Features

Tom Morley missed the Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park Aug. 11 – which became the Englishman’s second Grade 1 victory – for good reason. 

The shedrow of Barn 38 fell quiet after training Friday morning, aside from the rhythmic tap of rain on the roof and the whisper of straw rustling in the stalls. A groom finished wrapping Auspicious Babe’s legs in the first stall, preparing the filly for the biggest start of her career in the Grade 1 Alabama as Dallas Stewart watched from the front of her stall.

Shug McGaughey stood at the end of his barn as rain began to fall Friday morning. Turf works were in full gear, the final set was cooling out and assistants Robbie Medina and McGaughey’s son, Reeve, readied horses to paddock school later in the day. 

Bruce Brown is ready to get rolling and turn things around. Now if only the weather would cooperate. 

Trainer Ray Handal’s girlfriend Holly Ferris pulled up to the barn and unloaded the stable’s most popular member, Elle Louise Handal. The black, white and gray mini pig hopped out of the vehicle and put a smile on the face of Handal’s owners, agents and workers hanging around the Horse Haven stable as she bounced toward the barn. 

“I’ll get them later,” Rudy Rodriguez said Monday night as he stood alongside the back walking ring at the Fasig-Tipton sale of select yearlings.

Mark Hennig won two races early at Saratoga 2018 and is in the midst of a solid 2018 with 19 wins (compared to 22 in all of 2017) and more than $1.5 million in purse earnings. As usual, his two-barn camp deep in the trees on the main-track side’s road to Greentree, features a mix of horses including several from Don Adam’s Courtlandt Farm strong breeding and purchasing program.

Ron Moquett loves Saratoga. He loves Oaklawn Park, too, rightfully so as Hot Springs is where he started and the place he calls home. He loves just about any place like those two spots, where racing dominates the scene and the conversation, everywhere from the backstretch to the butcher shop. 

Ian Wilkes brought a larger than usual number of 2-year-olds to upstate New York last summer for the Saratoga meeting and came away with a pair of victories late in the meet to bring his tally to three for the stand. 

Jimmy Toner brought his usual stable stocked with grass horses to Saratoga for the 2018 meet. Not surprisingly, as the rain-soaked meet approaches its midpoint later this week, the barn’s activity has been light with only six starters through the first 16 days.