On this particular Sunday morning, we were not alone. An expensive, late model car pulled up; from one side emerged a lovely young blonde, from the other, jockey Alan Garcia. And we watched, amused, indulgently, as he toured the young woman around the circle, proudly pointing out his four Grade I wins from Saratoga 2008. “That one’s me,” he said, pointing to Grand Couturier and the Sword Dancer. “And that one, too,” circling to Visionaire and the King’s Bishop. Standing in front of the Spinaway and Mani Bhavan, we said, “You’re over here, too.” Grinning, he approached and pointed to the sign. (For the record, the fourth was Vineyard Haven in the Hopeful.)

That morning might have been as close as Garcia got to a Grade I this year at Saratoga. While no doubt possessed of a prodigious talent and a winning personality, he was questioned more than once this summer, and puzzling rides aboard Da’ Tara in Albert the Great and Reread the Footnotes at Saratoga on August 10th caused more than a little speculation about what he was thinking.

He was suspended seven days (pending appeal, of course) for his ride aboard Vineyard Haven in the King’s Bishop on Travers Day at Saratoga; from Mark Singelais at the Times Union:

Replays showed that Garcia continued to go the left-handed whip even as Vineyard
Haven drifted far outside and repeatedly bumped winner Capt. Candyman Can.

And now David Grening reports in the Daily Racing Form that Garcia faces another penalty for use of the whip:

The stewards fined jockey Alan Garcia $500 for misuse of the whip during the
running of Saturday’s second race. Garcia, aboard co-favorite Five Boroughs,
struck the horse on the side of the face around the far turn as the horse
repeatedly attempted to bear out. Five Boroughs finished fourth in the race.

(Aside: you get a week for whipping that results in your horse bearing out, but $500 for hitting a horse in the face? Hmm.)

Following that spectacular summer of 2008, with the four Grade I’s and the Saratoga riding title, Garcia finished five behind Ramon Dominguez in this year’s jockey race at the Spa. He and Dominguez are currently tied with five wins each at the current Belmont meet (according to the NYRA website), and in four days of racing, he’s won the Grade I Ruffian with Swift Temper and the Grade II Bowling Green with Grand Couturier.

He rode no shortage of impressive races at Saratoga, and his ability is unquestionable. I mean, anyone who can win a Triple Crown race on Da’ Tara deserves a lot of respect, no? But his judgment seems to be a little off, and one hopes that he’s got smart, thoughtful people around him to offer counsel. Maybe he needs the vacation that a suspension would afford?

On another note: a belated thank you to Trackmaster for the past performance information on Irish Blast in my last post.

And after a much-needed (and fortunately brief) hiatus last week, Brian Nadeau will be back tomorrow with a look at Saturday’s $350,000 guaranteed Belmont Pick 4.

And finally: Brooklyn Backstretch turns two today. 661 posts (!) later, thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read, comment, offer suggestions, say hello, advertise, and in general support the musings of a mild-mannered high school English teacher and her racetrack junkie alter ego. I raise a glass (figuratively for the moment, literally later) to all of you–

Mike Kane, communications director for the Racing Museum, moderated the event smoothly and skillfully, encouraging questions for all panel members and keeping things moving. He began the conversation by asking Nick Zito about upcoming plans for his horses. Both Anak Nakal and Da’ Tara are slated to run in this weekend’s Jim Dandy, but Zito wanted to talk about Commentator, who’ll be racing in the Whitney on Saturday. Zito referred to the seven-year-old as “a treasure,” and emphasizing (as he did throughout the evening) his love of racing history and tradition, said that he’d love see his older horse join the ranks of Kelso and Forego, as horses who won big races at advanced (!) ages.

Kane’s first question to Hayward was about the status of the franchise. Hayward noted that NYRA is on its sixth extension, this one due to expire on August 28th. He outlined three things holding up the finalization of the franchise deal: 1) the need to take the approved legislation to contract. Without a contract, the legislation that grants the franchise is subject to change; 2) the need to settle the agreement with the state and transfer the land from NYRA to the state; 3) the need to complete the leases of the properties from the state to NYRA.

