iRacehorse
Volume 1 Number 4
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Saratoga Musings
GREETINGS
Saratoga - A Summer Place to Be by Dave Cabano
Saratoga – A Family Affair by Barbara Cullinan
Mabou by Sean Kerr
The Woodward Stakes by Angelika Hala
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iRacehorse Dear Friends – To horseracing fans summer is synonymous with Saratoga Springs. During the 40day race meet from mid-July until Labor Day, the small town in the north of New York state, is the place to be. During the summer the town appears to be a mere extension of its racetrack. The townspeople share their friendly and cheerful town with horsemen and tourists, and Hall-of-Fame trainers and jockeys become your neighbors for a few hours or days – or the entire meet if you are one of the lucky ones to be able to spend your summer here. The 150th anniversary of the Civil War reveals the historic dimension of Saratoga Racetrack – opened in 1863 by John Hunter and William R. Travers, and in 1864 the Travers Stakes was run for the first time, when the young country battled for its survival. The country’s most famous and revered racehorses galloped at Saratoga track, Man o’War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Kelso, and the so beloved Rachel Alexandra showed some of the best male horses in the United States the back of her heels when she beat them in the Woodward Stakes in 2009. We invite you to enjoy 5R Stable members Barbara Cullinan and Dave Cabano’s articles on Saratoga Springs, and hope you are among the fortunate to enjoy the final week of racing at the “Spa” in person. For us racing fans Saratoga is what we would like for horse racing to be: Great racing with good field size, amble track attendance, plenty of opportunities to meet horsemen and to socialize with fellow sport enthusiasts over drinks after the races. And Saratoga is a reminder that the race year is not over after the Triple Crown races are run, and that we are only now beginning to see which of the three-year olds will continue on into the stakes race season of autumn and which horses will be able to compete at the level of the Breeder’s Cup competition. So much to look forward to – enjoy the remainder of summer – Yours, Angelika Hala Sean Kerr 3
The Summer Place to Be As the best horses from around the country make their annual pilgrimage to thoroughbred racing's heavenly Mecca," Saratoga Racecourse", the town of Saratoga itself has begun to role out the red carpet. Decorative floral arrangements and fresh coats of paint spruce up the town's historical treasures as commemorative banners announce the start of the 2011 race season.
Yet, at the same time, the infield electronic scoreboard, video display monitors, and the electronic ticket machines spitting out dreams of a winner, remind you that while your mind may drift to the past, you are definitely a part of a more modern era.
Horse racing the way it is supposed to be.
The sounds, the smells, the ex‐ hilarating excitement – with a unique blend of the past and the present the 100‐year old Saratoga Racetrack is unmatched by any other sports venue in the country.
Sitting in America's oldest sport's grandstand folklore and history rise from the structures surrounding you. You can imagine the horse‐drawn carriages of yesteryear arriving with the grand dames dressed in their finery and the gentlemen in their top hats at the track for an afternoon at the races.
The new stables at the old Whitney Estate now owned by the Sheik
The Best Show Summer Has to Offer The thrill of some of the country’s best horse racing season alone is worth a visit, but it is the town of Saratoga that must be experienced during the race meet. The excitement builds with each passing day as the towns‐people prepare to once again put on the best show that summer has to offer. There is no better place to spend an afternoon, a day, a week, a month or the entire summer.
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The food, the drink, the concerts at the Saratoga Arts Center, a stroll through Yaddo Gardens, a Polo match at sunset, a boat outing on the lake, a visit to The National Museum of Dance, The Automobile Museum or the National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame, a bike trip or hike to Saratoga National Park, a picnic in Congress Park, the golf, the shopping along Broadway and ‐ oh ‐ did I mention the food and drink?
guarantee you will be back year after year. For those of you who have experienced "The Summer Place to be," you know what I mean. I hope to see you soon!
