Joel Quenneville at Saratoga

For Chicago Black Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, September means the start of training camp, and the beginning of a Stanley Cup Championship defense. It also means something much more sobering, something that this year, Belmont Park’s racing calendar will make all the more poignant.

Quenneville is part of a Thoroughbred ownership group named Team Power Play; one of the horses that he owns in part is Aces Mark, named after Ace Bailey and Mark Bavis.  Bailey and Bavis were scouts for the Los Angeles Kings, and they were aboard United Airlines flight 175 when it crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11.

Aces Mark is a six-year-old bay gelding; he’s made 20 starts, compiling a record of 4-3-3, and his last race was at Saratoga on August 22.  His next race will be at Belmont this Saturday, September 11.

Quenneville was in Saratoga to see Aces Mark’s races; a long-time racing fan, he has “season tickets,” as he put it last month, to the Saratoga meet.  “Some meets I’m here 20 days, some I’m here two days.  I wasn’t planning to be here any days this whole meet, but I’ll probably make it four times.”

The day before his trip to Saratoga, Quenneville was on official business at Arlington Park; the Stanley Cup-winning coach presented the trophy to the connections of this year’s winner of the Arlington Million, Debussy.

“It was fun, it was cool, it was great,” said Quenneville, standing in the Saratoga clubhouse. “It was a perfect day.  I was honored to get a chance to do that, and I got to meet some of the great jockeys of all time. It was a great race, and there were a lot of Black Hawk fans there, too. It was cool.”

It’s been a summer of trophies for Quenneville; when he got the Stanley Cup for a day, he brought it home to Windsor, Ontario, he toured it around the town, sharing it with relatives and friends. When reminded that former Black Hawk player and current Black Hawk announcer Eddie Olczyk had brought the Cup to Belmont, Quenneville recalled, “I saw that picture of him feeding the horse. I would have liked to have done that.”

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Mark L. Johnson. Found at Puck Daddy

The greatest picture, he said, that’s been taken with the Cup all summer is the one of Andrew Ladd sitting in the Canadian mountains with the trophy next to him. “That picture was wild,” he said.  It’s hard to argue with that assessment.

Aces Mark finished a distance third in his start at Saratoga, but Quenneville didn’t seem disappointed. A glance at the horse’s past performances reveals a couple of long layoffs, and a history of physical problems has plagued the gelding.  Quenneville is philosophical about the vagaries of being a Thoroughbred owner.

“Yeah, I like owning horses for about two minutes,” he laughed. “It’s been fun to watch him because of the hurdles that he’s faced. Like any other owner, you go through times when it looks like everything is great, and then you can’t explain what can happen next.  It’s part of the challenges of the business.  At the same time, you get a chance to see your horse win, and that’s a great thrill.

“There’s good and there’s bad, like in any business.  Racing’s a fun thing to be a part of. I mean, everybody’s competitive in any field you’re in; you always want to win, you always want to do the best you can do. You also know the reality is that things can go wrong.  But it’s fun.”

His best memory of Saratoga, he says, is when Great Navigator won the Hopeful in 1992.  “He was on the outside,” Quenneville remembered, “and he went wire to wire. He was the eight horse, and I hit the Pick 6.

“It was a three-day carryover, and I walked out of here with about $122,000 cash.”

[What is it with Black Hawks hitting the Pick 6? Olczyk did it, too,  last summer.]

Quenneville talked hockey for a while, noting the difficulty of operating in a “cap world,” as he put it; the Hawks have lost ten players from their championship team, including fan favorite and playoff producer Dustin Byfuglien; goalie Antti Niemi; and Andrew Ladd, he of the spectacular Cup photograph.

They’ve retained their young stars, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and Quenneville is optimistic about the season.  “We have a lot of the core guys that made us successful and they’re still young, and we’ve got a chance of some new guys coming up. It’s going to be fun to see where we’re going to get to,” he said.

