Here & There – Saratoga 2018 postscript
Wow, that sure happened fast. Saratoga Race Course closed shop a little more than two weeks ago, wrapping up a memorable 2018 meeting marked with rain, records, rain, races to remember, rain and more rain.
Tom Law
Freeze Out
He just crossed the Atlantic with a Lord, so to speak, and now Stormy Antarctic is looking to conquer several turf stars in Saturday’s 22nd edition of the $800,000 Ricoh Woodbine Mile at Woodbine.
Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with The Little Guys
First you have to find them. Many don’t appear on the barn list and sometimes when they do appear, you can’t find them in their assigned barns. Some are tucked in the trees in the far corners of Horse Haven. Some are wedged between bigger stables, just a stall or two, like bobbers on a pond. Some bed down in private barns around town, others reside in low-ceilinged barns on the harness track, others, hell, we’re still looking for them.
Fair Lady
Tom Albertrani and Jimmy Bell stood together in the winner’s circle. The sun had set and the shadow of the grandstand and the clouds overhead blanketed the scene as light from the infield boards cast a red and white glow over the turf course. Lady Montdore had just carried her speed 11 furlongs in the Grade 2 Glens Falls, the race ending at 7:27 p.m., just three minutes before Saturday’s official sunset time.
No Anger
Raging Bull can be a handful. So much of a handful that he tests the meet record-setting team at Chad Brown’s barn most mornings and so much that he needed to skip the half turn walk around the paddock to avoid being shook up by rowdy patrons before Saturday’s $300,000 Saranac Stakes at Saratoga Race … Read more
Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Phil Serpe
Warm weather? Stress? Not a problem for Phil Serpe. He lets those things roll off when he’s in Saratoga, more specifically when he’s in the courtyard in front of is barn on the middle of the Saratoga backstretch. The area is known as Blue Heaven and there’s a sign hung high on the telephone pole to prove it.
Lucky Claim
James Bredin admits he wasn’t a proponent of claiming Extravagant Kid; he simply didn’t see value in the gelded turf sprinter. But as the longtime racing manager for David Ross’s DARRS Inc., Bredin filled out the claim slip for $75,000 when the 5-year-old ran at Gulfstream Park Jan. 18. Extravagant Kid won the optional claimer that day and Ross had a new horse.
Low to High
Jaime Roth thought about sitting one out, still feeling the sting of losing a filly in a Saratoga stakes race less than a week before her family’s LNJ Foxwoods ran another filly in another Saratoga stakes race.
Singing Along
Everett Dobson and Ed Gaylord partnered on many horses over their three decades of friendship, some good, some bad, yet their association waned a bit in recent years.
Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Michelle Nevin
Michelle Nevin leaned on a board inside her shedrow of Barn 73 on the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning as training hours wound down. The native of Tipperary, Ireland, grew up in racing and took out her license in America in 2013.
