Brooklyn Backstretch

Angel Cordero, Jr., D. Wayne Lukas, and others with Arctic Cat live auction item. Photo credit Mark Bolles

“We’re here to thank you,” said Michael Dubb, chairman of the board of the Belmont Child Association, to the crowd assembled at last week’s benefit at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga. “Tonight is more than financial. It’s the one time a year that we get to thank you for your support.”

The children who attend Anna House, he said, are healthy and safe and “drop dead adorable.” When they leave Anna House, he informed the contributors, they are ready for kindergarten: they have computer skills and they know English, and they are, according to Dubb, “an asset to and not a burden on the local public schools.”

He thanked the board members who “contribute tirelessly,” board president Fay Donk, and executive director Donna Chenkin and her husband Stuart.  For them, said Dubb, Anna House “is not a job but a 24-hour passion.”

Of D. Wayne Lukas, one of this year’s honorees, Dubb said:  “No one can separate people from their money better than Wayne.”

Trainer David Donk, Fay’s husband, introduced John and Leona Velazquez, this year’s other honorees, for their contributions to Anna House. “They are,” said Donk, “the greatest people I know.”

“Go to Anna House,” Donk exhorted those assembled. “You’ll see not just what’s happening today, but what will happen in our future.”

“The honor,” Leona said, “is ours. It’s an honor to see so many lives touched by Anna House, and we want to give back any way we can.”

Leona and John Velazquez. Photo credit Mark Bolles

Approaching the podium in a cowboy hat in honor of the night’s Western rodeo theme, Todd Pletcher introduced a video tribute to his mentor, Lukas. He shared an anecdote about his early days working for Lukas. He was just out of college, he said, and characterized himself as “energetic, enthusiastic…and annoying.”

Lukas had given Pletcher detailed and copious instructions about a morning routine for a filly. “I wanted to make sure that I understand and that I got it right, so I repeated the instructions back to him,” detail by detail.

“He looked at me and said, ‘It’s not a freaking time bomb. Just get it done!’” [One imagines that Pletcher cleaned this up for a PG event.]

The video tribute included footage of Lukas’s Landaluce, Grindstone, Lady’s Secret, Thunder Gulch, Charismatic, and Winning Colors, and comments from those who know the trainer.

Kiaran McLaughlin: “He was a great mentor, coach and teacher. I was his toughest pupil. He couldn’t teach me how to ride.”

Angel Cordero, Jr.:  “I never saw a barn so neat.”

Bobby Knight: “No one goes about their job in sports with more detail.”

With ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” playing, Lukas himself then took center stage, to speak about Anna House and to act, as he has for many years, as auctioneer.

“I’ve never,” he began, “encountered so many generous people as in Thoroughbred racing.  People step up time and time again.”

Before beginning the auction, Lukas couldn’t resist one anecdote about one of his former pupils. “One night,” he began, “Todd Pletcher gets into bed with his wife Tracy, and Tracy says to him, ‘God, you’re feet are cold!’”

“Pletcher said to her,” Lukas continued, “’When it’s just the two of us, Tracy, you can call me Todd.’”

The live auction kicked off with a children’s ride-on Jaguar, donated by the Creativity Institute. It was purchased by one of Lukas’s owners, Joe Ford, who made the winning bid of $2,000 and who immediately donated the vehicle to Anna House for the children.

Zenyatta halter and photo of Breeders' Cup Classic win

A framed Zenyatta halter signed by Mike Smith and accompanied by a photo brought a whopping $10,200 and was purchased by Wayne and Tina Evans, who donated the item to Anna House for display the new wing. Last year, they purchased a painting that they donated and that now hangs in the main lobby of the child care center.

Jockeys Edgar Prado, Angel Cordero, Jr., Javier Castellano, Garrett Gomez, and David Cohen volunteered as spotters; in attendance were trainers Carlos Martin, H. Graham Motion, Seth Benzel, Dominic Galluscio, Jimmy Jerkens, Rudy Rodriguez, and Gary Contessa.