The Hawks will visit the Rangers at the Garden on Monday, November 1, and despite a sincere and generous offer on the part of one New York Rangers season ticket holder, Quenneville politely declined to switch sides and coach the Blueshirts this year.

But before hockey season starts, Quenneville’s horse will race this weekend.  Last month, he talked about the horse’s namesakes.

“I knew Ace, I didn’t know Mark very well. I think everybody in hockey knew Ace. He was one of those guys where he’d always come by, and you’d immediately look at him and laugh, and smile.

“I worked against him when he was with Los Angeles, and he was just one of those guys in that scouting fraternity. He was definitely one of the boys,” Quenneville recalled, smiling.

Aces Mark is trained by Gary Gullo and will be ridden by John Velazquez in Saturday’s eighth race; the horse is 6-1 on the morning line. Given his story and given the date, perhaps those odds will be driven lower by post time, driven lower by those who would like to see this horse win on this day.

Many, many thanks to Mike MacAdam of the Schenectady Daily Gazette, who introduced me to Quenneville and who has written extensively about Aces Mark (I’d link to the stories if they weren’t behind a pay wall); and to Stu Hackel of the Slap Shot hockey blog at the New York Times.

David Grening has written about Aces Mark at Daily Racing Form.

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On Monday afternoon at 2:30, I was standing at a picnic table in Saratoga’s backyard, drinking beer and watching horses warm up before the fourth race. On Wednesday afternoon at 2:30, I was standing in a classroom in downtown Brooklyn, drinking water and introducing eleventh graders to the work they’ll do throughout the year.

My days are now measured in 50-minute periods, not in minutes to post.

I’m reading poetry instead of past performances.

My morning strolls take me past a 19^th century bridge instead of a 19^th century backstretch; my office is no longer in an historic clubhouse, but in an historic former mansion.

Instead of discussing media policy with turf writers, I’m discussing grading policy with teachers.

My copies of American Race Horse, They’re Off! Horse Racing at Saratoga, and The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America have lost their pride of place, supplanted by Much Ado about Nothing, Psycho, and The New Yorker.

I’m still getting up when it’s dark out, but instead of donning barn boots and grabbing my recorder to head to work, I’m donning school shoes and grabbing my gradebook.

I’m spending less time at the laptop and more time at the whiteboard; I’m writing words for high school students, not racing fans.

Now, there are lessons to plan, and texts to prepare, and assignments to create.  And on Saturday, horses to meet, and trainers to see, and stories to write.

See you at Belmont.

After the sixth race yesterday, the Saratoga meet leaders were recognized: jockey John Velazquez; owner Repole Stable; trainer Todd Pletcher.

Pletcher trained eight of Repole’s winners this summer; Velazquez was aboard seven of them. Twenty-eight of Velazquez’s 57 wins came aboard Pletcher horses.

This Saratoga training title was Pletcher’s seventh, but no such honor becomes quotidian, particularly when H. Allen Jerkens is presenting it.

This year, the Saratoga training title was named in honor of Jerkens, the Chief, and on Monday in the winner’s circle, it was the Chief who presented Pletcher with his award.

No stranger to the winner’s circle, the 81-year-old Jerkens doesn’t get there much anymore. He had only one winner at this year’s meet, after going winless last summer, but even when he’s on a roll, as he was at the most recent Belmont meet, he seldom comes down to get his picture taken. He watches from the paddock, often, or sometimes from his barn, which is where he was when his Brampton won on August 27^th.

He was there in the winner’s circle at Saratoga yesterday, a place in which he hadn’t stood in two years, but that is so familiar it might feel like home. He stood there when Sky Beauty and Society Selection won the Alabama, and when Onion beat Secretariat in the Whitney. He won the Saratoga training title four times, in 1972 setting a record for the 24-day meet with 19 wins.

The Chief was there, getting his picture taken, smiling broadly, handing a trophy to a man who represents a different generation, a different type of training. With only 12 horses in his barn, compared to Pletcher’s hundreds, one might think that the Chief’s presence represented little more than the passing of an era.

