SUBSCR ER IPT IN IO A N R S ✫ T COMPLIMENTS OF T O L The aratoga A T I H E EC S SP ARATOGA Year 10 • Issue 25 Saratoga’s Daily Newspaper on Thoroughbred Racing Sunday, August 22, 2010 Lucky Lady Blind Luck dazzles in Alabama Tod Marks Tod Marks Check The Label heads Lake Placid • Entries/Handicapping “A top class facility that does an outstanding job” ~ Barclay Tagg, Kentucky Derby-winning trainer A state-of-the-art facility founded in 2006, Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center houses the latest technological equipment designed to promote safe and rapid advancement for horses recovering from injury. We give your horse every chance to make a successful The Aqua return to competition by providing a variety Cold Pacer of physical therapy options. Saltwater Spa Our staff is thoroughly trained and knowl- edgeable, with a passion for horses and the desire to see your horse return well rested, fit and ready to perform. Situated within the innovative Fair Hill Training Center, we are within easy reach of all major veterinary clinics and racetracks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and are just 10 minutes from I-95. Hyperbaric Relax Oxygen Therapy and Recover Contact us for a full list of our state-of-the-art services or Contact Bruce Jackson visit www.fairhilletc.com Phone: 610-496-5080 721 Training Center Drive for therapy demonstration videos. Elkton, MD 21921 2 Sunday, August 22, 2010 Sunday, August 22, 2010 3 here&there... at Saratoga 517 Broadway, Suite 207 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 (Second Floor, around the back) Phone: (518) 490-1175 Sean Mobile: (302) 545-7713 Joe Mobile: (302) 545-4424 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] Internet: www.saratogaspecial.com Published Wednesday through Sunday during the racing season. Every day of Sales Week Aug. 2-8. The Staff Editors/Publishers: Sean Clancy, Joe Clancy. Staff Writers: Phil Janack, Karen Johnson, Mike Kane, Terese Karmel, Ben Meyers, Katie Bo Williams. Layout/Design: Dan Vunk. Photographers: Tod Marks, Dave Harmon, Connie Bush. Handicappers: Gaile Fitzgerald, Dean Keppler, Brian Nadeau, John Panagot, John Shapazian Assistants: Chelsea Brown, Maggie Kimmitt. Connie Bush Distribution: Ryan Clancy, Jack Clancy, Nolan Clancy, Jane Motion. Leaners. The fans were every which way while watching the backside TV monitors Friday. Advertising Sales: Contact a Clancy or call Kathy Rubin at (203) 650-6815. ST Publishing Inc. Home Office The Special quotes from Saratoga 364 Fair Hill Drive, Suite F, WORTH REPEATING Elkton, MD 21921 (410) 392-5867 • Fax (410) 392-0170 “We do a lot of schooling in California.” License Plates of the Day www.st-publishing.com Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, about paddock schooling Blind Luck [email protected] LUVDTRK, New York The Saratoga Special RACHL A, Kentucky (guess who?) “That’s how my career started and I’ve just kept it up.” Steeplechase Times WOW, we missed the state but it’s on Thoroughbred Racing Calendar Hollendorfer, about staying in as an owner on some of his horses a 1950s era Cadillac and that’s the first The Best of The Saratoga Special thing you say when you see it. Saratoga Days and other acclaimed “I didn’t hesitate.” products and services Hollendorfer, when asked about buying a piece of Blind Luck By the Numbers within the equine industry. 64: Inches in height for the leading to- Call us about your editorial needs. “All you trainers out there, you might try that.” mato plant in Michael Desamo’s back- Hollendorfer’s advice to fellow trainers stretch tomato growing contest “Editorial excellence is not a goal to be sought and one day acquired and then 1: Tomato on the 64-inch tomato plant retired to the trophy case. It is instead “We actually were about 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the next group an ambition which must be pursued who was trying to buy her for the same price.” each day, never ending, never totally Name of the Day achieved. That striving, that ambition is Hollendorfer on the timing of the deal Montessori, 10th race. Peter Callahan an essential part of our newspapers, a homebred is by Jump Start. cornerstone of what we have been, what we are, and what we will be.” “This is off the record.” Parting Words, 10th race. Lael Stable Man to remain nameless, brushing his teeth and talking on 2-year-old reminds us of what we’ll be – Lee Hills, Pulitzer Prize winner, Knight Ridder chief executive, in 1974 his cell phone in the backstretch bathroom Saturday morning providing in two weeks. 