The New York Racing Association purchased a table and turned out to support Anna House.  Julien Leparoux was in attendance, as were Nick Caras and Humberto Chavez of the Racetrack Chaplaincy and Paul Ruchames from Backstretch Employees Service Team.

The attendees were stunningly generous: an evening at a University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball game was purchased for $4,600; Edgar Prado donated $3,000 to fund a student’s education for a year.

On the list of purchasers of live and silent auction items were dozens of jockeys, trainers, owners, and racing executives, names that would be familiar to anyone who’s ever visited a NYRA track. And at the end of the evening, the BCCA’s coffers were more than $300,000 richer, thanks to the generosity of the racing community that turned out to support the children.

Dubb shared with the attendees that the BCCA is seeking approval to put an extension on the current building. Anna House currently enrolls 50 students from infancy to pre-school; two more rooms would allow for an addition 20 children.

The plan is to open the new rooms by next fall; in addition to allowing Anna House to enroll more children, the expansion would allow the BCCA to operate before and after-school programs and activities, to put it, as Dubb said, “to the most use for the backstretch community.”

“The state of Anna House couldn’t be better,” said Dubb with pride and appreciation. “It is successful, vibrant, and full of love.”

Thanks to the time, generosity, and contributions of everyone who made this annual event such a success.

Thanks to Mark Bolles of Creative Photo and Graphic for allowing me to use these photos of the event.

Tags : Belmont Child Care Association/Anna House, racing charities, Saratoga 2010

Yesterday’s Travers will likely have no significant effect on racing. It won’t determine the three-year-old champion; it didn’t set any records; and its winner might not even go on to race in the Breeders’ Cup in November.

Alan at Left At the Gate has pointed out today that the race isn’t going to win any awards for aesthetics, and that it wasn’t a Travers for the ages.  Fair enough.

But as I watched the race from the Saratoga roof, with the horses of two New York trainers gutting it out in the stretch, none of that really mattered to me. The day was resplendent, and the place was packed with nearly 46,000 who had come to see Saratoga’s signature race.

Earlier in the day, someone had asked me whom I liked (clearly someone who has never heard of my idiosyncratic method of picking winners, which could only generously be called “handicapping”).  I listed a few horses, talked about some potential wagers, and then said, “But if Jimmy Jerkens’ horse wins, I don’t care what else happens.”

Jimmy’s horse, Afleet Express, went neck and neck with Nick Zito’s, Fly Down. From I stood, it was impossible to tell who won. We watched the replay; we still weren’t sure. “Think the inside horse got him.”  “You think? I thought it was the outside horse.”

We waited, and we waited. And when the numbers went up, it was indeed the inside horse. Jimmy Jerkens had won the Travers, a race his legendary father has never won, a race his father said that he’d like to win as much as he’d like to win the Kentucky Derby.

Afterwards, Jerkens was asked to put this win in the context of other significant victories. The man who won the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Mile on his home track with Artie Schiller, and who won the 2007 Met Mile with Corinthian, said that winning this race was the highlight of his career.

At the barn a couple of hours after the race, the blanket of carnations took pride of place, accompanied by a bottle of celebratory Scotch.

Barn help was jovial and celebrating; the trainer himself was walking the shedrow, feeding each of his horses by hand, scooping oats from a bucket and placing a portion in each stall. The Travers winner himself munched his hay as if nothing particularly extraordinary had just occurred.

Several miles away, Susan Lee, the force behind that floral blanket, got to work painting the jockey outside her family’s restaurant, the Wishing Well. Bye, Drs. Jayaraman; hello, Gainesway Farm and Mr. Cherry.

And inside the Well, the Lees awaited the arrival of Antony Beck, president of Gainesway Farm and son of the man who bred Afleet Express.  When he walked in, the piano player struck up a special Travers song; the bell was rung, and the crowd in the bar applauded the owner of this year’s Travers winner as he made his way to his table.