This last issue is currently the most challenging; though the Saratoga lease is fairly straightforward, the possibility of development at Belmont and the unresolved VLT contract at Aqueduct make these leases impossible to complete at this time. Hayward sounded encouraged that the issues could be resolved in the near future.

When asked what it felt like to win the Belmont, Alan Garcia said that it was impossible to describe; he noted that Zito gave him instructions for the race and that Da’ Tara “did his job.” When asked if he looked back for Big Brown at any point, Garcia laughed and said no, that he kept his eyes ahead of him until he got within view of the infield screen, when he sneaked a look at the TV and was astonished to see how far in front he was.

Kyle Brownell said that he doesn’t come into the Saratoga season looking for any particular handicapping angles or relying on last year’s form. He noted Kent Desormeaux’s, Cornelio Velasquez’s, and Bill Mott’s successes from last year, but also pointed out that the man who used to dominate Saratoga, Todd Pletcher, wasn’t as successful last year and indicated that he thought that Garcia had a shot to be a dominant jockey this year, given his popularity with trainers and success over the last year.

Making the sort of statements that endears him to the locals, Zito frequently emphasized his love for Saratoga; one such comment was that if the best of racing were a Coke bottle, it was for years filled half with Keeneland and half with Saratoga. Now, he says, it’s all Saratoga. “There’s no better place in racing than Saratoga. Period.” The question of synthetic tracks came up several times and while both Zito and Hayward addressed them, each indicated that he’d speak at greater length at the full-day forum on synthetics next week.

Thence to questions from the audience:

Zito on War Pass: he was injured more seriously than initially thought, and he won’t race again this year. Lane’s End has purchased 75% of him, and Zito would like to convince Bill Farish to run the colt next year.

Brownell on Big Brown’s loss in the Belmont: it can’t be attributed to one factor but to many, including the colt’s lack of experience and seasoning and likely the heat.

Hayward on the same: comparing the Belmont to War Pass’s loss in the Tampa Bay Derby, Hayward commended Zito and LaPenta for reacting to the defeat “with class.” The elliptical comparison couldn’t have been more obvious.

Hayward on the increased take-out as a result of the OTB bailout: “Outrageous, counter-productive, bad business.” He indicated that the mandated increase will mean that out-of-state customers will get a higher return on their bets than New York customers, and that the mandate may well conflict with Kentucky gambling (I wish that I’d taken better notes here–it made sense when he talked about, but I’m missing the details). Hayward declared that the take-out should be 14%; anything higher reduces business, and that NYRA is going to try to “make it right.” He said that those involved lacked the expertise to make a good decision.

Garcia on the differences between racing at Saratoga and racing at Belmont: A jockey can be more patient at Belmont and after racing there for several months, he needs to adjust to the tighter turns here. He also noted the increased competition between jockeys at Saratoga. When asked if he was “scared” of any particular jockeys, Garcia sort of bashfully said, “No,” to which Zito said, “You better not be!” I haven’t at all captured here how engaging Garcia was; there’s a charming self-deprecation about him, and he’s pretty funny, too.

Various panel members on turf sprints: they’ve steadily increased since 2005, and Hayward indicated that they sometimes replace other races in the condition book that don’t fill. Brownell noted that the variety of horses entered (dirt sprinters, turf horses cutting back) make the races hard to handicap, and Garcia, a lead writer rider for queen of the turf sprints Linda Rice, laughed and said that he’d be happy for NYRA to card even more of them.

Other topics raised during the evening were the anti-speed bias at Belmont in mile and a sixteenth and seven furlong turf races; the possibility of a program in New York for those interested in becoming trainers; last summer’s gate problems; Trackus at New York tracks; whether horses are indeed more fragile now than in the past; purse incentives for bigger fields; track surfaces; marketing the sport; fan organizations. I hope to write about these topics in the next few days, but if any of them particularly interests you, please let me know and I’ll make sure to pass on what I heard.