4 Sunday, August 22, 2010 Continued from Just Sayin’ here&there... previous page “Lucky. Extremely lucky.” The Special quotes Trainer Charlton Baker about Francis Paolangeli’s Gold For The Queen, a $215,000 earner, WORTH REPEATING from Saratoga purchased for $2,000 as a yearling “We already ran six of those.” Trainer George Weaver, who’s won six races at the meet, when asked if he had one to bet HORSE TRANSPORTATION 800-523-8143 www.brookledge.com “Lucky. Extremely lucky.” Trainer Charlton Baker about Francis Paolangeli’s Gold For The Queen, purchased for $2,000 as a yearling “A jacket, not a sweater – a jacket.” Jock’s agent Doc Danner, advising visitors from “The masters bested the students there.” Kentucky on what to wear on Saratoga mornings Todd Pletcher assistant, Jonathan Thomas, after the Belmont-based Joe Vann got nailed late by the Saratoga-based Curlinello in Saturday’s fourth “In Nome?” Trainer Bobby Reinacher to clocker Brian Walls, “It’s not easy being us.” wearing a ski hat, who said it was 40 degrees Saturday morning Jacqueline O’Brien, about life with husband/trainer/exercise rider Colum “The pictures got more crowded Weather “Fire and brimstone costs extra, we put that in the catalogue.” after that.” Keeneland’s Geoffrey Russell, as a graduate bucked Assistant clerk of scales Eddie Brown, Today: Thunderstorms. his way around a shedrow Saturday morning about Secretariat’s empty win photo after his maiden win; Brown was the valet. High, 72. “All my bags are packed I’m ready to go, I’m standin’ here outside Tonight: Rain early. Low, 65. “She had a halter rub somewhere, your door, I hate to wake you up to say goodbye, but the dawn is Tomorrow: Showers. High, 72. breakin’ it’s early morn, the taxi’s waitin’ he’s blowin’ his horn, already they’ve been there ever since. I’m so lonesome I could die . .” There’s no deep secret to it.” Tuesday: Few showers. Trainer Graham Motion, Name that tune, being sung by an exercise rider on the way back to High, 72. on why Check The Label trains with fluffy the barn Friday (first correct answer emailed to The Special gets a hat) cotton pieces on her bridle Sunday, August 22, 2010 5 ALABAMA STAKES RECAP Flying Blind California filly rallies in stretch to take Gr. I BY SEAN CLANCY Jerry Hollendorfer walked out of Saratoga Race Course and took a good long look around. Music played from Siro’s, fans funneled out and one veteran horse trainer exhaled. “I’m glad to get it done,” Hollendorfer said sim- ply. Hollendorfer shipped Blind Luck from Del Mar to Dave Harmon take on the East Coast’s best Devil May Care, on her Blind Luck rallies past Havre de Grace in the final yards of the Alabama. home turf. It was an audacious move. And it worked. Hollendorfer’s move was pragmatic – there are no Blind Luck made sure nothing mattered with an- Owned by Mark DeDomenico, John Carver, Peter main-track spots for Blind Luck at Del Mar. It was other patented rally to win the Grade I Alabama, the Abruzzo and Hollendorfer, the daughter of Pollard’s also aggressive – Eclipse Awards are won in Saratoga. summer classic for 3-year-old fillies and take a white- Vision needed every inch of the Delaware Oaks, Ken- Blind Luck won for the ninth time in her career, for knuckle grip of the 3-year-old filly title race. tucky Oaks and Las Virgenes, winning nose photos in the fifth time this year and for the fifth time from five Hollendorfer wanted the Grade I Kentucky Oaks the final stride. The Alabama was easy – for her – she career starts on the dirt. and the Grade I Alabama for Blind Luck. Those were won by a neck. Hollendorfer looked down at his pants and shoes. his two goals at the beginning of the year; she won The field broke in a line and in an instant it turned both and also took the Grade I Las Virgenes, Grade II “I got mud all over me,” Hollendorfer said. “I guess See ALABAMA page 8 it doesn’t matter.” Fantasy and Grade II Delaware Oaks. SEVEN 2-year-old winners in 2010 • Third Chance at Arlington Park for Ron Magers and James Divito • Sunday Splitsville at Saratoga for Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher • Another Silver Oak, 3rd in the Sanford at Saratoga for Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher. • Loving Dove at Monmouth Park for Red Oak Farm and Gregory Sacco. • Gambline Geraldine at Belmont Park for Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher. • K.R.’s Jazz at Monmouth Park for A Woman’s Thing and Mary Hartman. • Saratoga Louie at Monmouth Park for Gary Barber and Peter Miller Our graduates include: Vineyard Haven (Gr. l) • Zensational (Gr. l) Contact Jim Crupi Bustin Stones (Gr. l) • Awesome Gem (Gr. l) Toll Free: (866) 313-5400 Macho Again (Gr. l) • Ten Most Wanted (Gr. l) Cell: (352) 427-1600 Stately Character (Gr.