The Aratoga 20 Solo Jump Swiss Skydiver Soars in Alabama
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Year 20 • No. 11 • Wednesday, August 19, 2020 The aratoga 20 Solo Jump Swiss Skydiver soars in Alabama Tod Marks 2 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020 Corner Cutters. Fevola (3) leads a crowd off the final turn in Saturday’s fifth race. Tod Marks Tod 22.90: Exacta payoff ($1 ticket) of half-brothers He’s No here&there...in racing Lemon and Midnight Tea Time in Sunday’s fifth race. Bred by Presented by Shadwell Farm Alex Campbell Jr., the geldings are out of Grade 3 winner It’s Tea Time. The 4-year-old winner is by Lemon Drop Kid, and the NAMES OF THE DAY LICENSE PLATE OF THE DAY 5-year-old runner-up is by Midnight Lute. Tinder Date, third race Wednesday. Three Diamonds Farm’s TRYFECTA, New York. Sent in by sharp-eyed reader Charlie 29,148,404: Dollars in total handle for Alabama Day, a 2-year-old filly is out of Fleetheart. Fenwick III and family. 14.5 percent increase over Alabama Day in 2019 (25,453,398). Beach Access, seventh race Wednesday. Leah Gyarmati’s 77: Trainers who have won at least one race at Saratoga Race 5-year-old gelding is out of Island Beat. T-SHIRT SLOGAN OF THE DAY Course this year. Got Weed? We think he’s a gardener. Amanzi Yimpilo, eighth race Wednesday. The Irish-bred filly 168,952: Dollars earned per win by trainer Bill Mott’s stable was named by Susan Moulton, one the owners, and means at Saratoga Race Course this year. “Water is life” in the Ndebele language of Zimbabwe. The BY THE NUMBERS name is connected to Will’s Wells, a charitable effort named 45: Consecutive years of seeing at least one race live at Sara- 21: Jockeys who have won at least one race at Saratoga Race for one of Moulton’s deceased sons. Will’s Wells projects in toga Race Course for owner Bill Lawrence, who said the streak Course this year. Africa include drilling water for villages and also wildlife in will end this summer. drought-stricken areas (thank you Ed Bowen). 4: Consecutive years the winner of the New York Turf Writers 88: Months ago that Verrazano defeated Go Get The Basil in Cup Handicap carried 160 or more pounds in 1993-96. Warm Out Of Trouble, third race Thursday. The 6-year-old mare is by the Grade 1 Wood Memorial. In today’s first Verrazano’s son Spell (161), Mistico (168, the record), Lonesome Glory (166) Into Mischief out of Take Me Home Too. Fast Car and Go Get The Basil square off in a hurdle stakes. and Petroski (160) handled the hefty assignments and are the last horses to do it. Moscato and Optimus Prime carry 160 Dark Money, ninth race Thursday. The 4-year-old gelding is 0: Wins in Saratoga’s two biggest jump races, the Smithwick Thursday. by Central Banker out of Candelabra. and Turf Writers, for jockey Darren Nagle. He’s placed in them eight times. The Saratoga Editors/Publishers/Owners: Sean Clancy: (302) 545-7713. [email protected] Joe Clancy: (302) 545-4424. [email protected] Managing Editor: Tom Law: (859) 396-9407. [email protected] Writers/Copy Editors: Photography: Tod Marks. Handicappers: ST Publishing, Inc. 364 Fair Hill Drive, Suite F, Elkton, MD 21921. Paul Halloran, Terry Hill, Mary Eddy, Michael Trombetta Jr. Charles Bedard, John Shapazian, (410) 392-5867 Nolan Clancy, Ryan Clancy. Marketing: Samantha Loud. Rob Whitlock. thisishorseracing.com The Saratoga Special, thisishorseracing.com, Thoroughbred Racing Calendar, The Best of The Saratoga Special, 2020 publication dates: Wednesdays and Saturdays July 18-Sept. 5. New York Thoroughbred Breeders work, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and a whole lot more. Plus Opening Day July 16 & Season Wrap-up Sept. 12. Call us about your editorial needs. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL 3 here&there...in racing Presented by Shadwell Farm WORTH REPEATING “I’m pretty sure she’s not leaving me tonight.” Trainer Ken McPeek after being separated momentarily from his wife Sherri after last Saturday’s Alabama “He doesn’t drive the bus because he needs to, he likes it.” Owner Brian Ivery, about Nutsie the school bus driver and namesake of the Aug. 13 debut winner “I don’t want to try to make the most of it, I’m just going to not go. I’m a picnic table guy so if I can’t do that it’s not going to feel the same anyway.” Ivery, on going – or not going – to the races “Watch a flat race, even horses making the running for 6 and 7 furlongs are up against it at the end, and he was going 2 miles. That’s him. His mentality is, ‘I’m a racehorse.’ ” Steeplechase jockey Darren Nagle, about last week’s front-running winner Iranistan “Normally, you’re worried about the dry cleaning bill during Saratoga. I haven’t worn a pair of pants since March. I wear shorts every day.” Owner Bill Lawrence, on Saratoga in 2020 “Another couple weeks and I’ll have watched everything Netflix ever made.” Lawrence, on pandemic life “It’s great for the clients. John and Theresa (Behrendt, co-owners of Sky Kitten with Charles Marquis) were there, they live in Saratoga so that’s nice. They all love to run in Saratoga and Tod Marks sure love to win in Saratoga, and three of them got to do it.” Seeing Double. Sackatoga Stable’s Jack Knowlton admires the Travers lawn jock- Dave Donk after his three-win Sunday ey painted in his silks thanks to Tiz The Law. POETRY CORNER It’s that Special, by Shawn Meyers The Chief “When Miss Shop won the Sunshine thing, it looked like she’d be A newbie walks the Saratoga stands, a nice grass filly, but I’m not a grass man. It’s just amazing; she’s Fifteen years ago and thinks it grand. run a lot of times for a 4-year-old in this day and age and this He spies a rack of papers stacked, was her best race. I didn’t know that she wanted to go quite that They say they’re “Special” he grabs a pack. Handicappers’ picks, stable tours. far, but Castellano told me last time, ‘Oh, don’t worry about her, Words from the Chief and each day’s scores. she’ll get the distance.’ She trained good and she ran good, and A Cup of Coffee, Worth Repeating, he rode her great, of course. It goes to show, you never know.” Hear & There, tell of the race meeting. After that first visit to the Spa, – Trainer H. Allen Jerkens, 1929-2015, I ask myself “How to connect to it all?” after Miss Shop won the 2003 Personal Ensign Back in PA, I listen to Byk, The interviews with Johnny do the trick, But when it comes to the backside scene, Nothing out there covers the routine. Twenty years a cause for celebration, Pandemic woes grip the track and nation. A fanless Travers won by Tiz the Law, Not many witnesses, ’cept Tom Law. A year without without a crowd – how fateful, New York Thoroughbred Still, we all should be grateful. Horsemen’s Association Happily the brothers Clancy, Realized the value and took a chance see, www.nytha.com 516.488.2337 To write about the Spa’s special gift, And post it all in a pdf. Tod Marks Tod 4 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020 here&there...in racing QUOTE OF THE DAY Presented by Shadwell Farm “It was a great day. Now, back to work.” “It’s been quite a few years since I last went to Saratoga but your publication puts me back in Fay Donk Monday morning after husband the grandstand every time I read it. All of the people who put it together are to be congratulated. Dave Donk saddled three winners Sunday Especially under these circumstances.” Longtime reader Mike Kammerer “Sorry you were the bearer of this news, but Red Smith would have been proud. I first met Pat when I was working at Virginia Stallion Station in Middleburg and decided to visit Powhatan. We became friends during our time at Fair Hill. A classy, gentle man whose memory will remain with many he touched.” Longtime reader and retired trainer Steve Jordan (who we miss at Saratoga) 800-523-8143 “You said the magic words, ‘After Saratoga.’ ” The Special’s Tom Law, while on an editorial conference call Monday afternoon “Beat me to it…” ������� ������� ����� ����� ����� ������� The Special’s Joe Clancy after Sean Clancy typed the above quote in a shared document “I see what you’re doing there.” ������ �� ������ ���� Law, still on the conference call Chair, Equine & Racing Law 516-741-6565 | [email protected] “I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a horse I couldn’t gallop, but I couldn’t gallop him. I couldn’t have done it in my prime and I could gallop anything in my prime.” Trainer Barclay Tagg, about Funny Cide, in the Aug. 29, 2008 Special “. .one barn, two fields, three paddocks, and a wheel barrow.” Elm Tree Farm’s website “About Us” page on how the farm started; there are �e�resen�n� o�ners, trainers, breeders, jockeys, eight barns, 125 stalls and 600 acres now (we’re not sure how many wheel barrows) dri�ers and horse�en associa�ons in business transac�ons and �a�ers before the �e� �ork �tate �a�in� �o��ission “Hopefully I’m talking to you after the race.” and in the federal and state courts.