[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the following program is brought to.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: You in living color on Dell gazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots Podcast.
Now here's your host, Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Shot. Thank you Scott Gezy, and welcome to the Parting Shots Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the Parting Podcast Studio in Schenectady, New York. We have another great show for you as we begin the month of September, Mike McGaddam, my Gazette horse racing colleague, will join me. We'll look back at the Saratoga horse racing season and of course the really was a busy time at Saratoga. Not only with the regular 40 day meet, we had the Belmont Stakes Festival and the July 4th Festival. So Mike's going to run down everything looking back at the summer at Saratoga this year and there's a very interesting closing weekend, especially with the Jockey Gold Club and what happened there. Mike will talk about that as well.
On Wednesday I had a chance to go over to M and T Bank center and you're going to hear me praise this new Union Hockey rink a lot because it is spectacular.
The really the first event involving the men's and women's hockey teams. They had a skills competition at MT bank center on Wednesday and a chance for the fans to get to see the rink and close to a thousand fans showed up. It was for a Wednesday. I was never very good. Parking was not a problem.
A lot of people were. I got there around 5 o' clock and people were in the right there ready, lined up, ready to go into the new facility which I'm going to nickname the Bank. You'll hear a lot about that from me as well. So it was a fun time watching this skills competition. Had a chance to talk with some of the fans and you'll hear also hear from you'll hear from some Union hockey personnel, men's head coach Josh Hauge and team captain Nick Young and on the women's side Tony Macy, the head coach and team captain Stephanie Bourque.
Of course, the Union women will play the first game at the bank on Friday, September 26th when they play Franklin Pierce the following Saturday. That's October 4th. The Union Men will host Army West Point in their debut at the Bank. So we'll have some sound from that from from Wednesday's event. So stay tuned. You'll have Mike McAdam up next talking Saratoga Racecourse as we wrap up the horse racing season up in Saratoga. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: If you really want to know what's going on in your community. You have to read the Daily Gazette. We don't take a side. We're right down the middle and we're going to get to the truth. Our reporters and photographers are out in the field bringing you updates every minute with trust, accuracy and integrity from the first page to the last page. Independent, probing journalism. We're finding out what's going on in community where nobody else is covering.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: It's who we are.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: It's what we do.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Hi, this is Union College hockey alum Kelly Zajak.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: You're listening to the Parting Scotts podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Cha.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. The Saratoga horse racing season is over. It ended on Monday on Labor Day, and it was a busy time for a lot of racing between June and September 1st. And he was there for all of it. Mike McAdam with his final at the track with Max Sabin for the Saratoga horse racing season. And Mike, how's it going and how you coming down from all this track coverage?
[00:03:48] Speaker A: I'm not yet actually, I'm in the middle of writing the meet recap, which will include, as you already mentioned, the 4th of July and Belmont stuff that, you know, sort of was acted as a prelude to the whole summer meet. So I'm kind of still wading through all the details of the meet and the various aspects that made it like a pretty fascinating time to be up there. But so no, I'm not in the comedown stage yet. That'll be be later today at some point, but who knows when?
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's, let's talk about what happened. The 157th Saratoga Race Course annual summer meeting, as I said, ended on Monday. And it ended in dramatic fashion when the Chad Brown train say yes to Dreams, barely held on to win by the neck in the 420th race of the meet. That also included an unprecedented span of 49 racing days going back to June 4th that included the Belmont Stakes and the July 4th racing festivals.
With all those extra days, Mike, how did the 40 day meet itself stack up from a number standpoint?
[00:04:52] Speaker A: It kind of diluted it a little bit. Not a lot. But, you know, and maybe it's pure speculation because you don't know for sure. But you know, one of the, one of the things before the Belmont in the first week in June that we were wondering about was when there's so many extra days. They added a day to the Belmont festival, bringing it to five days. And then they move the 4th of July festival, four days of racing there up here instead of running it at Aqueduct. So you had nine total extra days for 49 days, including the 40 of the Saratoga meet.
And before all this went down, my question, and I think the question on a lot of people's minds was how will having those extra nine days affect the 40 day meet based on the fact that people will have that many more opportunities to get up there and maybe, you know, they'll sneak one in in 4th of July festival as opposed to sacrifice wonder in the meat. And it might chip away at the overall numbers a little bit. And what we found is, you know, the final number tallies came in for betting and admission, and they are down from last year, which, to provide a little context, we actually only had 39 racing days at the meet last year because we lost one because of weather. We had the full 40 this year. We didn't have the 4th of July last year, but we did have the Belmont for the first time ever.
I can tell you all sorts handle for the 40 days of the summer meet fell a little short of 800 million as opposed to last year when it was 803. Almost 804 million for the 39 days of the summer meet, which means the average daily handle was down about, let's see, almost a million per day.
And the admission was kind of comparable.
The average daily paid admission during last year's meet and this year's meet were almost identical at about 26 and a half thousand this year and almost 27,000 last year.
You know, another thing taken into consideration is last year's meet got hit really hard with rain, whereas we had a pretty relatively smooth meet this year, which, you know, again, kind of adds a little context to the number differences because, you know, under those circumstances, you would think the numbers would be better this year just based on the fact that you have fuller fields running on the turf like they're supposed to, as opposed to fields getting cut down and moved off the turf because of rain.