It wasn’t Jaipur and Ridan. It wasn’t Affirmed and Alydar. It will hold no place of esteem in racing history. But Jimmy Jerkens won his first Travers, and from the roof at Saratoga, overlooking the oldest and most beautiful race track I’ve ever seen, on a day when so much about racing seemed right, that was more, much more, than enough.

Tags : Afleet Express, Jimmy Jerkens, Saratoga 2010, the Travers

I arrive at 6:40. The sun is up, and the lines at each of the gates to the track are long, with people waiting expectantly for the day’s first race, the rush from the gates to the coveted picnic tables in the back.  When I drove out of the track last night at 9:45, two guys were already sitting with a six pack, spending the night to be first in line.

They are lucky that they camped at the main Union Avenue entrance; in a gate crew screw-up worthy of Bob Duncan’s attention, that entrance was opened at 6:48, a full 12 minutes before scheduled post time.  Those at the Wright St. entrance were not so lucky; they watched, and listened, agonized, as the Union Avenue crowd streamed in, while they stood imprisoned outside.

When their gate opened at 6:55, they sprinted in vain; not a single table remained, scooped by those given early access. Hours of waiting, all for naught. Someone, it seems, will have ‘splainin’ to do.

The mood is brighter on the backside, with sun glowing through the old trees, warming off the morning chill (47 degrees when I left the house). At barn 7, spirits are particularly high.

Allen Jerkens, for whom the Saratoga training title was recently named, winner of multiple Eclipse awards and training titles, Hall of Fame member, hadn’t had a winner at Saratoga since 2008. He rocked the Belmont meet, having more winners by percentage than any other trainer, but Saratoga hasn’t been kind to the Chief.

Until yesterday’s last race, when his Brampton broke her maiden in her second start.

Second in her début at Belmont in June, the Smart Strike filly has had Jerkens’ eye for some time, but after nearly two full winless seasons here, his optimism has been in short supply.  He watched the race from the coffee stand on the backside, leaving saddling duties to his assistant, Fernando Abreu.

Brampton went off the 2.70-1 favorite, went to the lead and never looked back. In front by a head at the 3/8 pole, she won by a length and a quarter, “vied inside, determined.”

At the barn this morning, the Chief is jovial, expansive. His son has a starter in the Travers, and another in the Victory Ride; it’s a perfect, gorgeous morning; and he has a winner with a filly that he likes.

“There was another year that we had only one winner,” he reminisces, “and we were doing pretty good then. But you hate to go through without getting any.”

As we cruise the backstretch in the golf cart, we can’t go more than 20 feet without being stopped so that someone can shake the Chief’s hand and congratulate him. He is, observers can see, pleased.

Maybe that successful Belmont meet took its toll on his horses; surely, the loss of the injured Formidable is a blow. But with nine racing days left, the Chief is off the duck.  Already, it’s a great Travers weekend.

Tags : Allen Jerkens, Saratoga 2010, the Travers

I’ve spent a good part of this summer immersed in 1910, in the racing meet a century ago. Saratoga was scheduled to race that year for 21 days; in the middle of the meet, three days were added, because when Saratoga ended, so too would racing in New York.

Gambling had been under attack for years in this state, and by August of 1910, the laws had become so onerous that the downstate tracks declined the race dates allotted to them. The Futurity was scheduled to be run by the Coney Island Jockey Club at the Sheepshead Bay track, so three days from the Coney Island meet were transferred to Saratoga so that the Futurity could be run.

Much of the racing coverage in August 1910 was somewhat lachrymose, but the mood on August 13th was anything but, at least according to the New York Times:

Saratoga was at its best to-day, and not since the passage of the laws against betting has the racing association been graced by such a crowd as thronged the course. It was a crowd of fashion and beauty, and every available place on the grand stand, lawns, clubhouse balconies, and paddock was thronged with beautifully gowned women and well-dressed men.

The card was the most varied that has ever been offered by any racing association this season, and from the first race to the last on the long programme the sport was all that could have been wished for.

