The final first of Saratoga 2016 was not one that we looked forward to. This summer, we celebrated pinhooker Andrew Motion’s first Saratoga yearling sale, and trainer Ray Handal’s first Saratoga win, and trainer Lacey Gaudet’s first Saratoga starter. And then we waited. Not for a first, but for a next, to see if trainer…
Every Travers day, the most valued piece of real estate at Saratoga Race Course is a picnic table in the backyard. About 8 feet long, all 850 of them are snatched up within minutes of the gates opening at 7 a.m., by people who have been waiting in line since the wee hours of the…
There’s a week left in the Saratoga 2016 season, but with no Pink Sheet next Tuesday, today’s the day to look back at the meet and offer some wishes for Saratoga 2017. This may be an unpopular opinion, but the new copper roofs on the Carousel and the escalator are a welcome change from the…
Old Saratoga, famed as a resort long before the civil war, has come back into her own. A few years ago Saratoga’s obituary notices were being written. Today the most successful season of her history came to an end. This [closing day] afternoon differed from no other Saturday of the meeting. There were the same…
Before August 18, trainer Ray Handal was putting together an impressive string of accomplishments from the claim box…impressive, unfortunately, in all the wrong ways. “I’ve lost 13 shakes in a row,” he said, standing outside his barn on the grounds of Saratoga Raceway, the harness track across Nelson Avenue from Saratoga Race Course. “I haven’t…
The Jimmy Toner barn on the Saratoga backstretch was a busy one on Monday, and not only because Toner had horses to train, turf slips to fill out, condition books to check. The routine was the same, but it might have been taking a little longer than usual, because of the number of people who…
“For try as their builders and sponsors may try to duplicate or even approach duplication of the picturesque Saratoga track and its incomparable atmosphere, there is only one Saratoga. New tracks may come, some of them stay and some of them go, but Saratoga goes on forever. And it will continue to exist and prosper…
In terms of odd combinations, trainer Jimmy Toner and Facebook might rank right up there with mustard and pizza, Felix and Oscar, and A-Rod and the Yankees. But throw in a 14-year-old with a serious racing pedigree, and you might just have the perfect blend. Last fall, eighth-grader Elsa Lorieul brought the Toner barn into…
When Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas agreed to train horses for the recently established Churchill Downs Racing Club, he figured that he and the club members would be in it mostly for the fun. He didn’t quite envision that that fun would involve a Grade II stakes race at Saratoga, but Friday afternoon,…
At the first Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing since the April death of Ogden “Dinny” Phipps, the legacy of the the long-time chairman of The Jockey Club was invoked in chairman Stuart Janney’s opening remarks. “[Dinny] wanted [The Jockey Club] to help the industry more than it had in the past,…
Brooklyn Backstretch 