So there's a couple things in this year's meet advantage, but the numbers actually were down a little bit, not a ton, you know, not enough to like for New York Racing association to be scared or disappointed or anything like that. But there were some factors in this year's meet favor for the numbers to actually be comparable or a little better, and they weren't. And, you know, again, it's purely speculation, but you got to believe that having 49 days of racing, you know, kind of maybe spread out people's involvement, you know, in going there and betting on the races and things like that.
So not disappointing, but noticeably a little down on the overall stuff. I, I will say that for the 49 days, the first time in the history of Saratoga, which they've been running up there since 1863, they had 49 days of racing and they actually topped out at a billion dollars in all sources handled for those 49 days. And again, that's a little inflated and maybe misleading but you know, you see that B instead of the M in front for the hand all sources handle number to kind of opens your eyes a little bit. So there, I mean the brand is still strong.
The, the product is still still strong. Field average field size was down a little bit. I'm not sure why that was the case. Might be an overall horse racing trend.
So the numbers were strong, but there were, there was a little bit of a noticeable drop compared to last year.
They did knock it out of the park on Whitney and Traverse Day, of course.
So kind of those tent pole days maintain their identity. But the overall meat I think was just off a little bit from last year.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And helping type the results in that we get in the paper every day. I just, I see the niver report with the daily report of paid attendance, the on track handle, the all sources handle just blows me away just knowing there are people and across the country watching these races and betting and I just like, I just, I mean it's. They're making money hand over fist.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: It seems like they, they are. And it's a reflection of how, again as I already mentioned, how strong the product is, how strong the brand is. People want to bet Saratoga because they know, they know they're going to get full field. It's going to be tremendous racing that it's going to be good horses in most of the races, whether they're shipping in or they're. They're settled in right at Saratoga, you know, because people are chasing the purse money that they have there. I mean there it. The last few years it's been skewed downward a little bit by the presence of the Kentucky Downs meet, which is a very. You talk about a small boutique meet. They only run seven days in the summertime and they're. They're kind of sporadically spread out over two weeks and three or four of those days overlap. The Saratoga meat and the persons there are astronomical because they're linked to the, you know this guy Ron Winchell, who owns the casino out there in Canadian. It's outside of Nashville. It's actually closer to Nashville than any big city in Kentucky.
And he kind of somehow they use a lot of the funding from the casinos to really pound the hell out of their purses there. They've got allowance races that are for like $200,000, which is like a good stakes, you know, grade three stakes race out.
And so they'll attract some of the betting as well as, you know, a bunch of the big jockeys from the Colony at Saratoga go out of town and go run there because it makes sense, you know, financially for them to chase those bigger purses that they get a percentage of if they win.
So that affects it a little bit. But back to your original point about the ulcers handle. That's a reflection of it's the best racing in the, you know, the whole continent at this time of year. And just, you know, give a little credit to New York Racing association for really promoting the Saratoga brand as, you know, something, you know, racing that you really want to bet on. So that's why people in California and Nebraska or, you know, wherever are looking at those races and looking at them as good betting opportunities.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Well, earning the trainer and jockey meat. Titles for most wins are coveted achievements at the spa. And sometimes it even goes down to the wire. How did the competition for those championships play out in the end?
[00:12:12] Speaker A: You know, after 49 days of racing and a 40 day summer meet, you get to closing day and you want as uneventful of a day as possible. If you're in a position of somebody like me, you just want to like, nice, straightforward day, get everything done early, and then you wait for the final numbers to come out, pound those out and then go have a beer. But no, not the case this year as it happens every once in a while. So just to set up the trainer race, beginning of closing week, which is starts on Wednesday and it's six days. He was up by six on Todd Pletcher.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: That's Chad Brown, right, Chad, I'm sorry.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yep. Thank you. Chad Brown was up, you know, by six on Todd Pletcher. And then Fletcher went over on an absolute tear.
He outscored him 10 to four from, from Wednesday to Sunday to tie it up. So they're all tied up going into the closing day on Monday.
And then so Todd Pletcher wins The Hopeful, the ninth of 11 races on the card with Ted Knoffi and goes ahead of Chad by one. Now they both have horses in the last two races and Chad's got some live ones, no surprise there. He loses to the Saranac and it comes down to the last race of the Meet and his, his horse say yes to Dreams, which we already mentioned in the kind of the intro just hangs on by a neck and they tie for the training title. There's a highly coveted thing up there. It's named after the great late, great hall of Famer Alan Jerkins. You know, trainers love to win it. Chad Brown has been dominating that thing.
This was his eighth.
Todd's won a 15 times since 1998. Chad's won it five straight years now.
It was reminiscent of 2023 where Chad led by one going into the last race of the meet, just like Monday. And Linda Rice won that race to tie him at the last minute. He was pretty scarce with the media after that. He was nowhere to be found. But yesterday there he was beaming in the winner's circle with Todd Pletcher, hall of Famer, you know, kind of sharing the plate trophy, whatever they give out for the tying the championship. He had no problem losing to Todd Fletcher out at the with on a buzzer beater yesterday. I think he was a little more, let's say disappointed in 23 when London Rice banged him at the.
Tied him at the last, you know, buzzer beater there. Yeah, for the meat Championship. So.
So those two guys, you know, were Chad had had a little bit of daylight and then Todd just went nuts in the last like week of the meet and including, you know, winning a bunch of two year old races, which is pretty much his identity at the meet this year. Beyond. We'll get to the Jockey Club Gold cup but.