The races carded were, in order: a maiden two-year-old; the Shillelah Steeplechase Handicap; the Saratoga Special; the Travers; the Hunters’ Steeplechase (for five-year-olds and up); the Officers’ Army Service Cup; and a selling race, “gentlemen riders’ handicap.”

Eight horses took to the track for the Travers, including Ocean Bound, the filly who had won the Alabama eight days earlier and who had beaten the boys, including Travers starter Dalmatian, in the Swift at Sheepshead Bay in June.

Dalmatian was trained by Samuel Clay Hildreth, the nation’s leading owner and trainer, and he came to Saratoga expected to win. Again from the Times:

Dalmatian, in winning the latest running of the rich stake, only verified what was pretty well established during the meeting of the Empire City Racing Association at Yonkers, that he is far away the best three-year-old of the year.

Dalmatian came away “with ridiculous ease” in the stretch, “to win in hand by four or five lengths.”

Quite a day for Mr. Hildreth, as his Novelty had won the coveted Saratoga Special a race before. He would go on to be leading owner and trainer for a second consecutive year.

Despite the apocalyptic plight in which New York racing found itself a century ago, it was able to celebrate on Travers Day 1910. I can remember several Travers day in recent memory over which various dark clouds hung – bankruptcy, corruption investigation, franchise uncertainty – but it appears that both literally and figuratively, the sun will shine on Travers Day 2010.

More about Samuel Clay Hildreth and Novelty here, in an article I wrote for the Saratogian.

And while I am self-promoting: I’ll be on Capital OTB-TV this Sunday morning with Tom Amello and Nick Kling. You need an account to watch it online, but if you’re in the area, tune in to channel 12 around 10:30.

Other recent publications:

A Saratogian column on Allen Jerkens and the new H. Allen Jerkens Saratoga Training Title.

A profile of Tammy Fox, partner of trainer Dale Romans and exercise rider for First Dude.

A full list of Saratogian publications is here.

Source for this post:

“Dalmatian Takes Travers Stakes.” New York Times. August 13, 1910.

Tags : racing history, Saratoga 2010, the Travers

in the Aqueduct paddock before the Rare Treat

During a career that spanned three decades, Richard Migliore got to sit on a lot of classy horses. Last night at the Parting Glass’s monthly racing meeting (always open to the public), at which Migliore was the featured guest, the jockey was asked to name some of the more memorable horses he’d ridden.  He named three.

Flashing. Regal Ransom. And Life At Ten.

Migliore rode Life At Ten in February at Aqueduct, winning the Rare Treat by more than five lengths. It was her third consecutive win, and she’s won all three starts since then: the Sixty Sails Handicap at Hawthorne; the Ogden Phipps at Belmont; and the Delaware Handicap.

Migliore wasn’t in the saddle for any of them.

On January 23^rd, the Mig was riding Honest Wildcat when the horse broke down in the stretch at Aqueduct. The horse didn’t make it, but Migliore, though hurt in the fall, was backing riding soon, and on February 20^th, a month after the spill, he rode Life At Ten to victory.

Shortly thereafter, he predicted: “She’ll win the Delaware Handicap.”

He was right about that, but he wouldn’t be the jockey who got to win it with her.

His injuries from the January spill were more serious than originally thought, and before too long, Migliore was back in the hospital. He implored his doctors to let him ride.  “I’m supposed to ride a really good filly,” he says he told them. “Her name is Life At Ten.  Just let me go.”

He said last night, “I was ready to leave the hospital with a broken neck to ride her, and she’s been undefeated since.”

Michael Baze rode Life At Ten at Hawthorne, and when she came back to New York, John Velazquez got back on her. He’d ridden her in an allowance race at Keeneland in October of 2008, finishing second; nearly a year later, he was back in the saddle in an allowance at Belmont. He and Life At Ten finished seventh.

At the Parting Glass last night, he remembered going to see Richie in the hospital.

