SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

Imagine winning the lottery twice. That’s the sort of longshot, fairytale ride Jack Knowlton and Sackatoga Stable are on right now. Seventeen years after the gutsy gelding Funny Cide took the racing world by storm and won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, Tiz the Law delivered the small Saratoga Springs–based partnership and trainer Barclay Tagg their missing Triple Crown jewel with a tour de force performance in the Belmont Stakes on June 20. A day later, Tagg revealed what he had planned next for the sensational New York–bred son of rising sire Constitution. “I’ve never won the Travers, and I want to win it,” says Tagg. “It’s very important to me.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Derby was rescheduled to September 5 and the Preakness to October 3, making the Belmont—which was also pushed back two weeks to the 20th, the first leg of the Triple Crown for the first time in the history of the series. Tiz the Law won the race, impressively, by 3¾ lengths, covering the 1⅛ miles in 1:46.53. It was the first time the Belmont had been carded at nine furlongs since 1894, and with the win, Tiz the Law became the first New York–bred to cross the finish line first since Forester in 1882. Tagg’s victory was also a special one: at 82, it made him the oldest trainer to ever win the race. “To win Triple Crown races in two different years—not many people can say that,” says Sackatoga managing partner Knowlton, who watched the Belmont at Pennell’s Restaurant in Saratoga Springs, because owners were not allowed to attend the race due to COVID-19 concerns. When asked what it was like to win the Belmont Stakes with a New York–bred, he says, “It’s tremendous. We buy New York–breds—that’s our game—and we don’t spend a lot of money. We’ve been with Barclay Tagg for 25 years, and I keep telling everybody Barclay doesn’t get a lot of big horses or opportunities, but when he does, he knows what to do. We had a great and amazing day. Tiz delivered for us.”

Barring any setbacks in training, Tiz the Law will be featured in the 151st Travers at Saratoga Race Course, which this year has been rescheduled to August 8. The race will also mark the one-year anniversary of Tiz the Law’s first career win there. The Travers will offer the budding superstar the opportunity to win another prize coveted by the Sackatoga partnership that Funny Cide was unable to secure. In August 2003, Saratoga was buzzing with Funny Cide mania approaching the Travers—even Stewart’s Shops got in on the action with a “Funny Cide Pride” ice cream flavor—but the fan favorite came down with a respiratory infection the week of the race and was unable to compete in the Midsummer Derby. 

Purchased for $110,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearling Sale just a few furlongs from the track, Tiz the Law has won five of his six career starts, including four graded stakes, with earnings of $1,480,300. For Sackatoga, which campaigns only a select few horses per year, Tiz the Law has provided another affirmation that anything is possible in racing. For Tagg, who won his first race as trainer in 1972 but had been without a Grade 1 win in the eight years prior to having Tiz the Law in his barn, it is evidence that hope springs eternal in this game. 

The jockey colony at Saratoga Race Course is regarded by many racing experts as the deepest and most talented in all of North America. The competition to be among the elite at Saratoga in 2020 will be as fierce as ever, with multiple Eclipse Award winners and members of the Hall of Fame facing off. Here are the 10 riders we think have the best shot at glory this summer.

(1) Jose Ortiz

2019 Saratoga Stats: 60 wins (21 percent); $5.4 million earnings

The 2017 Eclipse Award winner (pictured above) nabbed his 2,000th career win in June. The 26-year-old native of Puerto Rico has three Breeders’ Cup wins to his credit, and won the 2017 Belmont Stakes. He led all North American jockeys in wins in 2016 and in earnings in 2017. He was also the leading rider at Saratoga in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

(2) Irad Ortiz, Jr.

2019 Saratoga Stats: 53 wins (19 percent); $4.8 million earnings

The two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner—Jose’s older brother—has more than 2,500 career wins at the age of 27. A winner of nine Breeders’ Cup races and the 2016 Belmont Stakes, Ortiz has led all North American jockeys in both wins and earnings each of the past two years. He garnered leading rider honors at Saratoga in 2015 and 2018.

(3) Javier Castellano

2019 Saratoga Stats: 39 wins (22 percent); $4.2 million earnings

The Venezuela native is a four-time Eclipse Award winner and a 2017 Hall of Fame inductee. He’s also the winner of 12 Breeders’ Cup races and is a two-time Preakness Stakes winner. At the age of 42, he has more than 5,200 career wins and ranks second of all time in earnings with more than $345 million. He was leading rider at Saratoga in 2013 and 2014, and has won the Travers Stakes a record six times.

