Jacimo:
Welcome aboard, and congratulations on your success. I agree with your
assessment of Pyro, who I believe will run only second and third in a lot of big
races until (and if) he can develop the ability to be closer to the front in
the early stages of his races.
I kind of got a chuckle out of the title of your post-- \"Saratoga Memories\"--
because I expected to be reading some memories of yours going back through the
decades. Hopefully you are young enough that this is not possible, and that
most of your memories are yet to be made.
I unfortunately am what might be called a grizzled old horseplayer,and my
memories go back longer than I should be admitting.
I think my first trip to the Spa was in 1977. I remember telling my father
(a recovering compulsive gambler, if there is such a thing) and my mother
(Mom\'s dad was an old fashioned bookmaker who split his years between Miami and
Brooklyn) that I was going to Ithaca to visit friends.
I had been bitten by the racing bug in the mid 70s (maybe no surprise, given
my \"breeding\") and had only heard about the magnificent Spa. When I arrived I
was shocked to find a charming small upstate town which just happened to
have a 100+ year old racetrack on its outskirts. The track of course is still
there but the small charming town has pretty much disappeared.
I went to \"Ithaca\" 3 times that summer of 1977. Before I left on the third
voyage, my father handed me a Racing Form and told me that I might need
something to read up in Ithaca; apparently a friend of my dad\'s had spotted me
at the Spa and couldn\'t wait to get downstate to rat me out.
1979 was the year that Affirmed was saluted and given the key to the City. Some
of my memories regarding that year and event may become part of a separate post
in the interest of keeping this post shorter than a novella. But 1979 may also
be remembered as the year of a comical brawl of NHL like proportions.
The brawl took place on the night that Yankee catcher Thurman Munson tragically
failed to nail the landing in his private airplane. Two friends and I were
relatively innocently enjoying some beers; one of my two friends was wearing a
New York Met hat. A Yankee fan turned to my friend and asked something like
\"I bet you think this whole Munson thing is pretty funny.\" My friend shrugged
his shoulders and within seconds there was a huge pile up on the barroom floor;
the fight spilled out into the street, attracting the attention of the Ith, er
Saratoga Springs police department. Thankfully the bar staff correctly
identified the perpetrators/aggressors, and none of our bankroll was wasted on
something as foolish as bail money.
By 1982, the racing bug had consumed me and I was working on the backside. I was
working for Ronnie Warren, a stubborn, eccentric Kentucky based trainer who was
every bit as large as Larry Jones, and like Jones, insisted on galloping his
own horses. Ronnie trained for a young man who owned some decent stakes quality
horses and wanted to bring them to Saratoga for the Summer. NYRA only gave the
man a handful of stalls, so he bought a piece of property across from the
harness track and built his own barn, which I think H. James Bond might
currently occupy.
Warren liked to dress his horses up when they went to the races-- gaudy
blankets, braided manes and tails, pompoms, etc. The horses coming off a
Kentucky circuit which was nowhere as good then as it is today for the most
part got beaten pretty badly; the barn had maybe one on the board finish from
40 or so starters. Steve Crist, then writing for The New York Times,
wrote an article about Warren\'s runners called \"Beautiful Losers.\"
(Interesting lesson: many of Warren\'s horses, having been beaten badly at the
Spa, scored at huge odds at the Fall Churchill meet.)
1982 was a very memorable year for other reasons. Due to some severe winter/
spring weather downstate, it was decided to run 28 consecutive days up at
Saratoga; it was never considered to do it any other way because Saratoga was
billed as the \"August Place to Be\" and it would have been considered blasphemy
to conduct racing at the Spa in either July or September.
1982 also notable because all 3 Triple Crown race winners-- Gato Del Sol,
Aloma\'s Ruler and Conquistador Cielo faced off in the Travers-- all beaten by
Runaway Groom.