“I went to see him,” said Velazquez, “and he asks me, ‘Do you remember this filly?  Life At Ten?’”

“I didn’t remember her,” Velazquez admitted.  “Richie said, ‘Johnny, I love her.’”

“I said, ‘Who the heck is she?’ I figure, he’s on drugs for the pain, I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about.”

“Looking back,” said Velazquez, “he was obviously right, even if he was on drugs.”

“She galloped in New York [in the Grade I Phipps],” he continued, “and she wins the Del Cap.”

Migliore noted that Life At Ten, who often wins on the lead, “has a high cruising speed. She just stays and stays and stays.”

He was quick to acknowledge that Life At Ten isn’t the only impressive filly in the Personal Ensign this weekend. “I’m not taking anything away from Rachel Alexandra,” he said.

“But Life At Ten is a serious filly.”

And he ought to know.

Tags : Life At Ten, Richard Migliore, Saratoga 2010

And now we are in full Travers mode.

I kicked off what feels like the official beginning of Travers week at the barn of Dale Romans, to interview Tammy Fox for a feature that will appear in the Saratogian later this week. First Dude, Romans’s Travers starter, arrived in fine fettle yesterday from his Churchill base, and Fox took him out for a gallop around the track over which he’ll run this Saturday.

On the way back, Fox and First Dude hooked up with Kent Desormeaux aboard Lisa’s Booby Trap; to the assembled press waiting to talk to Romans and Fox and taking pictures of First Dude, Desormeaux called, “You’re waiting for the wrong horse!  It’s Lisa you should be paying attention to!”  Lisa’s Booby Trap is pointed to the Riskaverse at Saratoga on September 2^nd.

Kiaran McLaughlin and Team Trappe Shoppe, having waited until the last possible moment to announce where the son of Tapit will start next, entered him in the Travers.  Said McLaughlin at the Travers draw, “We thought we’d be second [choice] without Lookin at Lucky,” and indeed, his horse was installed as the second choice at 4-1.

Leon Blusiewicz, owner and trainer of 12-1 Admiral Alex, was hailed by Tom Durkin as a man not afraid to fire on his own horses.  “If you can’t bet, get out of the game,” the man known as “Blu” responded.

Admiral Alex comes into the race with just one previous start, a win here on July 31^st. His owner/trainer didn’t hesitate to remind those assembled that in 1981, his Snow Plow won a maiden special weight at Belmont on October 3^rd and won the Grade I Selima in her next start, on October 31^st. She followed that up with a win in the Grade I Demoiselle on November 15^th.

John Kimmel, trainer of 15-1 Friend or Foe, noted that the horse is particularly special to him and to the owners, Chester and Mary Broman, because he’s a homebred son of a homebred sire—Friends Lake.

Todd Pletcher was drafted by Tom Durkin to analyze the race; noting that the speed was all on the inside, Pletcher said that Super Saver, coming from post 11, had a “decent run” to the first turn in the mile and a quarter race here, leaving jockey Calvin Borel the option to sit back, survey, and see which jockeys are using their horses.

Nick Zito was not present to discuss his three entrants (Miner’s Reserve, 12-1, post 1; Ice Box, 10-1, post 6; Fly Down, 8-1, post 8); though Romans was present, he didn’t take the podium.  Anthony Dutrow’s wife Kim spoke on behalf of her husband, saying that 7-2 favorite A Little Warm is in great shape, and that the trainer is very pleased with post position 5.

We may well have the most alliterative Travers ever, with A Little Warm, Admiral Alex, Afleet Again, and Afleet Express; First Dude, Fly Down, and Friend or Foe; and Super Saver.  There’s a hunch bet in there somewhere.

Tags : Saratoga 2010, the Travers

It is with great melancholy that I post this week’s happenings, as at least one of them will be taking place after I return to Brooklyn. I can’t believe that Saratoga is almost over, and nearly every day I come face to face with a reminder that before too long, the old Spa will be quiet.

