SUMMER FUN AT THE SPA
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Before we head down state, a look back at some salient points of the 139th meeting at the Old Spa:
GRASS DASHES: Of 152 turf races at the meet, 38 – the equivalent of four full racing cards – were 51/2-furlong sprints, up from 22 last summer. Those 60 grass dashes the past two meets are surely more than were run at Saratoga, perhaps all of New York, in the previous 137 years.
Averaging more than nine starters per race, they were wide-open betting affairs, with payoffs including $75.50, $45.80 and $39.60. On the flip side, turf sprints were death for chalk players, with just five (5!) winning favorites.
TOP-JOCK LONG SHOTS: Going into the final day of the meet, Cornelio Velasquez and Kent Desormeaux were in a dogfight for the riding title. So you think they got to the top winning with short prices? Wrong.
Velasquez has lit up the tote with winners paying $97, $87.50, $63, $39.60, $34.20, $30.40 and $29.60. Desormeaux’s payoffs include prices of $83.50, $48, $38.20, $29.20 and $21.20.
TERRIFIC TRIO: Leading rider is still up for grabs, but Bill Mott locked up the training title days ago; the same with leading owner Zayat Stables. Together, Zayat horses trained by Mott with Desormeaux riding went 12-for-24 at the meet, including three straight yesterday.
FRANCHISE FOLLIES: Gov. Spitzer came up to the press box on Travers day to discuss the future of the racing franchise, held since 1955 by NYRA, which expires Dec. 31. Saying that his choice for the new franchise holder might not be announced by tomorrow’s deadline, Spitzer offered no specifics.
He did, however, back off his earlier line-in-the-sand stand that NYRA does not own the racetrack properties, as it claims. Spitzer said that, while he still believes the state owns them, it’s an issue to be settled in court or as part of the new franchise agreement – which suggests a deal with NYRA is a fait accompli.
TRACK NOT-SO-SUPER? At a meeting of the N.Y. Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association last Friday, NYTHA president Rick Violette said many trainers were up in arms over their horses getting injured during morning training hours because the track was too hard. They cited NYRA director of racing surfaces John Passero for packing it down every night, even when there was no threat of rain.
“It’s the one issue that can unite the horsemen,” Violette said. “It’s smoldering out there. There’s a big, big resentment. Something has to happen.”
Violette said he was told track-maintenance procedures would be changed: “The staff at NYRA want to make us happier. I take them at their word.”
Passero’s response: “That’s news to me. I’m continuing to do what I’m doing. I’m not out to hurt horses, that’s for sure. If they are [getting injured in the mornings], it’s not because of the racetrack. I feel very strongly about that.”
BAFFERT’S BABIES: After going into “crisis mode” at Del Mar, where he used to be the leading trainer every year, because his speed-sharpened horses weren’t winning over Del Mar’s new, slow-as-molasses Polytrack surface, “Bullet Bob” shipped several runners to the Old Spa, where, he said, there is “real racing, on dirt.”
The move paid off when Baffert’s $4.6 million, 2-year-old colt Maimonides, who runs in today’s Hopeful, won first time out by 11½ lengths. Last week, Baffert’s J Be K set the track record for 5½ furlongs, winning his debut. The day after that, his filly, Indian Blessing, shaded that same mark in her first start.
Baffert won the Adirondack with $1 million 2-year-old filly More Happy, and his hulking 4-year-old colt Midnight Lute took the Grade 1 Forego in a runaway.