But as he left the winner’s circle, the Chief got stopped. A man held out a program and a pen; the Chief obliged, smiled, asked his name, chatted.  And a few steps later, there was another one, “Would you mind, Chief, please?”

As Jerkens walked through the clubhouse, back to his golf cart to head back to his barn and his horses, his progress was slow. He couldn’t go more than a few feet before someone else offered a hello, a memory, a request for an autograph.

The tributes were quiet and respectful, and so were his responses, low-key as he so often is. And then he made his way back to his barn, all the way at the end of the Saratoga backstretch, to be there when his horses got their afternoon feed as he is every day, as he’s done at Saratoga for more than a half-century.

I don’t often cry at the racetrack, but as I watched Allen Jerkens accept the homage of his fans, this fan of racing, of Saratoga, and of the Chief, got choked up, not for the first time, on the happy, melancholy, last day of Saratoga racing for 2010.

The Futurity would ordinarily have been held at Sheepshead Bay, but as noted here previously, racing in New York State in 1910 would cease at the end of the Saratoga meet. The downstate tracks had declined the racing dates allotted to them in the face of anti-gambling laws in the State; a one-time dispensation was granted by the Coney Island Jockey Club to move three dates upstate, so that the Futurity, one of the richest races in the sport, could be held.

The Spinaway, a rich race for two-year-old fillies, went to Bashti.  She carried 122 pounds; Love Note, who finished second, carried 109, while the third-place finisher, Sweepsway, carried 112. Bashti nonetheless won by three lengths in a “common canter,” and was “at no time fully extended.” The New York Times reporter covering the race avowed that it “afforded an excellent line on her chances in the Futurity, where she will meet both the colts and the fillies.”

Though without implication for the Futurity, the 1910 Saranac was not run without incident. This race for three-year-olds was won by Martinez, and the report offers two items perhaps of interest to the contemporary reader.

The running of the Saranac Handicap saw some bumping in the stretch, and the backers of Martinez, the winner, had some uncomfortable moments before the red board was displayed.

The red board? Perhaps that board in Saratoga’s infield on which scratches are displayed, and which is as much a part of Saratoga tradition (if for all practical uses obsolete) as the 17-minute bell? Is this where the term “red board” comes from? And were red boards used at other tracks to indicate the winner?  Inquiring minds want to know…

For those who have been frustrated by what they consider inconsistency in the stewards’ rulings this summer and by the lack of clarity offered by the stewards’ reports: take heart. You are not alone. You apparently have century-old company in those who wagered on the Saranac:

Martinez made his run on the outside, and as he crossed to the rail it appeared that he crowded Lovetie against Starbottle. After this mix-up Martinez came away to win very easily by five lengths, and the manner in which he finished left no doubt of his being the best in the field. Dugan lodged a complaint of foul on behalf of Starbottle, and Scoville made a like claim on behalf of Mrs. Livingston’s colt. There was a lengthy wait before it was finally decided that Martinez had not offered sufficient interference to warrant his being disqualified.

“Sufficient interference.”  Current stewards, take note?

Novelty was the star of the 1910 meet; when it was all over, he had won five races in 27 days at the Spa. He came to Saratoga unheralded; he left a presumptive champion.

Novelty had raced three times at Saratoga before the Hopeful, winning twice. He was not considered among the top competition in the race because it was thought that he couldn’t carry 130 pounds against the top-notch two-year-olds against which he was running, but for the third time at the meet, Novelty silenced his doubters, and he did so carrying five more pounds than the two horses that finished behind him, leading the Times reporter to proclaim:

… his performance to-day caused his stock to boom for that big prize to be decided August 31.

That “big prize” was the Futurity, held that year for the first and only time at Saratoga. It would feature the winners of both the Spinaway and the Hopeful.

The Times indicates that the betting public favored nearly equally the filly and the colt, and the result supported their opinions: Novelty by a length over Bashti, who carried nine fewer pounds and who overcame a bad start to garner the place.

