On the penultimate day of the summer meeting at Saratoga Race Course, trainer Mark Casse was standing in front of a television on the ground floor of the clubhouse, watching one of his 2-year-olds race at Kentucky Downs. English Law didn’t win on Sept. 1, but Casse has made plenty of trips to the winner’s circle at Saratoga…
When Papiamento crossed the wire first in the sixth race at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 24, the 2-year-old colt achieved a trio of firsts: the first win for the horse, the first win for owners Ryan and Larisa Kamp, and the first win at The Spa for trainer Whit Beckman. “This is the Travers, right?” asked a jubilant Ryan Kamp in…
“Don’t fall in love with your horses,” they say. “This is a business,” they say. “You can’t make decisions with your heart,” they say. It’s a good thing that Sharilyn Gasaway didn’t listen to what “they” said, or she might not have had a 2-year-old homebred filly, out of her heart horse, break her maiden…
As Peter Bradley walked into the paddock on a damp Sunday morning, the security guard staffing the gate wished him a good afternoon. “We’ll see about that after the first race,” Bradley responded with his trademark grin. About an hour later, Bradley was indeed having a good afternoon, when his 2-year-old filly Briland won at first asking…
After posting on X that he had purchased 2-year-old Bellacose, John Stewart of Resolute Racing confirmed Aug. 17 that he had purchased a 75% share of the Audible filly for an undisclosed price. “I had posted on (X) that I’d pay a commission if people find a horse they thought I should buy and hooked me up with the owners,”…
Of first-crop stallion’s Volatile’s six winners from 20 starts, two have come at Saratoga Race Course—a small sample size to be sure but also encouraging for Three Chimneys, where the son of Violence stands for $15,000. “It’s really exciting for a horse that was super fast but not particularly precocious,” said Three Chimneys’ COO Chris Baker. “His 2-year-olds are doing it…
Peter Proscia of Paradise Farms is seldom the sole owner of his horses, but not uncommonly, he is the sole representative in the winner’s circle, as he was July 24 at Saratoga Race Course, when his second 2-year-old winner of the meet, Out On Bail, graduated in a maiden special weight for New York-breds. The third time…
Fourteen years ago, Thoroughbred trainer Dominick Imperio decided to give the woman who would become his daughter-in-law a special birthday present: a yearling. “My husband told me to give it back,” said Elizabeth Loftus, who goes by Libby and who eventually married Dominick’s son, Michael. “He likes to blame me for dragging us back into…
The new year is so far indeed a happy one for 5-year-old Saythreehailmary’s and her connections. On Jan. 10 at Aqueduct Racetrack, the dark bay mare picked up where she left off in 2015, winning her second consecutive stakes race and first in open company when she took the Ladies Handicap by 1 3/4 lengths. On Dec.…
In the first of a series of quarterly meetings, executives from the New York Racing Association took questions from customers in an hour-long question-and-answer session Nov. 15 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Located in Longshots, the simulcast facility that opened in April, the meeting provided an opportunity for Chris Kay, NYRA president and CEO, to present the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 