But until then, much to do, much to see, much to attend!  So here we go:

Tuesday: This week’s tasting at the Crush and Cask at 170 Broadway in Saratoga benefit the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Hosts Patty and Jeff Novo will host the tasting from 6 – 8 p.m. It’s free of charge, but all donations at the door will benefit the TRF.  Among the four wines to be tasted will be two proseccos (a personal favorite); the Lodge and the Cupcake Lab will furnish snacks and TRF will offer unique items to be auctioned.

Wednesday: The Belmont Child Care Association’s annual fundraiser at the Gideon Putnam. This year’s event is rodeo-themed and will honor D. Wayne Lukas and John and Leona Velazquez for their contributions to the BCCA.  Tickets are $250 and are still available; we’re also still looking for volunteers if you’d like to help. Contact me or the BCCA directly.

Thursday: An annual rite in my family is a trip to the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy, but we’ll get started early this year with San Gennaro day at the track. (Editorial note: I fully acknowledge the cultural disconnect here:  Gennaro is the patron saint of Naples and “Gennaro” is a first name in Italy; not a surname. My paternal progenitors hail from Sicily, and our name was something until different until my grandfather hit Ellis Island, where it was changed to “Genaro.”)

Track visitors will find a celebration of Italian culture and heritage featuring traditional Italian food and drink as well as Italian dance, music, games and entertainment. Homemade meatball subs and “genuine Brooklyn” cannoli (I’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much) will be on offer as well.  I wonder if I can get some Sambuca anywhere at the track?

Thursday evening: The Parting Glass will hold a roast of jockey Richard Migliore; expected to attend, among others, are Ramon Dominguez, Shaun Bridgmohan, and Javier Castellano. The night is a fundraiser for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, and the Parting Glass will raffle off two box seats for Travers Day.

The event is free and open to the public.  More information at the Parting Glass Racing Facebook page.  The event starts at 7 at the Parting Glass, 40 Lake Avenue.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: No need to make any plans for the weekend, other than to attend three terrific days of racing. Friday brings the Grade II Bernard Baruch; Saturday we’ve got FIVE stakes races (Grade III Victory Ride, Grade II Ballston Spa, and Grade I King’s Bishop, Ballerina, and Travers); and on Sunday Rachel Alexandra returns to the Spa in the Grade I Personal Ensign.

Monday, August 30^th: Head to the East Side Rec on Lake Avenue for a charity softball game to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.  The jockeys will take on some regional personalities in a game that starts at 7:00; gates open at 6:00 and the jockeys will be available after the game for a meet and greet.  Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children.  For more information, contact John J. Steve at 518-379-6251 or via email at johnstevepdjf@yahoo.com.

Tags : Belmont Child Care Association/Anna House, racing charities, Saratoga 2010

He’s got a horse named Blind Luck, and if Jerry Hollendorfer believes in good fortune, he must have been happy to learn where his filly would be staying for her time at Saratoga.

The wise folks at the New York Racing Association lodged Blind Luck back in Barn 7, where Allen Jerkens and his horses have stabled for years, the barn from which Jerkens stabled his own Alabama winners:  November Snow in 1992, Sky Beauty in 1993, and Society Selection in 2004.

Barn 7 has already proved lucky for filly shippers this meet:  two weeks ago, Ronny Werner’s Secret Gypsy stayed in the Jerkens barn before winning the Honorable Miss, a race that Jerkens won in 1994 with Classy Mirage and in 2008 with Any Limit. That 2008 win was Jerkens’ last stakes win at Saratoga.

If Hollendorfer had been looking for signs, he might have been gratified to wake up yesterday and see that Sky Beauty winning the Alabama graced the cover of the NYRA program.

He might have crossed his fingers as he thought about Secret Gypsy coming in and winning a stakes race from Barn 7.

He might have stroked a rabbit’s foot as he talked with the man who trained Sky Beauty and who can never talk about her Alabama win without saying, “We got so lucky that day…”

Or maybe he knew all along that all the luck his filly needed was in her name.