(4) Joel Rosario

2019 Saratoga Stats: 37 wins (17 percent); $3.8 million earnings

Rosario has won more than 2,900 career races, including 11 Breeders’ Cup races, the Kentucky Derby, Dubai World Cup and two editions of the Belmont Stakes. The 35-year-old native of the Dominican Republic ranks 14th overall with career earnings of more than $219 million. His Saratoga wins include the Alabama, Fourstardave, Jim Dandy, Whitney and Woodward, among others.

(5) Luis Saez

2019 Saratoga Stats: 36 wins (13 percent); $3.7 million earnings

The 28-year-old Panamanian has more than 2,400 career wins and has ranked in the top 10 among North American jockeys in both wins and earnings each of the past four years. At Saratoga, Saez has won the Travers, Diana, Fourstardave, Go for Wand, Hopeful, Schuylerville and Test, among others.

(6) Junior Alvarado

2019 Saratoga Stats: 23 wins (15 percent); $2.1 million earnings

The 34-year-old native of Venezuela has won more than 1,700 races, including Grade 1s such as the Flat Out, Moreno, Strapping Groom and Preservationist. Alvarado’s wins at Saratoga include the Whitney, Woodward, Forego, Saratoga Special and Honorable Miss, among others.

(7) Jose Lezcano

2019 Saratoga Stats: 22 wins (13 percent); $1.9 million earnings

The 35-year-old Lezcano, who hails from Panama, has won more than 2,700 races with earnings of more than $145 million. A winner of three Breeders’ Cup races, Lezcano has ridden Hall of Famers Royal Delta and Wise Dan. At Saratoga, he has won the Alabama, Ballston Spa, Diana, Fourstardave and Lake George, among others.

(8) John Velazquez

2019 Saratoga Stats: 21 wins (16 percent); $3.4 million earnings

Velazquez was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012, and at age 48, has more than 6,100 career wins and is the all-time earnings leader with more than $417 million. The two-time Eclipse Award winner has also won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes twice each as well as 16 Breeders’ Cup races. Additionally, he’s a five-time riding champion at Saratoga; set the track’s career wins mark in 2013, with his 694th victory; and has notched a pair of Travers wins to boot.

(9) Manny Franco (tie) 

2019 Saratoga Stats: 17 wins (7 percent); $1.9 million earnings

The 25-year-old native of Puerto Rico has already won more than 1,300 races with earnings of more than $85 million. Franco won his first Breeders’ Cup race in 2019 and has ranked in the Top 10 among North American jockeys in earnings each of the past four years. He also led the overall New York Racing Association standings in wins in both 2018 and 2019. And just this past June, he won the 2020 Belmont Stakes aboard Triple Crown frontrunner Tiz the Law.

(9) Ricardo Santana, Jr. (tie)

2019 Saratoga Stats: 17 wins (10 percent); $2.1 million earnings

The Panama native, who attended the prestigious Laffit Pincay, Jr. Jockey School there, broke into riding in North America in 2009 at the age of 16 and has already won more than 1,400 races with purse earnings of more than $75 million. He won his first Breeders’ Cup race in 2019. At Saratoga, he’s won the Forego, Fourstardave, Jim Dandy and Amsterdam, among others.

Barring an unexpected turn of events, the gates at Saratoga Race Course are scheduled to be closed to the public this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spectators or not, though, there will still be live racing at the Spa beginning on July 16, stretching all the way to September 7. 

But you might be surprised to learn that there were six summers in the track’s 156-year history when the track saw not a single race run. (In other words, somebody had it off a lot worse than you did.) Since organized racing debuted in Saratoga during the Civil War, with the track opening in 1864, various circumstances have led to it being shuttered. Here are the six times Saratoga’s summer went completely dark. 