The funniest moment of the evening came near the end; during the discussion about bringing new fans to the game, Hayward had mentioned NYRA Nation. A few minutes later, in response to another question, he mentioned that he’s from New England, when Zito interjected, “Oh, sure, now I get it—NYRA Nation! We’ll see what Mr. Steinbrenner has to say about that!” It drew a big laugh from the crowd, likely a mix of Red Sox and Yankees fans, though there were a lot of out-towners in attendance.

Hayward and Zito clearly have a lot of affection for each other, and there were times when the event felt a little like a lovefest, but the participants seemed to speak pretty frankly about where things are as the Saratoga meet begins, and they seemed to gain a lot of good will. It wasn’t a press conference–hard hitting journalists weren’t grilling them—but the crowd was informed and thoughtful, and each panel member took seriously the questions they were asked. I imagine that they built up some good will as we go into the meet. Unlike the Sunday open house, this is an event I’d imagine returning to each year. Major issues facing racing were addressed, and if you weren’t already a fan of these folks when you walked in, you likely were walking out.

At the NYRA website, Jenny Kellner has a couple of nice articles up. One is from last Sunday, a Father’s Day piece on Allen Jerkens; the other is on Dancinginmydreams, the dam of Dancing Forever, the Phipps/Shug horse who won the Manhattan a couple of weeks ago. Is this the same horse that that movie Dreamer is about? Never saw it, but something about the story sounds familiar. In 2000, Dancinginmydreams suffered a fractured pastern and spent thirteen months at New Bolton before being transferred to Rood and Riddle. After literally years of recovery, she was bred to Rahy and produced her first foal, Dancing Forever. Kellner includes in the article more details about her recovery and subsequent foals.

Over at the Daily Racing Form, Dave Grening writes that Barclay Tagg’s Groomedforvictory might make a quick return to the races following his defeat in the Woody Stephens. I watched him finish second in his first race in November and kept thinking that at some point he’d really break out, but I’m beginning to think that that might not happen. The Woody Stephens was his first graded stakes and first time off the board, and granted, a pretty big step up; the race he’s pointed to on Sunday is an ungraded stakes of the type he won in early May.

The same article tells the story of jockey Alan Garcia’s father, Dagoberto, who rode in his first North American race yesterday, finishing last. A jockey in Peru, Garcia the father has been working for an exercise rider for the last few years here. Maybe his classic-winning son can offer a few tips?

A belated welcome to the Paulick Report, the latest venture by journalist Ray Paulick; it launched on Monday and contains links to current news as well as original reporting and commentary.

And of course, today is the big day on Capitol Hill, when members of the racing industry testify before a House subcommittee on racing safety. I’ll be in a faculty meeting for seven hours with only mute access to the internet, so I’ll have to wait until this evening for a full update. Multiple media outlets live-blogged (is that a verb?) from the Clemens/McNamee hearing…anyone planning to do so today? Update: just learned that Dutrow has cancelled due to illness (this is what I get for writing before reading the morning “papers”). Hmm…at school, we might require a doctor’s note to excuse this absence…

Update #2: Word from Ray Paulick that he’ll be live blogging from Capitol Hill…

Now the Flower Bowl—THAT was exciting! You can sign up for a free account at NYRA to watch race replays; that’s how I saw it, and it was terrific. Alan Garcia is one smooth guy; it seems like he’s always hanging out and charging up the fence to win at the wire—memorably before this, he did it with Shakis in the Bernard Baruch on Travers Day. Saturday Rosinka led the whole way, with Wait A While racing close to the pace and threatening at the end, but Rosinka held off Wait A While as Lahudood charged up the fence to win and pay $44.40. That’s two good races in a row for Rosinka, a very nice filly from Graham Motion’s barn. Only a length separated the top four finishers—take a minute to watch the race, as the finish is well worth it.

Madison is to my right, Floyd to my left, and they’ve got some serious choices to make on Sunday’s card: we’ve got Discreet Cat; Catmosphere, whom I caught a couple of weeks ago at 10-1; and Ice Cool Kitty, who won a race on Thursday. It’s hard for me to believe that she’s going to race again, but she’s on the program, so we’ll see tomorrow.

Hope to post a few thoughts about Sunday’s card before heading to the track in the morning. And yes, I am very, very grateful that the Mets won…