And then the train or the jockey title was a little strange too because again, Jockey Club Gold cup on Sunday.
I read Ortiz fell off a mind frame. Who was the highly regarded mind frame, I mean, had a great shot to win the Jacket Club Gold Cup. One of the most bizarre things I've ever seen anywhere on a racetrack.
Falls off the horse after a chain reaction of, you know, hip checks and horses banging into each other.
If you see the overhead drone video of it, it's astonishing that Irad like came out of there with no broken bones or anything for one thing.
But also at one point he gets knocked to the right off of Mind Frame and lands on but of White a barrio to his right. And literally White Abario had two jockeys on his back for about two strides there.
Edgard Zayas, who was on White up Barrio. I have no idea how he stayed on his horse. And he lost one. His left foot came out of the stirrup and then Irad was still hanging onto the reins of Mind Frame.
He Falls off of White A Barrio. So he's funny. It's got to be a record falling off of two horses in the same race.
Amazing.
Absolutely bizarre. He hits the deck, he kind of gets clipped by his own horse as he runs on. And then Sierra Leone, who's kind of trailing the field there.
In typical fashion, he kind of ran over Irad, too.
And it was one of those instances where supposed to be paying attention to this highly anticipated race. And all I'm looking at this is 12, 12 strides out of the starting gate. This is right at the start. I'm looking up the track to see what's going on with Irad. He's like, up near the rail, so when they come around again, he's going to be right in the path of the horses.
But he could see he's kind of crawling around and, you know, you can tell he's hurt, but at least he's not just lying there motionless.
Then there's like, what, 15 people went running out there and they kind of figured out nothing was wrong with his head or his neck, and they picked him up and carried them to the outer rail and everything was fine. The horses were like someone, you know, just came off this first turn on the back stretch.
So after that, all that long story.
Irad actually, miraculously was cleared to ride on Monday. And he had a 39 to 30, I'm sorry, 59 to 52 lead over his brother Jose in the jockey standings. He's cleared the ride somehow. I mean, either he went to Albany Med and had no broken bones, and then at the last second, he kind of calls an audible and tweeted out in the morning saying, I'm gonna sit this one out and I'll come back on Thursday at Kentucky Downs, which was the smart move.
You know, even if he doesn't have any broken bones, he's probably. He's definitely not 100%.
So he and his brother are the only two that are in contention for the jockey title. And.
And they both had horses, you know, lined up for the whole card, you know, but Ira had such a, like a substantial lead, 59, 52 going in, that it was going to be hard pressed for Jose, especially if I read riding. Well, Ira takes off the whole card, and then, sure enough, Jose wins three out of the first six, including one that his brother was supposed to. I'm sorry, did I say Jose? Yeah. Jose wins three of the first six, including one that his brother was scheduled to ride.
And now it's 59, 55, and Jose has five more mounts and, you know, he needs to win on four of those, which would have been amazing, by the way. The meat record for most wins by a jockey on A card is 6, which Ramon Dominguez has did twice. So for Jose to pull this out, he would have had to break a record for most wins on a single card. And then he just got skunked the rest of the way and it stayed at 59, 55. IRAD wins. IRAD was there to accept his trophy with his brother next to him. Kind of a cool moment. Great to see Irad, you know, up and about and smiling and looked okay after, you know, what happened in the Jockey Club Gold cup on Sunday.
So back to my original point. You're looking, if you're looking for a comfortable closing day from a writer's standpoint, don't count on it.
Stuff happens.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Yes, all the time.
Shifting to the equine stars of the meet, Sovereignty stood out for his wins in the Jim Dandy and the Travers. But who else? Who are some of the other standouts of the meet?
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Marty mentioned Ed Nafi and trained by Todd Pletcher. Written by Johnny Velasquez. Side note on John Velasquez, wonderful Hall of Fame jockey. What a weekend he had. He went out to California on Saturday to ride Fierceness in the Pacific Classic.
Fierceness takes a sharp left turn right out of the starting gate, looking like he's going to jump over the tape of the temporary rail. Johnny gets him straightened out. He wins the race over Journalism, the, the, you know, the Preakness winner in the big matchup. Johnny jumps on a plane. So this was, this race is at 9 o' clock, East Coast Time in California. He jumps on a plane and gets back in time to ride antiquarian who was 12 to 1 or 13 to 1 or whatever in the Jockey Club Gold cup, who obviously benefited from all the craziness that happened to Mindframe and which started when Phileas Fogg moved over, banged into contrary thinking, who was in there as a rabbit to set up Sierra Leone. Contrary thinking bothered white, a barrio who hip checked mind frame. So it was like this chain reaction. Meanwhile, Johnny Velasquez on Antiquarian. They missed all of that and they wind up winning the race. And then Johnny comes back and wins. The hopeful on Ted Nafi on closing day. So that's three grade ones on two different coasts in a span of three days. So John Velasquez, total, hats off to him. Veteran hall of Famer pulling off that amazing triple.
You mentioned, Sovereignty, you Know, I want to get to him obviously because he fans were really treated to seeing the best horse in North America three times up at Saratoga because obviously won the Travers in just dominant fashion.
Before that he had set it up by winning the Jim Dandy, but he also won the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga in June.
