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Tom Law 
Bill Mott accepted the trophy for the Glens Falls Stakes Sept. 5, watched the replay of White Rose’s victory and the simulcast of another stakes race from Kentucky Downs and started his walk to the paddock to saddle Take The Stand in the finale when the subject came around to a colt that didn’t just run at Saratoga Race Course.
Every year, without fail, there is some spectacular material that never makes it to the pages of The Saratoga Special.
On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10924, “to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps …” In the spring of 1962, a steeplechase corral, yes a steeplechase corral, was installed at Belmont Park inside the pony track and adjacent to Plainfield Avenue.
And on May 16, 1966, a roan colt by Restless Native from the Rosemont mare Rosy Prospect was foaled. The foal was born at the historic Sagamore Farm, owned by the venerable racing man Alfred G. Vanderbilt. He named the foal Peace Corps.
Mark Hennig was ready to get back home to Belmont Park. Not because he isn’t a fan of Saratoga, but because he’s got plenty of young prospects he hopes to run there this fall and where he’ll get Merry Meadow ready for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
The days were ticking away and Bruce Brown’s barn on the Oklahoma Training Track was showing the signs of a waning meeting.
Occupied stalls alternated with empty stalls along the shedrow, the horses left behind slated to run over closing weekend or those left behind not far from shipping back downstate to Belmont Park. He was fairly loaded for the last few days of the meeting, including a busy closing day when he was already back home in Floral Park with his wife and three children.
Abby Adsit is always on the go. She talks fast, walks fast and it’s easy to see she likes the action of the racetrack.
A majority of the horses that were in Adsit’s barn on the Saratoga Race Course backstretch this past meet near the three-quarter pole were claimers, along with her personal favorite and turf allowance mare Flamingo Lane.
Drive anywhere near Saratoga Race Course this week and it’s not difficult to comprehend that the 2015 meeting permanently belongs to the ages.
Drive around the city and it’s even easier, many restaurants were closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and it’s a whole lot easier to navigate from one end of Broadway to the other.
In honor of the final edition of The Saratoga Special for 2015, we were proud to bring readers the “Little Guy” Stable Tour. We scoured the grounds, searching Horse Haven, Oklahoma, the main track, the harness track, the stakes barn and Gridley Street to bring you the trainers and horses who might not have made headlines this summer, but certainly earned recognition and respect. We even scaled a cyclone fence to track down a trainer flying below the radar. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find the likes of Desmond Farrell, Lars Becdelamotte, Bill Allyn, Bill Hickey, Bill Heffner, Eddie Miller and we only found Joe Parker’s golf cart. Next year!
Tony Dutrow enjoyed an excellent meet at Saratoga Race Course in 2015. He sent out 20 starters and 17 finished first, second or third. Seven of the 20 starters were winners, none bigger than Embellish The Lace’s front-running score in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes. She shipped out shortly after the Alabama and was back at Dutrow’s base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland as the meet wound down.
Each Thursday night, as if on command, my phone vibrates.
“What’s the plan?”
Since May, Ryan Clancy and I have managed weekend trips to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Haskell, and three to Saratoga. Based in Fair Hill, Md., and Washington, D.C. respectively, we’ve logged more than 3,500 miles and 50 hours in the car together. Newly minted young professionals, it’s our first summer in the “real” world.
