“A large concourse of people, including a host of the fashionables in carriages, turned out on Monday to enjoy the sport and excitement of the Races on the Saratoga Course.” Those words appeared in The Daily Saratogian on Aug. 4, 1863, the day after the first day of the first Saratoga meeting, the anniversary of…
It was a beautiful summer day, the day of our return, and the fragrance of the flowers and the soft beauty of the green shrubbery lining the walks of the Saratoga course, and the flags flying and the band up there in the grandstand thumping out a lively tune, while the old crowds moved around…
On Friday, June 7, the biggest news in the Belmont Park press box had nothing to do with the Belmont Stakes, taking place the next day. The buzz wasn’t about which horse might win, or what effect that day’s drenching rains might have on the track. The biggest news came when word spread that the…
On Saturday, May 27, in his 14th year as a jockey, Joseph Rocco Jr. got his first Grade I win when Tiz Miz Sue won the Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park. Exactly two months later, at Saratoga Race Course, he got his second. Riding longshot Lighthouse Bay in last Saturday’s Prioress, Rocco rode the…
Early this morning, a fire broke out on a block of historic rowhouses on Woodlawn Avenue in Saratoga Springs. By mid-morning, the Saratogian and the Daily Gazette were reporting via reporters’ Twitter timelines that while no one had been hurt, the buildings are a total loss and will likely be demolished. As reported in the local paper and…
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…
Brooklyn Backstretch 