horse – ScaredyCatFilms

Well, we had a great weekend at the Travers Stakes in Saratoga. We beat Hurricane Irene out of Albany, and even took some money from the track. I had a fantastic time, met some fantastic people, caught up with a few friends from days past, saw some awesome racing, and got some great photos. The first race we saw featured a jockey losing his whip, and using his goggles to whip the horse instead! Friday afternoon we were able to see Kentucky Derby contender To Honor And Serve in a claiming race of all places.

horse racing — Jose Lezcano, the jockey on the right is whipping his horse with his goggles.

Mark made friends with one of the track photographers, Connie Bush, and we ran into her Friday afternoon. She was able to get Mark and I visitor’s passes Saturday morning, which was great, a once in a lifetime experience. It also meant that my day started around 4am as I got up, had a shower and headed to the track to photograph morning workouts. We were able to spend some time at the Oklahoma training track, and the backstretch for breakfast. It also meant for a heck of a long day. Mark and I ran into The Mig, retired Hall of Fame jockey Richard Migliore! He was a really nice guy and even posed for a few photographs. Mark maintains he bares a vague resemblance to myself, and I must say I think he is right!

Saratoga Training — Oklahoma Training Track

We got to see great racing all day. I found a horse shoe which must have brought Tracy some luck as she did quite well on the day. We saw the return of Uncle Mo, almost a year to the day that we saw him win his maiden race over this same track. Unfortunately he lost by a nose in a photo finish, but it was an awesome race, and he did so good after a long layoff. He lost his back right shoe, and I was able to capture that with my camera from my spot on the rail. He’s an awesome horse.

It was a great summer at Saratoga, and all in all I was able to take in three race weekends. The Jim Dandy, The Whitney, and The Travers. There won’t be a summer like it for a while. View all my photos from this summer at Saratoga in my flickr gallery.

I’d been looking forward to this race for a few months, as my wife and I were going to be in Philadelphia for Thanks giving, and I knew it wouldn’t be too much trouble to go to New York City from there, rather than driving the 6 hours from Western NY. I was really surprised to see Harlem Rocker as the morning line 15-1 long shot. But I felt good because I knew there was money to be made. I met some friends in NY for the day and saw a couple other HR fans there too.

Took a lot of photos in the paddock area, and generally had a good time. The race was incredible. We were able to get right on the rail and watch Harlem Rocker go by. We were ecstatic and screaming like crazy. Did he win? Who won? And then when he was posted winner we were all yelling and high-fiving and running around like idiots. It was awesome. Then they took it all away. And we were sore losers. We called bullshit and called out Prado a bit.

From the replays at the track it really looked like Harlem Rocker had a half length lead when he cut over. Now that I watch the replay again, I can see Prado pull up a little. But still, like Pletcher said, he had every opportunity to run, and HR went past him. It begs the question, how much room do you need to give before taking the lane? I thought he had a half length at least. If these were two cars, and the white car had passed the brown car and pulled in front of him, then the brown car decided to speed up and go past the white car, would we have said someone got cut off here? Unlikely. Harlem Rocker had the speed, took the position, and then if Tale of Ekati wanted it back, he needed to move and take it.

My friend Mark’s brother John summed it up best, he said: “I’ve seen horses lose after doing less, I’ve seen them win after doing a lot worse, but not in a graded stakes race.”.

The most disappointing thing to me, is that at Aqueduct they have a wall where they post the winning silks for the last 5 years, and all the photos of last winners, and HR will not be up there, and probably nobody will remember how close it was, except us.

Harlem Rocker is quite a fine animal, and he has a lot more white than earlier this year. He’s a fine horse.

It was disappointing to see both Springside injured and Wanderin Boy breakdown.

We all made some money, with Harlem Rocker as such a long shot, and Tale of Ekati too. My friend Mark and I would have each been at least $200 richer had he won, and if I had boxed my trifecta instead of wheeling it, I would have hit that one too. Enjoy these photos of my day at The Big A. The photos are a bit “noisey” but with the time of the year and the time of the race, it was basically twilight and my digital elph doesn’t really do that well in low light situations. I am extremely happy with the photos I got, but you can see my Harlem Rocker photos from the summer time are much crisper.

Springside	Harlem Rocker
Harlem Rocker Paddock	Harlem Rocker Warmup
Tale of Ekati Warmup	Harlem Rocker
Harlem Rocker	Harlem Rocker
Visionaire	Tale of Ekati
Bribon	Arson Squad
Harlem Rocker	Paddock
Harlem Rocker	Harlem Rocker
Harlem Rocker	Harlem Rocker
Pletcher, Coa and Harlem Rocker	Harlem Rocker and Eibar Coa
Gomez and Coa	Coa on Harlem Rocker
Harlem Rocker and Arson Squad	Cornellio Velazquez on Storm Play
Ramon Dominguez on Kodiak Kowboy	Eibar Coa on Harlem Rocker
Eibar Coa on Harlem Rocker	Eibar Coa on Harlem Rocker
Eibar Coa on Harlem Rocker	Edgar Prado on Tale of Ekati
Cornelio Velazquez on Storm Play	John Velazquez on Wanderin Boy
Ramon Dominguez on Kodiak Kowboy	Twilight at the Big A
Harlem Rocker leads the pack to the Finish	Tale of Ekati battling Harlem Rocker
Closing in on the finish	Closing in on the finish

Some wide angle shots.

Photos shot with a Canon SD850IS.

Tag: horse

Travers Weekend 2011

Cigar Mile 2008