So Saratoga fans really got treated to seeing him at his best three times and he'll train up to the Breeders Cup Classic. Now also on Traverse Day and I mentioned this to a lot of people, you got to see this magnificent horse at his best, Sovereignty in one race and then you got to see 2024 Horse of the year Torpedo Anna just got out the Personal Ensign by Darth Vader.
So we got to see her. And of course by the way, on closing morning, the closing day on Monday, Kenny McPeak had sent out a tweet the night before and said, hey, if any fans want to visit Torpedo Anna, come to the barn. Gave the address of his barn because it's on fifth Avenue, it's not on the actual backstretch grounds.
So they got 100 or so people over there fans just for half an hour. He brought her out and just walked her around and stuff. And tremendous gesture once again by trainer Kenny McPeek to to make this beautiful, wonderful star Torpedo Anna available to the public.
And then also from Traverse Day, book them Dano. I'm not going to do the Hawaii Five.
All right, you got a two, you got a two podcast streak going with the themes on.
We mentioned the, you know, the extra racing between the Belmont and the fourth of July that supplied an opportunity for fans to see, you know, I already mentioned Torpedo Analog, but they got to see Bookham Dano three times too. And he won the True north during the Belmont Festival, came to Saratoga and won the ag, Vanderbilt and the Forego and establishing himself as the best male sprinter in the country. So Traverse Day fans got to see all three of those.
Gotta mention Sierra Leone which I already mentioned from. He finished eventually finished second in the Jockey Club Gold cup after all that everything that was happening.
But earlier in the meet he won the Whitney which was the the first Whitney victory every ever for Chad Brown, mechanical native. So it was a big moment for him.
And then one last one I want to mention is Nitrogen, who was a really interesting story a week before the Traverse because she'd just been an absolute best 3 year old turf Philly in the country.
And trainer Mark Cassie said, you know what, I'm going to run around the dirt at a mile and a quarter in the Alabama and see what happens if she wound up winning it. And I'm, I'm not sure if he's even decided like if he's going to send her like what Breeders cup race he's going to send her to because based on the Alabama, she could go into the Breeders cup, this staff, stay on the dirt. But she's such a, she's so good on the turf.
If you look at one of those races and I'm not sure what he's gonna do, I'm not even sure if he's sure what he's gonna do.
But I didn't want to forget about her because she was just kind of a cool story based on that angle of turf. Turf, turf, turf. And then all of a sudden she jumps into the grade one Alabama, the biggest, one of the biggest three year old dirt races on the calendar in the entire continent. She winds up winning it, so, so gotta throw her in there too.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Is it legal for a horse to have two jockeys on it and win a race?
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Well, that's a good question. Well, there are rules about not having a jockey. So for instance, a couple years ago, I think it was at Saratoga, the horse who won or like maybe came in second or something like that, the jockey fell off the horse right before the wire and I think the horse was disqualified based on the fact that you have to carry the weight that's assigned to you from gate to wire for you for it to count as a race. And it was like right before the wire.
It might have been a situation where it was so close that they, they were not sure if they had to make a ruling on it or not. But I know that's the case.
But I mean nothing would have happened to White Habario if he waited. They wouldn't have, there would have been no stewards inquiry. Inquiry.
I mean, I gotta think Mind Frame would have been dq. Well, I mean he ran around the track with no rider, but I, if I read him miraculously gotten back in the saddle, I gotta think they would have DQ'd him for not having, not carrying the weight like at the beginning of the race for two strides.
Speaking of which, Phileas Fogg, who started that whole thing from the outside, you know, kind of creating that whole domino effect. He did get disqualified. He finished third place and it was a no brainer. DQ because it was a really, really dangerous situation. Could have been a lot worse. And everybody I talked to kind of said the same thing. But, but he did get disqualified.
But to your original question, I don't think they would penalize quite a barrio for carrying like an extra 122 pounds or whatever it was for like two strides. If anything, if you wanted, it would have been even more remarkable, I guess.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
Talk about some of the new rules on breakage and coupled entries.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So closing day was the first day that they.
Naira implemented the breakage. What breakage is, is it's how they determine the payoffs.
And forever, the way they, you know, they, they tabulated it was the true odds of a race are never like, not never, but not usually round, nice numbers. Like, so if a horse goes off at 7 to 1 and you play $2 to win on it, and the horse wins you, you never get. If it was exactly 7.00 to 1, you would get 14 plus your 2 back. You would get 16 bucks for having $2 to win on the 7 to 1. But the tote, the tote system calculates the odds to like decimal point. So it might be 7.2 to 1, which means you get 16 bucks and change back based on that two that point too. But they will round down payoffs to like the dime. They never round them up. They round them down. And so if you're supposed to get like 7.25, you get 7.2. Doesn't seem like a lot, does it? Yeah, we're talking about pennies on a lot of these bets, but I went to a symposium a number of years ago where a very smart guy, Pat Cummings, who knows a lot about the industry, was speaking about this issue, and he said they calculated over the course of the previous year based on that rounding down penny thing over breakage. The betting public, like a total of a million dollars over the previous calendar year went to the racetracks that should have gone to the betters. So Maybe, you know, 5, 10 cents doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add it all up, it is a lot. And if nothing else, it's a nice gesture to the betters to say, hey, we're going to give you a truer representation of what the true odds were that you bet on when the, you know, when the starting gate opened.
And then as far as the coupled entry thing, this is going to start sometime in October. I think there's a new rule where they'll no longer. So right now, the way it works is if there's two horses in a race owned by the same person, you have to couple them.