Painted horse on Broadway. These artistic horse statues are placed throughout Saratoga during the race meet
5R member David Cabano blogs on his websiteTogaTout.com <http://TogaTout.com> , Saratoga's online handicapping tip sheet. Now in it's second year, TogaTout is proud to announce that it is also on Facebook and Twitter. Please visit and subscribe to TogaTout’s “Cheat Sheet” and get the latest, up to the minute information directly from the track.
Oklahoma Track: waiting for the workouts to begin
Restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs can be found all over town for every taste and mood. And above all there is the general air of calm and relaxation. A warm handshake is the norm, a smile, people make eye contact. There is a family‐like fraternity with everyone you pass or meet and you may wonder why it cannot be this neighborly everywhere yougo.
What To Do in Saratoga?
1. A stroll down Broadway at dinnertime will give you a feel of the town. 2. Best restaurant not advertised that much, Pennells fantastic 5 star local restaurant (off the beaten path but a must), try the Lasagna (like Mom used to make and more than most people can possibly eat.)
There is something about Saratoga that cannot be done justice with pen and paper. It must be experienced in person to be understood and appreciated.
3. Another Saratoga must ‐ the picnic area at the racetrack next to the paddock. There is nothing like it. Family picnics meet thoroughbred racing. I absolutely love it.
For those of you who have never visited, put it on your calendar. I
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back after so many years: Would we even recognize the town? hen we finally drove up Broadway it was as if W we had stepped back in time – sure, there were new stores and new restaurants but it still looked and felt so much the same as it did back then – what would happen when we got to the track?
A FAMILY TRADITION
by Barbara Cullinan All through my childhood, every summer, my family spent two weeks of our vacation in Saratoga during the racing season. My dad loved the culture surrounding the sport as well as the Thoroughbred racehorses (and the occasional Standardbred racehorse). He loved it so much that one year we took a road trip across the entire United States where he made sure that the route included stopovers in any town where there was a racetrack.
Looking north on Broadway on July 16, 1973. (Bob Richey/Times Union)
Years went by, other interests became more prevalent, and Saratoga took a backseat in my life. Only after my divorce and the death of my father, I decided I wanted to go back to Saratoga and take my mom for a long summer weekend to the “Spa”. My mom jumped at the idea. We were wondering what it would be like to be
Chicken Sadie’s was gone ‐ she had the best fried chicken and homemade lemonade ‐ but now there is a Shake Shack (Danny, please bring your ‘shroom burgers” to the Spa!).
The horses no longer get tacked up under their individual trees. Now everything is fenced off (safer, really), and all the pre‐race activities take place in the paddock area.
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horse we knew from New York running up there. Horses used to have longer careers than they do now.
Heading to the track c Barbara Cullinan
And boy, are there a LOT more people at the track, even mid week. Mom and I contemplated whether this was a sign of the overall global population increase or was it possible that there are just plain more racing fans?
On a warm summer night this was heaven We used to sit in lawn chairs in the grass across from the jockey’s quarters and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves during the week. Now you have to stake out a place early, real early! When I was young we would also go to watch the harness racing in the evenings (the cheapest box seats in any sports venue anywhere!). On a warm summer night this was heaven.
Saratoga still features the National Museum of Racing but it has since grown into a much larger and more modern facility. There are many more photographs and paintings to look at. And they even now have an “Equicizer”, a mechanical exercise horse that jockeys sometimes use.
Jerry Bailey rides the Equicizer at the National Museum of Racing
(courtesy National Museum of Racing)
And when we just couldn’t get enough of racing dad would take us on Sundays, when there was no racing at Saratoga, to Green Mountain Racetrack (now gone) at Pownal in Vermont. Sometimes we would even see a
Of course, I had to try it and couldn’t walk for the rest of the day. How do those jockeys do it! It is a comfort To have a place Where things can be Counted on To stay Pretty much The same To my delight I saw that kids still get their favorite jockeys’ autographs before and after the race.