Bashti was beaten, but not disgraced, for she was the victim of a bit of hard luck at the start, and to race into second place she easily demonstrated that she is the best filly of the year…

Such praise seems nearly muted compared to the panegyrics heaped on Sam Hildreth’s Novelty:

Never in the history of racing in Saratoga has there been such a crowd on the picturesque old course as that which cheered Novelty to victory. It was a crowd of enthusiasts, and as the field swept through the stretch there was mighty cheering that continued until the last horse had passed the winning post. On the return of the sturdy little champion to the scales he received another ovation, and it is doubtful if there ever was a winner of the coveted of the two-year-old races who was more heartily acclaimed after he had won. It was a race worthy of the best traditions of the Futurity, and was won by a colt, who, by his previous excellent races, had made himself the most popular horse that raced during the long Saratoga meeting.

[Note: Long Saratoga meeting? 27 days? Wimps.]

Those of us who love Saratoga began the countdown days ago…this many more days, this many more races, this many more mornings enjoying a glorious sunrise over the Saratoga backstretch. Imagine, though, what racing fans must have felt on August 31^st, 1910.

Two races were run after that remarkable Futurity, and then racing was gone from New York for nearly three years. Gone. What profound sadness might have settled over the Spa crowd on that August afternoon, what might those patrons have been thinking as they considered that Sheepshead Bay would not open as scheduled in September?

The last afternoon at Saratoga is a melancholy ritual, deep pleasure mixing with profound sadness. It’s nearly impossible to tear myself away…but at least I know that within a few days, we’ll have Belmont.

It’s been fun to wander through 1910 this summer, to think about racing a century ago, to draw some straight lines from the Spa then to the Spa now.  I’ve encountered horses and races that I wish that I’d seen, and I note gratefully that we are not looking at a racing shutdown in New York, and that the rich history of the sport survives here.

Saratoga 2010’s not over; not yet. But Saratoga 1910 is. We have no Novelty this year, but maybe Le Mi Geaux can be our Bashti, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get a final weekend of racing as memorable as the fans did a hundred years ago.

Sources and further reading

“Hildreth’s Novelty Wins The Futurity.” Sept 1, 1910. New York Times.

“Jockey Breaks Leg at Saratoga Track.” Aug 19, 1910. New York Times. (recap of the Saranac)

“Novelty Easily Wins the Hopeful.” Aug 20, 1910. New York Times.

“Running of Saratoga Special celebrates 100-year anniversary of underdog triumph by Novelty at Saratoga Race Course.” Aug 16, 2010. Saratogian.

“Spinaway Stakes Goes to Bashti.” Aug 17, 1910. New York Times.

Ruchames is the recently appointed executive director of Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST); he comes to the position from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in the Bronx, where he served as director of outpatient services and deputy director for the division of substance abuse.

A licensed clinical social worker with more than 30 years of experience, Ruchames took on the daunting task of righting a ship that over the last few years had foundered through lack of leadership and lack of funds.  He oversees the BEST staff and coordinates a variety of services for the backstretch workers, including health benefits, counseling services, and primary care clinics at Belmont and Saratoga.

“The Saratoga clinic is open from April to November, to serve the workers who are here when the Oklahoma is open, before and after the Saratoga meet. During the meet, the clinics are open six days a week; the hours outside the meet depend on the population and on our funding,” he explained.

BEST also provides what Ruchames called “beyond the call of duty” work.  He cited as an example a backstretch worker who recently required emergency surgery.  “We work,” said Ruchames, “with local health care providers to provide care at a cost that workers can afford.”  He characterized as “amazing” the contributions from a variety of local providers.

Last Monday, the second race was named in honor of the BEST volunteers who work on behalf of the backstretch workers all year long. “The Saratoga volunteers are remarkable,” said Ruchames. “They are energizing and inspiring.”  As part of the volunteer appreciation event, a photo of the volunteers was featured in Monday’s program.