And that rules put in place originally to supposedly protect the better because an owner would throw a rabbit in there with no intention of winning, but would help the other horse, you know, help them get an advantage as far as setting up the early pace or. I mean, that's kind of generally the old strategy that these owners would use when they put two horses, like they get some bum and throw him in there just to kind of do the dirty work early to help the other horse that, that the owner owned.
So they're doing away with that.
And what that, how that will help the betting public is it will create more betting interest. So you'll no longer see the 1 1A, 2 2B in a race that'll be 1, 2, 3 and 4. So instead of maybe having eight betting interests in a race, you'll have 10, which is good for the betting public because it spreads the spread the wagering money around and you get just better payoffs if you know, if your opinion is correct about the horse that you pick. So it's two things.
You know, the breakage thing may not seem that significant.
You know, like for instance, I'm. The example I'm using is the horse that won the first race on Monday, the first day that the new rule was in place, paid $3.36 or $3.38, whatever it was.
Well, previously it would have been $3 and 30 cents. So now if you only bet two bucks, you're only getting eight more cents. But let's say you put like a hundred bucks on that horse. You know, it adds up. So just that little bit just helps put a little money back in the pockets of the betters that should have been there in the first place.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And finally, Mac, what does next year look like at Saratoga and what's the current status on the reconstruction of Belmont Park?
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Well, I can tell you Belmont park is right on schedule. Remains on schedule as it always has. It remains on budget.
They're having what's called a topping off ceremony. I believe the governor, Kathy Hochul, is going to be there and probably in October. And what that refers to is it'll be.
It's the opposite of a ground. It's the next stage after groundbreaking. The next one is topping off, which is where you drop the, like the final steel beam in place. And so the whole skeleton is complete. And you know, they throw a big party.
You know, they celebrate that part of it.
So that's what's happening at Belmont Park.
Saratoga will look like it did this year with the 49. Well, I shouldn't say 49 days with the 4th of July and the Belmont Stakes will be back at Saratoga next year.
The tricky part for Naira right now, and I talked to president CEO Dave o' Rourke on Sunday morning about this, like, they still have not figured out exactly how they want to position everything. And the reason is, unlike this year, where, you know, when they do the Saratoga summer meet schedule, they always start at Labor Day and work backwards to determine what opening day of the Saratoga summer meet will be. And this year, labor day was on September 1, which is the earliest it can possibly be. B is the first Monday of September.
Next year they have the exact opposite of that, where labor day falls on September 7th. So presumably, if you work backwards from that, opening day for the meet will be July 16th.
Which means that if they ran the same four day 4th of July festival the same way they did this year or similar, which Fourth of July was on Friday, So they ran Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Next year it's on Saturday.
So if they go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday again, that would leave 10 dark days between the end of the 4th of July festival and the beginning of the Saratoga summer meet. This year there were only three days. Next year there's going to be the max of 10. And do they really want to drag the whole circus up here from downstate for four days of racing for the 4th of July July, and then sit idle for 10 days and then crank up the summer meet? I don't know if that's the ideal way to do things. But in the meantime, I'm not 100% sure, like, what plan they'll settle on or how it's a matter of, you know, kind of positioning the fourth of July dates.
And then, I mean, I can't imagine they want to, like, do opening day of Saratoga earlier in the week just to have a smaller gap between the 4th of July and the summer meet opening day. But they're fiddling with a bunch of things. I don't know what the final configuration is going to look like. But they, I'll tell you this, they have a way bigger challenge trying to determine the schedule next year than they had this year when it really fell in their lap with, you know, September 1st, Labor Day. And it was easy pickings because, you know, the 4th of July and opening day were so close to each other naturally, based on the calendar that it was just like, yeah, come up here for four days and then cool your heels for a couple days and boom, we're right into Saratoga. It's almost like a, you know, like a prelude to the meet starting immediately after the fourth of July. But they, they don't have that advantage next year. So I'm not sure exactly what it's going to look like, but it will be, you know, the number of days will be the same and then the year after that when Belmonta will be fully operational and then they'll start thinking about tearing down Aqueduct, they will revert to a 40 day. I mean, it's still 40 days, but they won't have that extra nine ever again. They have no desire. You know, I asked O' Rourke this, I said, is it possible that the 4th of July situation up here could be permanent? Because you know, their numbers. Even if they're down from what they're used to during the meet for the 4th of July, they're still going to be better than Belmont. Certainly the attendance number is going to be better, but they have no interest in doing that. So next year will be the last year that we'll see the 4th of July in the Belmont. We'll go back to the normal 40 day meet in 2027. So kind of looking forward to that after this.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. We should also give a shout out to our photographer. Erica Miller works part time for us. She always does a great job up there.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: She's tremendous and she's indefatigable.
She'll volunteer. Hey, do you want me to be there 5:30? We didn't do that at the end of the meet because it's Too dark at 5:30, you know, at the end of August. But, you know, she's out there getting Mind Frame and Sierra Leone and fierceness and all the big sovereignty, of course. And Torpedo Anna during early workout for photos of that.
