Time to… Reenter…regroup…recalibrate…reload…restock… Saratoga is over. The Saratoga Special is done and dusted for another year. Twenty-four in the books. We are in the planning stages for our silver jubilee. Come one. Come all. Tom is talking about organizing a roast. I told him I was too sensitive for a … Read More

Lena Lorieul and Allamericanbeauty strode out of Shug McGaughey’s barn Thursday morning, stopped on the apron and waited like the Hall of Fame trainer’s riders and horses have been doing for decades.  The rider wore black boots high up her calf. Gray socks poking out the top. Worn jeans tucked … Read More

Missing It It’s that time of year again. With six days of racing and one edition of The Special to go, it’s time for the annual “I’ll miss, I won’t miss.”  We all know it. We all feel it. The good of Saratoga and the bad of Saratoga. The passion … Read More

Arrests piling up – theft, a drug charge, more theft. Under house arrest. Probation officer had come and gone for the day. A prison sentence loomed.   Jules Stowell yearned for a big night out, one final run through the gauntlet.   She hit the town, the bad part of town. West … Read More

Dear John “That’s a good guy.” And that was good enough for us. Rick Violette said that about John Hendrickson somewhere along the 24-year odyssey of The Saratoga Special and somewhere along Hendrickson’s 30-year odyssey in Saratoga Springs.  It might have been in the middle of distribution-gate, when misinformed management … Read More