A Thousand Battles, A Thousand Wins
Real Writing on Racing 💯
“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”
- Sun Tzu
One thousand wins. It has such a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? A nice round number, a sum total encapsulating an extraordinary career, in a special place, by a remarkable athlete. Yet jockey John R. Velazquez is much more than just an athlete, the numbers like 1000 Saratoga wins, a mere measurement of his talent and dedication to his craft in the saddle.
He is 50 now, the elder statesmen of the jockey set, in the twilight of his professional life. Velazquez has been riding since 1990, his earliest starts pre-date Equibase’s chart listings, yet he is still as sharp on the back of a horse as he ever was. The all-time leading money earning jockey, with in excess of $455 million earned, he was elected to the Hall of Fame a decade ago in 2012 when Irad and Jose Ortiz were still bug boys. Velazquez has been the all-time leading jockey at the Spa since 2013, 406 wins ago.
We could list all his accomplishments, like 26 riding titles at NYRA tracks or two Eclipse awards. We could speak about his most important victories like the 5 Triple Crown races or 17 Breeders Cups. Yet those are just numbers and letters on paper, they don’t capture the essence of the man, the highly respected status he has achieved, the great life with a great family, that he has carved out.
It’s hard to think of legendary Puerto Rican athletes without the great Roberto Clemente’s name leading off the list. When he perished in a tragic accident while on a humanitarian mission on New Year’s eve in 1972, his plane went down just off the coast of the city of Carolina, PR. Clemente had achieved his 3000th and last base hit in the final game of that 1972 season, a nice round number that will always be his. A little boy that was just barely one years old lived in Carolina at the time, a boy that would grow up to become a legend in his own right, with his own nice round number that will always be his, win number 1000 at the greatest track of them all, Saratoga.
Congrats Johnny V! Clemente would be proud. I know that all of us who have known you since the beginning of your riding journey sure are.
🎪 Race one report 🫠. I can only say that last place finisher Naked and Famous should probably get a name change to just Naked as his career arc doesn’t seem to be heading toward famous.
🎪 The touted clocker report horses, Playlist, Can’t Keep Me Down and Lady Caraggio (Ire) finished 6th, 7th and 10th. The winner was a PA bred by Peace and Justice named Dontlookbackatall for Chris Clement and Flavian Prat who rallied to win by 2 at 11-1.
🎪 Hot Tub Time Machine Alert 🚨! Wayne Lukas won another two year old race! This time it was Western Ghent getting the job done, re-rallying under apprentice Jose Gomez to nail favored Ee Yah at the wire. Ee Yah had seized control from the pacesetting Western Ghent turning for home and drew clear by a length or two before running out of training and squandering the advantage late. The winner returned $28.80 to his backers.
🎪 Rocky Sky (Ire) took the money on the board, going off the 3/2 favorite in the NW2x allowance going 12 furlongs on the weeds. Beside Herself, got the money in the race, leading the field of distaff marathoners on a merry chase, going wire to wire under a well measured ride from Flavian Prat for Team Pletcher.
🎪 Prat again in the 7th, getting James Jones ( hopefully not named after the Kool-aid guy 😳) up in time to win the entry level allowance going 1 3/16 on the lawn for Brant/Brown.
🎪 Precursory under a heady Johnny V ride, gets his special win in the MSW for 3 and up fillies going 7 furlongs for Juddmonte/Bill Mott. Tizzy in the Sky had an eventful trip to say the least.
🎪 Sometimes in racing you get unlucky. Sometimes you just handicap poorly. I definitely committed the sin of the latter as I simply couldn’t see Gina Romantica taking to the turf as well as she did, sweeping by the field to capture the Riskaverse stakes, Prat’s fourth winner on the card. To be completely candid, I didn’t really like the fillies who ran 2nd or 3rd either so let’s just turn the page on the whole sordid affair.
🎪 I believe the majority of those still in attendance for the finale thought that Sandrome and Luis Saez had held off Digital Future and Irad Ortiz in the $35000 NW2 5.5 furlong turf event. The win photo didn’t agree with that sentiment and the latter was declared the winner for the Brownies and Ortiz. Interesting name showed up in the claim box as Monte Gelrod of harness racing fame claimed 6th place finisher Spettro with Charlie Baker listed as trainer.
🧮 Thursdays announced attendance was 24,977 and handle was $17,241,432 on a beautiful late summer day. Rain showers are expected for Friday late morning through the afternoon. Travers Saturday is looking like it’s going be ideal conditions with a high of 79 and no precipitation.
☑️ Check out yesterdays Blog post (HERE) and vote on our latest poll!
Day 32 (8 racing days left)
🏳️ Advance edition for Saturdays card (Friday’s card has uncertain weather and we just didn’t have much of an opinion)
(Sat) Ballston Spa Gr II $400,000 1 1/16 Mellon Turf F/M
High Opinion - ran really well in last years Ballston Spa (Gr II) when moving way up in class. This year her form has been spotty and the pace dynamics stink for her as well. Dutrow has endured a quiet meet (13-0-0-1) and this spot doesn’t look all that promising either despite it being a short field and the least compelling of Saturdays graded stakes
Lemista (Ire) - has never really gotten untracked in the US since coming over from Ireland though she did finally win a race, the Matchmaker (Gr III) at Monmouth on the Haskell undercard last out, outlasting Fluffy Socks in a battle of the Brownie B team.
Our Flash Drive - the best hope for an upsetter though that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement either. Has tactical speed but isn’t as fast early as expected pacesetter, Technical Analysis. Needs to keep that one honest and take the race to her on the final turn and hope to outrun her in the lane.
Fluffy Socks - a charter member of the Brownie B team, is at a disadvantage pace-wise as she prefers to sit and make a late run which may be difficult in this group with an expected tepid pace.
Technical Analysis - ran super to be second to stablemate In Italian in the Diana over a very fast course in last. Has excellent record at Saratoga (3-2-1-0) and looms as the controlling speed and a short price for regular rider Jose Ortiz.
James Jones, named after anyone that voted for Trump. Definitely not named after my classmate with the same name.
And Charles Simon's written words add beautifully to yesterday's tributes and John Velasquez's very special day at Saratoga.