Also want to give a shout out to Teresa Gennaro and Will Springstead, our colleague, who, you know, really helped me out big time, you know, supplying Q and A and Will's case and columns by Teresa every week. That really helped the load. And a little shout out to Jeff Carl for coming in first place among the four Gazette handicappers. I was just doing the kind of tabulation. He finished with 109, Matt Donato had 108, Matthew DeSantis had 104. And our guy, Gene Kushner needed a four bagger on the last day to get triple digits. And he did it. He got four and he made it to a hundred. And he's breathing a sigh of relief after chasing these guys the whole meet. So at least he's got that going for him, which is nice.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
Keeping track. And some, there are some days these guys are just not having, not having luck. At all. I mean, sometimes one or two wins, that'd be it.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: And there was some, like, fluctuation at the end because DeSantis was leading for a while while there. And I know Jeff, Carl told me before the meet he really wants to do better because he was disappointed with how he's done the last couple years, and. And he, you know, he came through in a big way.
But the, you know, the top three guys were kind of duking it out for over the last probably two weeks, and Gino was just. If Gino had, like, one good day, he could have kind of gotten in the mix. But those guys, like, nobody really had, like, a monster day. I mean, Jeff must have had a couple big days to kind of pass those guys and get into first place and then kind of held them at bay.
Sort of like the. The trainer titled Fireworks. With Chad Brown needing to win the last one, Matt Donato was actually in a position to tie Jeff, but he needed to win the last two, and I think he only got one. I was kind of looking at the results, so he fell, like, just one short of tying with it, you know, with a late winner.
So that was kind of interesting to pay attention to. But those guys really grind it out. The meat is so hard to handicap. I mean, it really is difficult. A lot of it has to do with the big fields I already mentioned. A lot of it has to do with the fact that so many good horses come in here to try to win. It's so important, people, that you're not going to get, like, you know, one good horse and a bunch of bums in a lot of the races. It's going to be, like, several contenders. It makes it very difficult. I know this for a fact, as, you know, doing my pick of the day, not grinding out the whole card like these guys, that it really is a difficult puzzle. But, you know, it's a fun challenge, too, at the same time. And when you're right, you know, you feel good about what a genius you are, but also, you might make a couple bucks off of it, too, which doesn't suck.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: I was happy with Jeff and Matt sending their picks the neck for the next day. And like that the night before. And that was. It made my job easier getting that rap page together.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah, well, from a print standpoint, it's. I'm sure it's a little bit of a production challenge. I don't do that kind of stuff anymore. They kicked me out of the pagination ranks, but, yes, we did. Thank you.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: You're not Complaining?
[00:38:59] Speaker A: No, like kicked out. It was like throwing Brer Rabbit into the briar patch, basically.
Yeah, sure.
Well, mate, I can handle that. I can handle this. If you don't want me to do it anymore, that's fine.
Well, Matt, show up at 5:30 in the morning at the track to watch.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Thorped Atlanta, let's say I'm sleeping at 5:30.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: You can.
We're burning the candle for you out here.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: I appreciate that, Mike. Great job as always. And we're looking forward to having it back in the office and getting set for another, of course, high school season. Of course. I'll see you. A couple of Union hockey events coming up the next few weeks.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I can't wait to see the inside of the place. I don't know if I'm going to get a chance. Maybe for media day, if they do something over there. I'll get over there before the season starts.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Let's just say I. I'll give you a preview. It's wonderful. I mean, it's your. It's good. It's night and day. Trust me, it's night and day in there. It's.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't have any little doubt having been at Messa Rink for decades now and you know, little shout out to Messr Rank, it's, you know, there's a lot of mystique and, and history and all those great things, but.
Yeah, I don't. I'm. I might have mentioned this already. I'm. I'm not going to be disappointed to be at center ice instead of the end zone with the netting and glass in front of my face and plenty of parking.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Not to worry about fighting for a parking spot.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: I forgot about the most important thing.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: No, the other point thing. No line for the bathroom. Plenty of bathrooms in there.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Huh.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: No more wait.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: No appeal of that.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: No more waiting in line in the lobby between periods and maybe missing the start of a period.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: I've been in that line.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: I've been there too long. But Mike, appreciate it as always and we'll talk soon.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Thanks a million, Ken. It was fun, you know, all season, going way back probably to Kentucky Derby time.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah, of course we got the Breeders cup coming up soon, so we'll talk about that.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Okay, we'll get into that. Yeah, we'll have some stuff. It's. No, it's again the calendar so early that the Friday of Breeders cup is actually in October this year.October 31. I can't remember the last time that was the case. But the big day will be November 1st and we'll see sovereignty in Sierra Leone and fierceness and mind frame and all those studs in there. And that's going to be ridiculous.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: My mic. Again, thank you very much and we'll talk soon.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Okay? Can I see you?
[00:41:18] Speaker B: That's Mike McAdam coming out. Speaking of union hockey, we have a sound from Wednesday's skills competition with the men's and women's team. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: School sports are played by humans, coached by humans and officiated by humans. So the next time you're sitting in the stands at a school athletic event, please record, remember this and maintain your humanity, especially when it comes to judging and critiquing athletes, coaches and officials.
Please show your fellow humans some respect. They'll appreciate your empathy.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: This message presented by NSFA and the New York State Athletic Administrators Association.
Hi, this is Greg Floyd, Emmy award winning. They made me say that.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: News anchor at CBS 6 in Skeduckt.
You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shots.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. As I mentioned in the Open Wednesday was a special day for union men's and women's hockey.
They teamed up for a skills competition at their new arena, M and T Bank center, and close to a thousand people attended the event. It was a lot of fun skills competition.