Last entering the final turn, Blind Luck went to the middle of the racetrack to swoop around the field: five wide coming into the stretch, she made thrilling look easy as she picked up horses, dug in, and vanquished her final competitor within strides of the wire to win by a neck.

In this year’s Alabama, we got the kind of race we can only hope for. The fillies went slow early and fast last; they maintained position for nearly a mile and an eighth, and at the sixteenth pole, three fillies were running for the win. They thrilled us in the stretch and at the wire.

I suspect that Mr. Jerkens was watching the race from his home or in a restaurant, or maybe back at Barn 7.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if he were rooting for his lodger when Hollendorfer’s filly began to move around the turn.

Between the two of them, Hollendorfer and Jerkens have been training horses for nearly 100 years. Hollendorfer has more than 5,000 wins, Jerkens more than 3,500.  They shared a barn this week, and now they’ll forever share a page of racing history.

For now, Jerkens has two things that Hollendorfer doesn’t: an Eclipse Award and a spot in the Racing Hall of Fame. One can hope that that Luck is about to change.

Tags : Blind Luck, Saratoga 2010, The Alabama

Tomorrow is the 130th running of the Alabama Stakes, and an opportunity to continue to look back at Saratoga a century ago.

1910 brought the 32nd running of the Alabama, and it was won by an impressive filly named Ocean Bound.

Who?

Ocean Bound. Owned by Woodford Clay, Ocean Bound was, according to the New York Times, champion three-year-old filly in 1910, but for a filly that accomplished as much as she did, she seems to have attracted remarkably little attention.

True, racing minds in 1910 were somewhat preoccupied—after all, the very existence of racing was in peril because of anti-gambling laws, and in fact, an apocalyptic announcement completely stole Ocean Bound’s thunder on the day of one of her most significant accomplishments.

The headline in the August 6th New York Times read not: “Ocean Bound Takes Alabama.” Not “Impressive Clay Filly Wins Important Stakes.” Not “Champion Two-Year-Old Continues Winning Ways.”

No, the headline read: “New York Racing Ends August 31st.”

On the weekend of the Alabama in 1910, the Jockey Club stewards announced that the Brooklyn Jockey Club, the Coney Island Jockey Club, the Empire City Racing Association, the Metropolitan Jockey Club, and the Queens County Jockey Club (and yes, all of them, along with the Saratoga Association, oversaw racing in New York. You think that having 39 separate racing jurisdictions is tough? How about seven separate organizing bodies in the same state?) had declined the fall dates that they had been allotted, and would not race when Saratoga ended.

So poor Ocean Bound, who had won the Spinaway and three other stakes races as a two-year-old, and who had as a three-year-old already won the Swift at Sheepshead Bay (beating Dalmatian, the eventual Travers winner); the Ladies Handicap; and the Gazelle, barely got a mention in the Times on Alabama weekend. Only the chart of the race was posted.

The paper did post an extensive wrap-up of the Saratoga meet, which sounded rather like a wrap-up of racing forever in New York, given the grimness of the situation. The writer did find room to acknowledge Ocean Bound’s accomplishment, saying that she “was possibly the best three-year-old filly…and her return to the track was gratifying. At the close of her two-year-old season it was feared that she was hopelessly broken down.”

The story of her alleged injury and her victory in the Spinaway the previous summer are worthy of a post of their own, which they will get as we head towards the end of the meet.

This year’s Alabama features the match-up of Blind Luck and Devil May Care, worthy fillies with impressive résumés of their own. Fortunately, this year’s renewal of the Alabama did not fall victim to the vagaries of New York politics, as one might have feared earlier this year.

Ocean Bound was not so lucky. Her accomplishments were overshadowed by the demise of New York racing, so here’s a little century-old love for a multiple champion who couldn’t even grab the headline when she won the country’s oldest and most prestigious race for three-year-old fillies.