1896: The dark summer of 1896 was in large part the result of rancor toward the track’s management, which eventually led to a downswing in race dates offered by The Jockey Club. The 1890s were unquestionably the worst period in Saratoga’s racing annals. Beginning in 1892, the notorious Gottfried Walbaum was in charge, and his leadership led to a rapid decline in the prosperity and reputation of the track. Many of Saratoga’s established stakes races were either dropped from the schedule or had their purses significantly reduced. Walbaum’s favoring of cheaper races led to many of the sport’s most distinguished stables avoiding Saratoga entirely. Also, there was rampant speculation that races were being fixed. For example, there was much conjecture about the legitimacy of the results during a day in 1895 when horses owned by Walbaum won the first four races on a card. Walbaum also angered Saratogians by tinkering with the race times and drew the ire of downtown merchants by adding services at the track that competed with their livelihood, including a barber shop and a printing press. Things got so bad during 1895 that the track closed after 28 days instead of the scheduled 40. According to The New York Times, attendance was a paltry 400 on August 5. It was announced on Closing Day, August 23, that there would be no racing at Saratoga in 1896. Walbaum and his associates rejected the dates proposed by The Jockey Club, stating that there weren’t enough exclusive to Saratoga. The track reopened in 1897, with Walbaum in a reduced role, and three years later, William Collins Whitney led a partnership group that purchased and revitalized the track and restored its reputation. 

1911-12: The track was again shuttered in 1911 and 1912. New York Governor Charles Hughes spearheaded an anti-gambling crusade that resulted in the Hart-Agnew Law and eventually the Executive Liability Act, which eliminated any form of betting and effectively shut down New York racing. In October 1912, a decision by a State Supreme Court justice led to racing’s return. Judge Townsend Scudder of Nassau County ruled that the liability law could not be enforced, paving the way for the return of bookmakers and racing in 1913. 

1943-45: After the 1912 season, Saratoga racing went on uninterrupted until World War II, when travel restrictions forced the track’s dates to be shifted to Belmont Park from 1943-45. Saratoga’s mayor at the time, Addison Mallery, fought for the local track to retain the race dates, arguing that Saratogians could walk to the races and that there would be ample local support for a summer meeting. While his efforts to open the track during the war were in vain, racing did finally return to Saratoga on August 5, 1946, with a crowd of more than 15,000 on hand for the sport’s triumphant return.   

Saratoga Springs’ healing spa waters aren’t just for people—they’re for racehorses, too. At Burke Equine Inc., a therapy center at Top Rail Farm, Thoroughbreds are pampered in a special “spa barn” where they move their legs underwater on a treadmill and soak their bones in a saltwater Jacuzzi. “They all seem to enjoy it,” says Stowe Burke, a veterinarian and fourth generation horseman, who lives and works at the 104-acre farm on Hutchins Road, near the Saratoga Spa State Park.

Just like humans, horses need rehab after surgery and injuries, and at Burke Equine, the animals recover at the only vet-owned-and-operated therapy center in the Northeast that offers an AquaPacer (the treadmill), ECB Cold Saltwater Spa (exactly what it sounds like), an exercise track and 24/7 veterinary care. 

Top trainers such as Todd Pletcher, Jimmy Toner, Kiaran McLaughlin, Christophe Clement, Bill Mott, Jimmy Jerkens, Nick Zito and Peter Pugh have all sent their superstars to Burke, and during track season, anywhere from 40-50 horses can be there at one time. But four-legged patients check in all year round, and not only racehorses. Burke says they see Standardbreds, show horses and barrel racers, too. 

When Saratoga Living visited in June, there were 32 horses on the peaceful, woodsy property, being cared for by masked workers (due to the lingering COVID-19 crisis), who hauled buckets and pushed wheelbarrows amid tall trees and tidy white barns. When it’s spa time, a horse walks for 15-20 minutes in the water-filled AquaPacer, which in the winter is heated to 75 degrees. “The same company also makes a machine—a smaller version—for humans, that’s used after surgery, especially knee surgery,” Burke says. During the cold spa treatment, a horse stands in 35-degree saltwater for 10 minutes to reduce inflammation. 

“What I love about my job,” says Burke, “is that I get to see the horses from the point of diagnosis and injury all the way to the point where they return to their intended function. And then I get to be with my family on my family farm, Top Rail Farm, one of the last working farms in the City of Saratoga Springs.” In a house on a hilltop, Burke lives with his wife, Caroline, a Skidmore College graduate and owner of design firm Top Rail Interiors, and their children, Minnie and Henry. Farming is in his DNA: Growing up, the Saratoga Springs High School grad spent weekends and summers at the farm with his grandfather, Bobby Burke, a show jumping Hall of Famer. 