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Mural at Siro’s Courtesy Siro’s Restaurant
Barbara’s sister Julie getting collecting jockey autographs (early 70s,)
Nice to see another generation (or two….) of young racing fans that think that jockeys are the greatest and most daring sports stars as I always thought they were. I mean, after all, Jerry Bailey said it best when he asked how many athletes have an ambulance following them? The boxed fried chicken lunches served in the field across from the track on Union Avenue are gone but you can take a nice walking tour of the Oklahoma track and possibly see Greatness during their morning workout.
The Fasig Tipton pavilion had a facelift last year but is pretty much the same beautiful venue it has always been for the annual Saratoga Yearling sales (a treat to experience).
Fasic Tipton Sales Pavillion at Saratoga in August 2010 (courtesy Fasig Tipton)
Since our first weekend back at Saratoga, mom and I have made it our yearly tradition to visit again every year. We look forward to another trip this year to the Spa and I hope that little has changed once again. When the entire world around us is changing by the minute, it is a comfort to have a place where things can be counted on to stay very much the same. Oklahoma Stables c Barbara Cullinan Siro’s restaurant is still around but now there are fancy chalets around the track where you can have private parties right along the rail. Celebrities still make their appearance at the track but now they are harder to spot in the crowds.
Funny Cide as a lead pony at Saratoga c Barbara Cullinan
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MABOU by Sean Kerr The day we got approval for the 5R Racehorse Stables to race Dremz, Dixie and Cappy to be registered as NY bred horses, I was supposed to meet Sandy Levine at Saratoga Racetrack after the NY Breeders Fund meeting. Unfortunately I was called back to work after the meeting and had to return to New York City. I called Sandy to cancel he was quite excited about his new acquisition “Hey, we just claimed a steeple chase horse named Mabou.” This was quite a surprise because his other partnership is ‘Drawing Away Stables’ who are a well established New York City claiming stable racing only the flat races. I wondered “Why did they take on a steeple chase horse?” I figured they wanted to switch him to the flats. After wishing Sandy ‘good luck’ with his new claim I rolled down US Highway 9 towards the New York State Thruway with that bittersweet feeling one feels upon leaving the magical Saratoga.
Why did they take on a steeplechase horse? Angelika and I had been discussing the possibility of getting into the steeple chase circuit. Recently Jazz Napravnik had a claiming horse on her watch list – she was selling on the idea that he would make a good candidate to switch from flat to jumps and that we ought to claim him. Jazz has won stakes level races on the steeple chase circuit. I called her after speaking to Sandy and she said,
“Oh yea, Mabou I know him. I actually rode him one time.” If Sandy’s team were to put him back into a flat claiming race that we ought to think about putting in a claiming bid. As John Lennon said “Life is what happens when you are busy doing other things” and of course me and Angelika got distracted by a new flood of demands at our respective jobs. But I kept wondering about the oddity of seeing a Dynaformer son with Royal Academy on his dam side in a claiming race at Saratoga, and in the jumps at that. Also we were involved in trying to form a flat partnership for two PA bred 2 year old. Regrettably we didn’t succeed in finding enough investors. So whatever daydreams I had about Mabou were pure fantasy anyway. In the middle of an especially chaotic day at my job, my iPhone signaled that a text message had just arrived. “Mabou just won the NY Turf Writers Cup steeple chase – a G1!” were the words glaring at me from the message sent by Jazz. I laughed out loud but everyone around me was so busy that no one noticed, as I imagined big Sandy Levine, the Governor of Aqueduct screaming at his horse A STEEPLE CHASE HORSE 5 ¾ lengths ahead through the wire.
That is what horse racing is all about. I called Sandy and we just laughed and laughed before we could even begin to really speak. He explained that their trainer David Jacobson’s father was deeply involved in steeplechase horses for 40 years. That was Buddy Jacobson who was the first trainer that the late
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Robert J. Frankel worked for. Apparently David had wanted to take on a steeplechase horse for a long time but had never done it. Now the time seemed right and he decided to go for it. When he called up Drawing Away Stables, he offered to buy into a claiming partnership for the horse but only a few of the Drawing Away group bought in. Sandy Levine was one of them. He trusts David and bought in solely by David’s recommendation. Sandy told me, “What do I know about steeple chase racing?” The story gets better at least in terms of ‘what if’ scenarios. As I type, Mabou is on a van heading to Aqueduct racetrack. The plan is to continue training him and perhaps enter him into one tune-up race at Belmont: but the real target is a steeple chase race at Fair Hills, New Jersey later this fall in October. If Mabou wins another Grade 1 race he will automatically be nominated as a candidate to win an Eclipse Award!
