Features

In honor of the final edition of The Special for 2016, we bring you the “Little Guy” Stable Tour. We scoured the grounds, searching Horse Haven, Oklahoma, the main track, the stakes barn, Clark’s Cottages, Gridley Street and even discovered barns inside the training track on the harness side to bring you the trainers and horses who might not have made headlines this summer, but plied their trade and earned respect. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Sept. 4 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

Timing is everything. At The Special, we like to time things just right. Scheduling a Stable Tour with Leah Gyarmati Friday morning was good timing. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Sept. 3 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

Training hours were finishing up on the main track as the final horse to train out of Phil Serpe’s barn Thursday morning cooled out in a walking ring under a sign that reads Blue Heaven and hangs high on a telephone pole. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Sept. 2 issue of The Saratoga Special.) 

Before Saratoga started, Shug McGaughey and assistant Robbie Medina were looking at the string and thinking big – or at least Medina was. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 31 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

Even though it’s only a short walk away from the main track, Jim Bond’s private barn off of Gridley Street feels miles away from the bustle of Saratoga Race Course. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 28 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

George Weaver won 11 races at Saratoga in 2014 and 12 last year. In the midst of another strong upstate season, he’ll need four over the meet’s final nine racing days to keep the improvement going. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 27 issue of The Saratoga Special.) 

Gray and bay heads peered out over the red stall webbings of Charlton Baker’s shedrow, ears pricked as a horse walked back to its barn from the Oklahoma Training Track. Baker sat in his golf cart parked feet away from the stalls, glancing at a condition book in his hand as he recounted his introduction to racing. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 26 issue of The Saratoga Special.) 

Gray is a common theme at Jim Ryerson’s barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. Gray horses, most owned and bred by longtime Ryerson supporter Patricia Generazio, fill the stalls in the gray barn just off the midpoint of the turn on the Oklahoma. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 25 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

As training hours wrapped up Aug. 19, Rick Violette sits in his office in the middle of Barn 19 just off the three-quarter-pole gap of the main track at Saratoga Race Course. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 24 issue of The Saratoga Special.)

Four weeks into the meet, trainer Carlos Martin looks at his string of 15 in Barn 31 just beyond the far turn of the main track, with a dozen more horses at Belmont Park, and smiles. Five wins, from 16 starts through Saturday? He’ll take it. He’ll also look at a slight change in his schedule and file that away for next year and beyond. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 21 issue of The Sarartoga Special.)