Sources cited and consulted

“Filly Ocean Bound Beats Dalmatian,” New York Times, June 21, 1910

“New York Racing Ends August 31st,” New York Times, August 6, 1910

“Ocean Bound” at Pedigree Query

“Racing Review of Season Just Closed,” New York Times, September 4, 1910

“Turf Stars Victors in Classic Stakes,” New York Times, May 19, 1910 (Ladies’ Handicap win)

Tags : Ocean Bound, Saratoga 2010, The Alabama

“If nothing unexpected happens,” says Bruce Johnstone, NYRA’s manager of racing operations, “we’ll go the infield for the next race.”

We’ve been talking about this since last year, trying to find the right time, the right race, to get there.  Yesterday, he thought he’d found it.

“The seventh race,” he declares. “It’s a mile on the turf, the starting gate is right here, and even if something goes wrong, we can probably get there in time.”

It’s a race for three-year-old maidens, and according to the assistant starters, there are a couple of headcases in there. Bruce is nonetheless cautiously optimistic.  “We’ll check in in the paddock, and again in the winner’s circle. If everyone behaves, we can head over.”

If a horse acts up in the paddock, Johnstone steps in.  If a horse or a jockey gets hurt on the track, it’s Johnstone to whom people turn for information. During the race day, he moves from paddock to winner’s circle and back, ever vigilant, ever alert.  A year ago, when a horse broke down at the finish line of the turf course at Aqueduct, on the first turn around the track, it was Johnstone who raced across two dirt tracks to help make sure that the horse was out of the way when the field came around again.

Today, the maidens make it safely and easily out of the paddock; they behave through the post parade.  The coast is clear, and we cross the main track. Sandals were not made for the depth of the Saratoga dirt; I have chosen my footwear poorly.

We wend our way through fences and across grass, and we stand behind the starting gate. These entries with the bad reputation load quietly—as if to say, “Who, us? Naughty? Not us.”

The start is “good for all,” though Highlight–#4–hesitates.  They disappear around the clubhouse turn.

And we hear, across three tracks, Tom Durkin telling us that on the backstretch, Highlight is being pulled up. And moments later, that Pico Dinero has fallen on the turn, and his rider is off.

Johnstone turns to an assistant starter. “Can you get her back across OK?” The assistant starter nods assent, and I am handed off. In seconds, Johnstone has gone from genial tour guide to first responder.

We watch the end of the race—Avenging wins it, followed by Naughty You (who wasn’t)…

and then we watch Pico Dinero run merrily down the course, trailed by an outrider. He doesn’t look hurt; in fact, he looks sort of happy to be out running on the grass.  Masterfully, the outrider gets him near the rail and nabs him, to applause from the crowd. (Look closely–click to enlarge–see that head between the outrider and the fence?)

In custody, like a bad kid, Pico Dinero cooperatively—but not meekly—allows himself to be led back to the main track. He looks unrepentant about his escapade.

As we walk back to the winner’s circle, assistant starter Butch Hocker shows me his program.  It’s marked up like a handicapper’s, except that he’s not paying attention to pace figures and class drops.

“H&T” reads one notation. “S” is another.” “We know the personalities of the horses before they get to the gate,” Hocker explains. “We work with them in the morning, we know their quirks. We pay attention to what they do in the afternoon, and we make a plan for how to best work with them.”

Each day, says Hocker, the gate crew meets for 45 minutes and goes through the card, decided on a strategy, noting which horses needs “Head and Tail” attention, which needs a shank (“S”).  “Sometimes,” says Hocker, “we do assignments then, so we know which assistant will work with each horse.”

I head to the paddock for the stakes race; Johnstone is there, and he’s got updates.  First reports indicate that both horses and both jockeys—Maragh and Desormeaux—are OK.  All’s well that ends well, but the early promise of an uneventful race was unfulfilled, despite the best efforts of jockeys, trainers, starters, assistants, and one manager of racing operations.

As always, you can click on photos to enlarge them.

Tags : Saratoga 2010