We saw penalty shots, fastest shot, fastest skater, some 4 and 4 competition as well to close out the event. It was a lot of fun.
Fans seem to enjoy it. And it's loud and it was loud, you know, just a thousand, about a thousand people and it was loud in there. I can't wait to see what it's like when there's about 2,000, 20, 200 fans in there and how loud that really is. Of course, you know, for years Messer Rink was an intimidating place with these sound just reverberating off the roof.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: So.
[00:43:14] Speaker B: And I know a lot of people are going to miss Messa, but let's face it, this new building is, has it all the amenities, more parking, more bathrooms, more concession stands.
I have a concession stand right outside the press box. So it's kind of nice to maybe sneak over there and get a pretzel or hot dog or some chicken fingers and waffle fries, which I did have some there on Wednesday night. Had to pay. I paid for it, no problem. But yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Gonna be a lot of fun covering union hockey over there at the new arena and a lot of excitement building as the season creeps closer, of course. The women begin play September 26th. That's a Friday when they host Franklin Pierce. And the men's first game in the rink will be Saturday, October 4th against Army West Point.
After the skills competition, I had a chance to talk to some members of the union men's and women's hockey teams. And in are the interviews. You'll hear, you'll hear from men's head coach Josh Ha, men's team captain Nick Young, women's head coach Tony Macy, and women's team captain Stephanie Bourque.
So Josh, your thoughts on the. Probably the first really good day to have scrimmage and all that fun stuff with the, with the women's team.
[00:44:31] Speaker D: Yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun, you know, for us to be able to get on the ice as a team today and then to, you know, finish off with this. I thought it was a great day.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: What was it like out there with obviously the fans in here? I mean, it seemed like there was a lot of excitement here.
[00:44:44] Speaker D: Yeah, it was, you know, great energy, great buzz in the building.
You know, I thought both, both teams were having a lot of fun with each other, so it was a cool event.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: What do you like about this place now that you've had a chance to, you know, experience watching the teams play? Of course, you had the camp here a few this recently. So what is it like out there, the differences between here and Mesa?
[00:45:06] Speaker D: Well, there's a great flow to everything here. I mean just, you know, for us, our whole space, everything is, you know, it's, it's right there.
I think that the, the fans are right on top. Yeah, it's, it's, it is loud when, you know, there was the horn going and some goals. I think, you know, overall it's just, it's really game changing for us to have. I think it's one of the, you know, nicest facilities in our conference for sure.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: If not the nicest, louder than Mesa maybe.
[00:45:33] Speaker D: You know, it'll be interesting when it's full. I mean, Messe was definitely would rock, but this is, it was pretty close and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't even close to full tonight.
[00:45:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I got here just a little after 5 o' clock and it's amazing. The parking lots were full already and you know, fans are waiting in line. So.
Did you sense the excitement from the community about this new facility?
[00:45:51] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, all through the whole camp, the, the week there, there were people that were walking through the building and just wanted to get their first you know, glance at it and, you know, this. This event, I thought, hey, if we got a couple hundred people, it'd be great to have. You know, what we had here tonight was. Was amazing.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: So, Nick, what was it like out there, the experience, the. The playing with your teammates and the women and the crowd here?
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Oh, it was awesome.
[00:46:16] Speaker E: We.
[00:46:16] Speaker C: We never really get to play with them, so that was a cool experience.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Experience.
[00:46:19] Speaker C: And then, you know, having so many people come out, it was awesome to see the community come together and really be vibrant and loud and supportive. I can really see how it's going to be coming up here shortly.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: How excited are you, knowing that, you know, a lot of fans are here just on a Wednesday late afternoon to be a part of this?
[00:46:36] Speaker C: Oh, it was unbelievable to see all like, again, all the support from the community. And I could see all these kids from the last camp. We just had everybody, really, I think all the boys felt in their heart and all the love and it was really special.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: What does it mean for the team going forward? Obviously, you know, guys, get ready for October 5th against Army West. October 4th. Sorry. Against Army West Point.
What was it like being out there, you know, skating and getting used to this facility?
[00:47:04] Speaker C: Oh, it's awesome.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Every.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: Every step of the way, every little detail has been really beneficial, beneficial to us. And I know the women's team as well, so we're looking forward to that.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: First game for sure.
[00:47:14] Speaker B: It just. What was this? Is this a lot of fun being able to interact with the teams out there? I probably asked this question before. I'll ask it again. Just because it seemed like everybody's having fun, the fans were into it.
What does that mean as you head in the season that the fans are really into this skills competition and the new rink?
[00:47:35] Speaker C: I feel like it's going to be exactly as loud and as rowdy as Mesa was. So that makes me really happy just seeing exactly, like you said, a Wednesday, Wednesday night we have this crowd, so we can really picture how it's going to be on our opening night. So I'm super excited.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: Tony, what was it like, the atmosphere in here for the first time to have the public here seeing the union hockey programs?
[00:47:59] Speaker F: Yeah, I think it was great. We got to see quite a few people come in the doors.
I know everybody got excited as we got closer and went through the warm up and there were still people filing in. So definitely some really good buzz around the building.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: How much fun was the skills competition? Seemed like everybody's having a lot of fun.