Down the hill, horses go to the spa early in the morning, so visitors don’t get to see them in the water. But a 9am visit may include a short walk to the half-mile track that circles through a forest. On this sunny morning, Burke watches closely as three horses jog with their exercise riders. The shade keeps their blood pressure down, he says. “The horses just love it, and it keeps them less stressed.” 

At 10am, as Saratoga Living’s visit was drawing to a close, Burke donned a riding helmet, pulled fringed leather chaps over his jeans, and headed to the track. “I’ll get on each horse that’s here at some point,” he says. “This way I can be sure of their recovery.” The satisfaction that comes from being hands-on in the healing process is why he runs a rehab center for horses. “It’s amazing,” he says, “that an animal so big and strong will allow us to interact with them like they do.”  

When we asked Saratoga-based Thoroughbred trainer H. James Bond what horse he was most excited about this year for our racing experts panel on page 29, he didn’t even need to think about it. “Rinaldi,” he said. In four starts, the 4-year-old bay gelding by Posse and Dynamite Cocktail, a daughter of Dynaformer, has excelled for the Bond Racing Stable, winning both the New York Stallion Stakes (NYSS) Spectacular Bid at Belmont with 10-1 odds and the NYSS Cab Calloway at Saratoga Race Course, in which he nearly doubled his career earnings to $173,640. (Not bad for a weanling purchased for $5,000.) 

This year, Rinaldi will likely be teamed up with jockey Luis Saez, who rode the horse to both his victories in 2019. “I’m looking for some New York–bred stakes races going one mile on the grass,” says Bond about his plans for the 2020 season. He’s pointing the horse toward the West Point Stakes, a $150,000, 11⁄16-mile turf race scheduled for September 4 at Saratoga. Even if we can’t be there in person, we’ll be glued to our TVs, cheering on this home-town horse. 

CAREER STATS

Year Starts Firsts Seconds Thirds Earnings Earnings Per Start
2019 4 2 0 1 $185,640 $46,410

RINALDI By The Numbers:

3: Number of owners Rinaldi has

1: Number of hours he trains a day

7: Number of days he trains a week

6-7: Number of hours he rests a day

20-25: Number of gallons of water he drinks a day

15: Number of quarts of grain he eats a day

210: Amount, in dollars, spent on new shoes for him every month

150: Daily cost of his care, including vitamins and supplements, in dollars

1,025: His weight, in pounds

47: His top speed, in miles per hour 

John Imbriale’s career with the New York Racing Association (NYRA) began more than 40 years ago when his uncle saw an advertisement in the New York Daily News for a contest that would provide the winner with the opportunity to call a race and earn a spot in NYRA’s press office. “The ad was about the size of a postage stamp,” Imbriale says. “They got down to three people who got a shot at doing it, and then there I was calling a race—July 25, 1979…third race, I believe. I started in the press office on November 5 that year. I’ve had quite a run.”

After serving in numerous roles at NYRA, including television production and hosting responsibilities, calling races and handling simulcast feeds for the three NYRA tracks, Imbriale took over as the organization’s full-time race caller in January. “It’s an honor and a great responsibility to have this job in New York,” says Imbriale, who grew up in Queens and graduated from St. John’s University. “There is a long tradition of great race callers here. To follow the likes of Larry Collmus, Tom Durkin and Marshall Cassidy is something I certainly don’t take lightly.” 

Imbriale was calling the races at Aqueduct Racetrack earlier this year when the sport was shut down in New York for more than two months because of the COVID-19 outbreak. When racing resumed at Belmont Park in early June, Imbriale was a bit jittery about his first call back. “Not only was it the first race in two-and-a-half months, but it was the first sporting event in New York since the shutdown. I’ll tell you that around 1:20pm that day, when that first race was complete, it was a big relief.”

Saratoga has always been special to Imbriale, and he is eagerly anticipating stepping up to the mic at the Spa. “Saratoga means a lot to me on many fronts,” he says. “My children grew up here in the summers. The racing is the absolute best, but it’s more than that. The town, culture, restaurants, atmosphere—it’s all part of an experience I really treasure. I’ve been coming here professionally since 1980, and even before that, I was here. I’ll never forget being in the infield in ’78 for Affirmed and Alydar [in the Travers Stakes]. A lot of great Saratoga memories. I’m looking forward to some new ones.”

Speaking of memories, what stood out to Imbriale about that first call he made 41 years ago? “Not a whole lot, actually,” he says. “It was pretty much a blur. Just glad I survived it, but it did start me on a wonderful journey.”