behind him.…
Two high-profile Thoroughbred aftercare organizations will have a presence today in Saratoga. Old Friends at Cabin Creek is holding an open house this evening to celebrate Palace Malice’s victory in the Belmont Stakes. Join Cot and Anne Campbell, Todd Pletcher, Mike Smith, and co-0wner Charlie Pigg from from 6:30-8 p.m. at Anne’s Washington Inn, 111 South…
The euphemism for a horse with both of his testicles is “intact.” The logical connotative sense, then, I guess, is that a horse that is gelded is “broken.” In reality, they are anything but; in fact, they are often the most beloved horses on the racetrack. Generally gelded when they’re young to address obstreperous behavior,…
Last Saturday at Saratoga, trainer Tom Morley watched his 3-year-old filly Scribbling Sarah load into the gate for the fourth race. A bit of a temperamental filly, he had worked hard with her in the mornings to get her comfortable in the starting gate, and the efforts were, he thought, finally paying off. “I thought…
“A fitting tribute to one of the stoutest supporters of the sport New York State has ever known.” So wrote the Daily Racing Form about the inaugural Sanford Stakes, named to honor a family from nearby Amsterdam, New York, that began racing its homebred horses at Saratoga in the 1880s. Beginning with General Stephen Sanford and continuing…
It’s not often that the Twitterverse is of a like mind, but for a few minutes before the fourth race at Saratoga Saturday, opinion was unanimous: When Scribbling Sarah broke through the gate and lunged forward, assistant starter Mike “Pup” McMullen hung on, flying out of the stall with her. She didn’t get far, mostly…
On an afternoon that saw the thermometer hit 93 degrees to kick off the 2013 Spa meet, the hottest moment of the afternoon came when two speedy fillies hit the wire together in the Grade 3 Schuylerville. Recalling the 2012 Travers, when Alpha and Golden Ticket dead-heated, Brazen Persuasion and Bahnah finished too close to…
By the time the gates fly open for the first race today at 1 p.m., tens of thousands of words will have been written about this summer’s Saratoga meeting. They will have appeared in turf publications, in newspapers, and in magazines. Races will have been handicapped, predictions will have been made, visitors’ guides will have…
Earlier this month, the Mid Atlantic Cooperative named Phil O’Hara its executive director, which might lead the casual racing fan to ask, “What’s the Mid Atlantic Cooperative?” According to Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, which owns Penn National, Charles Town, and Sam Houston along with casinos across the country, the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 