Good morning!
The New York Racing Association announced Thursday it was canceling today’s Saratoga card. It was a stunner, but it was the right move. The weather’s been a bummer, but railbirds don’t have to bring umbrellas and sunscreen. In November, the New York Racing Association announced a joint venture with FOX to televise every card of the meet on FS2 (Comcast Ch. 898).
“Saratoga Live” is a game changer, with six hours of live programming from first post to last call five days a week. It’s far superior to the TVG Network, which airs races from multiple tracks, constantly pushes Pick 6 carryover pools, and shows ads for people with wrinkles, hair loss, enlarged prostates and/or bad credit.
Anchored by A-listers Laffit Pincay III and Greg Wolf and abetted by handicappers Andy Serling, Gary Stevens and Paul LoDuca, the crew’s competitive nature peaks at post time. “I got six dollars left in my account and it’s going on Break Even,” Stevens said last Saturday before the 5½ -furlong Coronation Cup.
“The only one gutsy enough to take a 4-5 shot,” joked the mischievous Serling after Break Even won. “Gary now has $11 in his NYRA account.”
Other insiders make cameos and provide the sort of insight that handicappers crave. “Jose Ortiz just put his feet into the stirrups,” trainer Tom Amoss said before Saturday’s eighth race. “They’ve been out for the last five minutes. His horse is a little wound up and he’s trying to get her to settle down.”
The horse, Varenka, won at 5-2 odds.
Paddock analyst Maggie Wolfendale gives an eyes-on account of what’s happening in the saddling area, and Acacia Courtney — a former Miss Connecticut, as she informed us — stays near the winner’s circle to interview winning jockeys, trainers and owners.
On Wednesday she spoke to Jay Bravenzano, a bowling ball of a man who wore a T-shirt and looked like a Sopranos stand-in. His horse Slimey had made a late move to win by a half-length as the 15-1 longshot. “We were in way over our heads but it all worked,” said the ebullient Bravenzano.
While track announcer Larry Collmus makes the call, viewers get a stewards-eye look at the race from four different camera locations.
Short features between races include segments on Tom Durkin’s guided tours of the National Museum of Racing, and a tribute to trainer Richard Violette who died of cancer last October at age 65. Violette, who was born in Worcester and graduated from UMass-Lowell, worked tirelessly on behalf of disabled backstretch workers.
The Old Spa is a must visit, but “Saratoga Live” is a good alternative. Indeed, the only thing missing is Billy Joel singing “New York State of Mind.”
Andre Peloffy returns to the old barn next Saturday, the Big E Coliseum where he lit the lamp for the Springfield Indians. The diminutive sniper scored 104 goals from 1975-78. He stood 5-feet-8 and weighed 160 pounds dripping wet, but he had a fiery temper and was easily riled.
One night after he was whistled off the ice, Peloffy leaned out of the penalty box and screamed at the ref. He was next to the announcer’s booth and everyone heard his French accent loud and clear when his “Bleeping Bleep-h***” remark went over the sound system.
Hockeyday in Springfield will start at 11:30 a.m. inside the Young Building on the Big E fairgrounds. Plenty of other former Indians players will be at the noontime banquet.
Sponsored by the Springfield Hockey Heritage Society, admission is $27 for non-members and includes food, prizes, raffles and Springfield Indians merchandise. The event will also feature the release of a new book by Bruce Landon, whose hockey days in Springfield began in 1969 when he was a 20-year-old goalie.
The Granite State legalized sports betting last week, and the next step is for the New Hampshire Lottery to get it up and running. Marketing director Maura McCann wrote in an email that requests for proposals (RFP’s) would be going out in August. “From that RFP, we will be selecting companies, going through the contract process and then implementation. We expect the first (wager) in spring of 2020. Bettors will be able to place a wager via mobile, through a Retail Shop (up to 10 of them here in New Hampshire) and at select lottery locations that are yet to be defined.”
Stay tuned for further details.
Williams College senior Sam Goldenring made Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” this week for winning his second straight NCAA Div. 3 golf championship. Coached by Greenfield native Josh Hillman, Goldenring is the 47th Eph to be honored by SI in its “Faces” section during Dick Quinn’s tenure as the school’s sports information director.
Red Sox fan John Bonnor was vacationing in Texas and decided to let out a little steam from his TSA job at Logan Airport. Go-kart riding? Nope. Whitewater rafting? Nope. Bonnor got into a Sherman tank and drove it through the Texas desert. He could’ve fired a round, except it cost $1,000 a pop and there wasn’t a Yankee logo in sight.
Eric Sogard is a diminutive, bespectacled infielder with a career .246 average. In Oakland, fans rallied around him with signs that read “Nerd Power,” and this year he’s batting .299.
Maybe his New England roots are why he’s batting .386 against the Yankees with two home runs. A few years ago, Ray Zukowski told me that Sogard’s father, Bruce (“Rudy”) Sogard, was a good athlete at Mahar Regional School. “He was a wild swinger with good power and a major league arm,” remembered his baseball coach Vic Colo.
After he graduated from Mahar, Rudy broke the home run record at DePauw University and moved to Phoenix where Eric was born.
SQUIBBERS: Former Patriot All-Pro defensive lineman Richard Seymour won $59,295 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. … Niko Hildenbrand and Mitchell Chaffee have been named co-captains of the 2019-20 UMass hockey team. … Maximum Security is the 8/5 favorite to hold off Bob Baffert’s Mucho Gusto in today’s Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, weather permitting. It’s his first start since being DQ’d at the Kentucky Derby and jockey Luis Saez is back in the saddle, but insiders think Max might fold against the field of like-minded front runners. … My eight-year-old grandson Chase is into pro wrestling and was awestruck by the sight of The Big Show. “Five hundred pounds!” Chase exclaimed. “If you get jumped on by him, you might be smushed!” … Orioles castoff Mike Yastrzemski hit his seventh home run for the Giants this week. … Bryce Harper is a J.D. Drew clone, a throws right, bats left Scott Boras client who wanted big money from the Phils. Both are underachievers, Harper in Philly and Drew in Boston where he was all but run out of town after Dan Duquette signed him to a five-year megadeal. .… The NY Post’s Steve Serby asked David Cone to name his favorite Mets moment: “The day I struck out Jack Clark and Keith Hernandez called my sidearm slider ‘The Laredo.’” … Craig Kimbrel has four saves with nine strikeouts and no walks in 6⅔ innings for the Cubs. … The trade deadline is fast approaching and people think Pittsburgh closer Felipe Vazquez would look good in a Red Sox uniform. … Clint Frazier is serving time on the farm after his “I don’t fit the Yankee mold” remark. Frazier’s in Scranton-Wilkes Barre, waiting to be traded. … OK, David Ortiz wasn’t the intended target, but what if shooting his friend was meant to send a message? … MLB’s Ken Rosenthal reported that Cody Bellinger bulked up on an all-milk diet. “He gained 10 pounds almost instantly,” said Rosenthal, adding that Bellinger goes against the grain of his vegan Dodgers teammates. “I am pro dairy. I am dairy everything,” said Bellinger. … The first thing I thought after seeing that Phil Mushnick had called Megan Rapinoe “a foul-mouthed stage hog with an all-about-me diva pose” was that the late, great Vi Goodnow would agree.