[00:48:18] Speaker F: Yeah, I think the players Did a great job with it. You know, they took ownership of it and, you know, there's some competition to it, but I think they also, you know, wanted it to be fun as well, so. So we saw some breakaway moves that you probably won't see this year.
I'm sure Houj especially on a couple of them. So it was just good to see the players have some fun with it.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: I know you only spent one year as the head coach of Union at Mesa Rink, but what is it like to be in this building compared to Mesa?
[00:48:46] Speaker F: Yeah, Mesa was special.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:48] Speaker F: It had the history to it. You know, having played there myself as a visitor, you remember everything that it was like there and then having last year. But coming here, it's a lot different venue. You know, the lighting's different, the fans, the stands are different.
You know, the scoreboard's the same, but it seems bigger and brighter. And then the amenities underneath, you know, the Gillespie group, that and, you know, the people that built this lechase, they did a great job making sure that we have everything underneath there.
And, you know, can't say enough of what our players have been through to really appreciate that.
[00:49:26] Speaker B: How much are you looking forward to September 26th?
[00:49:28] Speaker F: Can't get here fast enough.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: Stephanie, your thoughts about this new building? What was it like out there? How much fun was it?
[00:49:37] Speaker E: Yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun. And, you know, the community, having everyone there for, like, the first time, I thought it was really cool. And just seeing how much energy they brought and everything is really exciting, especially for the start of the season.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: How much are you looking forward to playing this your home games here now compared to Mesa?
[00:49:53] Speaker E: Yeah, I think, you know, Mesa will miss it, but I think nothing compares to this rank. And we're very, very grateful that we do have this opportunity. And we're looking to make a lot of noise in this building.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: What's the difference you notice being on this ice compared to Mesa?
[00:50:08] Speaker E: I think the first thing I noticed was definitely the warmth. I think it's lot warmer here, so you get a lot more of a sweat in compared to Mesa. But other than that, just the building itself, it's really cool and just a little bit shocking when. When you first. First step in the building.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: But, yeah, when you first stepped into this building, what was your reaction?
[00:50:27] Speaker E: I think all of us were a little shocked. Like, we knew a little bit what it might look like, but we really had no idea. And then just seeing it like in real life without any concrete and stuff was really, really cool.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: What are the locker rooms. Like, I mean, I have toured them all so that you got to be excited with the extra space there.
[00:50:46] Speaker E: Oh yeah, the locker rooms are really, really cool. And like I said, we're so grateful to have this opportunity and even for the girls that aren't able to play in this rink like the seniors that graduated last year. But we're super, super grateful to have this opportunity.
[00:50:59] Speaker B: How thrilling was it to win the hardest shot?
[00:51:02] Speaker E: You know, I was really nervous. I was more nervous to do the hardest shot than to play in a game. But I'll take it. I'll take any win.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: So I'll be back to wrap up the podcast in live the latest winners in the Daily Gazette's auto racing contest in just a moment.
[00:51:30] Speaker A: Foreign it's the most historic conference in college hockey.
It's a battle night in and night out.
ECAC Hockey an iconic conference, home to 12 of the most prestigious universities and programs in the world and showcasing the best student athletes in the sport.
Top notch facilities and arenas, incomparable traditions, passionate folks, fans, alumni who go on to become elite professionals, leaders and champions.
ECAC Hockey there's no experience like it.
Explore the benefits of subscribing to the Daily Gazette like our convenient E Edition app, personalized newsletters and unique reader rewards. When you join, start your membership today. Offers
[email protected] gazette.com.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: Hi, this is Union.
[00:52:26] Speaker A: Men'S hockey alum Charlie Moxam. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot Back. Wrap up the podcast. The Week 28 winner in the Deli Gazettes auto racing contest was Chris Grzbowski of Glenville with 35 points. Chris wins a 50 gift card. Congratulations Chris.
The VIP winner was Dwayne Leach of All Seasons Equipment with 5 points.
I'll announce the auto racing contest winner's name and that winner's name will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the Auto Racing contest banner.
The you Pick' em football contest is back. Predict the winners of the weekly games via your you Pick' em online account. The local fan with the most correct picks each week gets his or her name in the delegatest and also mentioned here on the Parting Shots podcast and that winner will receive a $100 gift card from Price Chopper and Market 32. The local fan with the best overall record after 23 weeks wins $1,000.
To play, go to DailyGazette.com football and create your account. Select the teams that you think will win. Predict the score for the designated tiebreaker game each week. You may enter your picks and score predictions until five minutes before the start of each game. I'm looking forward to that. Of course I am the defending VIP champion. And of course my Eagles are the defending super bowl champion. They're taking on the Cowboys on Thursday night.
Just because COVID 19 mandates are easing, that does not mean you should relax. Be vigilant. If you have not gotten vaccinated or received a booster shot, please do so. Do it for yourself. Do it for your family, and do it for your friends. And remember, vaccines do not cause autism.
Don't forget to download the Daily Gazette app and sign up for our E Edition so you never miss a headline. Subscribe today at www.dailygazette.com. we have a lot of great specials going on. When Credibility Matters, Trust the Daily Gazette.
That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots podcast. I want to thank Mike Begatta, Josh Hauge, Nick Young, Tony Macy and Stephanie Bourque for being a part of the show.
If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's s c h o t
[email protected] follow me on X threads and bluesky at Slap Shots.
The views expressed in the Parting Shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The Parting Shots podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette Company. I'm Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Schott. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good sports.