Mabou notes: Breeder: Ironwater Farms and Sarah K. Ramsey; State Bred: KY Winnings: 33 Starts: 10 - 2 - 3, $243,274 At 8: 1st New York Turf Writers Cup Steeplechase H.(G1-NSA,Sar); Unraced as a 2 year old; Six of seven career wins on the turf; Hurdler. 8/11one of few steeplechase horses claimed at Saratoga (by David Jacobson) Won G1 stake in next start just 2 weeks later.
Few things in horse racing can top all of that. But standing in the winner’s circle is not everything for Sandy; Mabou had already won over his new connections. “Hey, this horse knows his name. When I call him he comes running up to the stall door. He is the friendliest racehorse I have ever seen.” Few Things in horse racing can top all of that.
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The Woodward
Stakes
by Angelika Hala
Racing fans tend to develop tender and passionate feelings towards certain racehorses and consider certain races their personal highlights of each racing year. In 2009, the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Racetrack became such a race for many racing fans when the muchloved filly Rachel Alexandra was entered in the race, which usually features an all-male field. The casual racing fan might not have paid that much attention to the Woodward Stakes but that year the race was an event not to be missed, and the name Woodward appeared in a number of news headlines on the weekend of the race.
Half a century ago, the name Woodward made headlines often, the Woodward family was synonymous with horse racing: William Woodward Sr. had built Belair Stud into one of the leading breeding and racing empires of the country.
In syndication with A.B. Hancock Sr., he brought the stallion Sir Gallahad III from France to the United States, whose son Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown and in turn sired the Triple Crown winner Omaha. William Woodward Sr. served as chairman of the Jockey Club for two decades and the Woodward Stakes was named in his honor after he died in 1953. The first running of the Woodward Stakes took place at Belmont Park on October 2, 1954.
Woodward Sr. did not live to see the incomparable Nashua race in the white and red polka dot Belair silks in one of the greatest sports events of the year 1955. His son, Billy Woodward Jr., was a great sportsman and loved horse
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racing. After taking over the racing enterprise from his father he had agreed to race his precocious colt in a match race against the equally great colt Swaps. Nashua beat Swaps over a sloppy track, and topping the sports pages again when he was awarded Horse-of-the-Year title in 1955.
Nashua with Arcara up is led by Billy Woodward to the Winner’s Circle at Washington Park
Only a few months later Billy Woodward Jr.’s name made the headlines, however, this time under the dark and somber circumstances of his accidental death at the hands and the shotgun of his wife Ann. A German immigrant had attempted to break into the Woodward mansion and for protection the couple had each a weapon ready in their individual bedrooms. Their marriage had been on the rocks and it is, therefore, not surprising that many speculated that Ann Woodward shot her husband intentionally, but evidence and the testimony of the German burglar cleared the widow of
murder charges. Billy’s death regrettably meant the end of Belair Stud – the stable was auctioned off.
The name Woodward and the accomplishments of the great succession of horsemen with that name lives on in the Woodward Stakes – a race to remind us that racing history is not only made in the long ago past but can just as well be something we can witness now. Let’s look forward to the 58th running of the Woodward Stakes in Saratoga on September 4, 2011.
Rachel Alexandra with Calvin Borel up wins the Woodward Stakes in 2009
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iRacehorse Upcoming issues Jockey Gold Cup Breeder’s Cup iRacehorse is published by Angelika Hala and Sean Kerr in cooperation with fellow racing fans and 5R Stable members.
5R: Rescue-Rehabilitate-Race-Retrain-Retire For the Welfare of the Racehorse
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