Next Monday, closing day, the third race will be named in honor of Tom Durkin’s Third Race Call. Each day through the meet, six fans can join Durkin in the announcer’s booth for the third race; the $100 charged for the event is donated to BEST.  Durkin is a long-time BEST board member.

“At Saratoga,” Ruchames said, “the workers feel the support that they get.” Through the summer, volunteers coordinated nightly events on the backstretch:  bingo games, movies, meals.  The Sunday night meals, which are catered by Panza’s and underwritten by John Hendrickson and Marylou Whitney, were recently featured in the dining section of the New York Times.

According to Ruchames, the bingo nights have been particularly well attended.  Durkin calls numbers and letters in Spanish and English for the largely Latino audience.

Ruchames’ background in the field of substance abuse suits him well for his work at BEST.  “Drug and alcohol abuse is still a major problem on the backstretch,” he maintains, “and it’s a major part of other medical issues. Research shows that 40% of all hospitalizations in the United States are strongly related to or caused by substance abuse issues. On the backstretch, you could probably double that.”

Ruchames points to a number of ways that NYRA and the backstretch are attending to substance abuse issues.  One is a newly instituted breathalyzer policy at the NYRA tracks.

“It’s an issue of safety for everyone,” points out Ruchames. “It’s not good for anyone to have intoxicated people around expensive animals.”

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings have been added to the menu of treatment options at Saratoga; workers can also participate in group and individual counseling.

Ruchames characterizes BEST’s approach as educational and sensitive, not punitive.  “Patients expect to get clobbered by us when they first come in. We’ve instituted a behavioristic approach, and research shows that it really works.

“We reward specific, healthy behaviors, such as having a negative drug test or showing up to a counseling meeting. It has a pretty big impact.”

While Ruchames can point to a number of successful endeavors at Saratoga, the situation here is not always ideal for the backstretch workers.  “They don’t always feel welcome in Saratoga,” he said. “When they’re out downtown, they get looks and comments about immigration and crime.

“Over the next year, we want to find ways to get them more integrated into the community.  Currently, we provide vans to transport the workers around Saratoga. We’re developing a connecting with Horsin’ Around Trolley and working with CDTA on ways to transport the backstretch workers around town.”

Ruchames’ vision for BEST’s work goes beyond taking care of the workers while they’re on the backstretch. “Many people choose to do this work despite the low pay and the lack of upward mobility,” he observed. “It’s wearying work, and it should be a stepping off point, a place to start until they get established.”  He points to one worker who recently received a full scholarship to a local college. “That’s what this job should be used for: a way to prepare the backstretch workers to join America, not to be stuck in a country within a country.”

While ambitious and enthusiastic about the work, Ruchames is also realistic. “We’re on the edge of a crisis with health insurance,” he remarked.  BEST’s current plan will not be acceptable when health care reform takes effect next year, and it’s possible that whatever policies will be acceptable will  be beyond BEST’s means. “There’s no way,” said Ruchames, “to afford what will be acceptable.” He’s currently investigating options and seeking government counsel on how best to proceed to continue to insure the backstretch workers.

This Sunday will be the final dinner of the Saratoga meeting; Hattie’s is coordinating contributions from a variety of local restaurants, including Pennell’s, the Wishing Well, Panza’s, Seven Horse Tavern, Irish Times, Cantina, Leon’s Mexican Restaurant, Putnam Market, and the Bread Basket. Dehn’s, the Posie Peddler, AA Provisions, and Sahr’s Poultry are also contributing.

According to Ruchames, when Hendrickson and Whitney began the Sunday dinners, their mission was “to be welcome, not charitable.” The evenings are well-attended and popular with both backstretch workers and with volunteers.

Next week, Ruchames and some of his staff will head back to Belmont Park and BEST’s home office. He has found his first summer at Saratoga both challenging and rewarding, but his comments reveal that he is heartened by the community’s engagement and spirit of volunteerism.

“People feed off the energy of the backstretch workers,” he observed. “I think that what we’re achieving is remarkable.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.