Today is Day 22 of the Saratoga Race Course meet. Racing starts at 1:05 p.m.
RECENT STORIES FROM THE DAILY GAZETTE AT THE TRACK
“After shot at Vanderbilt, Ny Traffic back to New York-breds,” by Mike MacAdam
Ny Traffic has spent plenty of time on the open road.
That is, he’s run in way more open graded stakes, including the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, than he has in stakes restricted to New York-breds.
Most recently, Ny Traffic took on the best sprinter in the country, Jackie’s Warrior, in the Grade I Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga Race Course.
“Chatting at the track with … Najja Thompson,” by Will Springstead with photos from Erica Miller
Najja Thompson, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, brings an eclectic background to the position. He worked for the New York Racing Association in a variety of departments, including communications, marketing and even human resources, where he had the important job of recruitment and employee engagement right after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a three-month shutdown of racing in 2020.
“At 8, New York-bred gelding My Boy Tate keeps on running,” by Teresa A. Genaro with photos from Erica Miller
Following the monumental success of the Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale earlier this week, a sale that saw gains in gross sales and in average and median sales price, and at which 14 horses sold for more than $1 million, a record for this sale, attention will now turn to the company’s sale of preferred New York-bred yearlings, set for this coming Sunday and Monday.
On Friday night, New York Thoroughbred Breeders will host its annual awards event, for the first time during the racing season. That afternoon, Saratoga Race Course will run three stakes races for New York-bred horses, each of them worth $125,000. Among those competing is My Boy Tate, an 8-year-old gelding running in the John Morrissey Stakes.
Tate, as he’s called in the barn, has earned nearly $720,000. He’s run 32 times, winning 10 times, finishing second nine times, and finishing third twice. He was bred and is trained by Michelle Nevin, who co-owns him with Little Red Feather Racing.
“Gun Runner colt sells for $2.3 million at Fasig-Tipton auction,” by Mike MacAdam with photos from Erica Miller
Gun Runner produced the highest price for a single sale, but Curlin’s overall performance at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale couldn’t be topped on Monday and Tuesday.
“Whitney winner Life Is Good pointing toward Breeders’ Cup Classic,” by Mike MacAdam with photos from Erica Miller
Life Is Good has only run longer than a mile four times in his career and has run a mile and a quarter just once, but after he won the mile-and-an-eighth Whitney at Saratoga Race Course Saturday, trainer Todd Pletcher said they’re leaning toward the longer of two races at the Breeders’ Cup.
That would be the mile-and-a-quarter BC Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5, instead of the BC Dirt Mile, which Life Is Good won last year.
“Remembering Allan Carter, a trusted friend and treasure trove of horse racing history,” by Teresa A. Genaro
Paula Curtis-Carter stood in front of the dozens of people assembled at the Principessa Elena Society in Saratoga Springs on Thursday. She held aloft a cup containing a couple of fingers of Guinness, preparing to lead a toast to her husband Allan Carter, who died in April.
Before spending 15 years as the historian at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, before spending 30 years as a law librarian at the New York State Library in Albany, Carter had joined the U.S. Army, learning Russian in a nine-month intensive language program before being posted to Japan.
“Nostrovia!” cried Curtis-Carter, anglicizing a Russian term commonly interpreted as “cheers” before offering a similar toast in Japanese. “Kanpai!”
A man from Glens Falls, toasted in Russian and Japanese, with an Irish beer. And that just begins to tell the multifarious story of a man whose name became locally synonymous with racing history.
“Chatting at the track with … David Aragona,” by Will Springstead with photos from Erica Miller
David Aragona is what one might call a numbers and rhythm guy.
As a dual major in computer science and music at New York University, Aragona found a way to work in both music – Carnegie Hall, specifically – and horse racing before settling on horse racing.
“I use very little of either one these days,” Aragona said, chuckling, about his two majors.
He currently works for the Daily Racing Form as a TimeformUS analyst, in which he basically analyzes races to suggest horses and things to watch to the public. He’s also the linemaker for the New York Racing Association tracks.
“Borisenok, Brown Road Racing encouraging women to get involved with thoroughbred ownership,” by Teresa A. Genaro with photos from Erica Miller
Michelle Borisenok may have raised a few eyebrows with her comments at a conference for new and existing racehorse owners last week.
“It’s not so much about winning,” she said of Brown Road Racing, a partnership that she founded in 2018. “For us, it’s about education and it’s about the experience.”
A week later, talking at her farm overlooking Saratoga Lake, she elaborated on that mission.
She created Brown Road Racing to attract and educate women about the experience of thoroughbred ownership, a natural progression from the women’s leadership work she’s been doing for decades. A graduate of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, she is an honorary member of the college’s Women’s Leadership Institute, to which she and her husband Walt donated $1.2 million to renovate the Institute’s Albany headquarters, which is now named the Michelle Cuozzo Borisenok ’80 House. Among the building’s uses is as housing for BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholars. Through centers at six Northeast institutes of higher education, BOLD “cultivates courageous leadership” for students and graduates of the member institutions.
TODAY’S RACING INFO
~ Sign up for The Daily Gazette’s horse handicapping newsletter ~
TODAY’S PICKS
Categories: -Sports-, At The Track, Sports
