[00:00:03] Speaker A: The following program is brought to you in living color on dailyGazette.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 Giese, and welcome to the Parting Shots podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the parting Shots Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York for the 399th episode edition of the Parting Shots podcast. Hopeful as well as we close out August, it's come falls right around the corner. Unbelievable.
So last week of August means the last week of horse racing at Saratoga Race course and Mike McGann, our fine Gazette horse racing rider, will be with us to look back at a memorable traverse stakes fierceness, holding off Torpedo Anna to win the race on Saturday. Mike will talk about that on his at the track with Max segment. Also review some other races that took place and look ahead to the final week of racing at Saratoga. And we'll have a new segment on the podcast, my Gazette colleague Adam Schindler, who covers college football for us. He'll be joining me weekly during the college football season to talk area college football. Of course, Ualbany opens its season on Saturday. They'll host LIU. Of course, you already coming off a Magic 2023 season, won the Colonial Athletic Conference, got to the FCS semifinals, and obviously you have some changes there. Some players were part of that team last year, have departed. So we'll see what Adam has to say about the great Danes as they head into their season opener on Saturday night. So we'll talk about that. And we're coming up Mike McGadwin at the track with Mac. We'll talk Travers Stakes and look back at that memorable race you're listening to. The parting shots podcast at the track is your premier source of horse racing news and events from the daily newspaper of Saratoga Racecourse. The Daily Gazette at the track features racing tips, feature stories, picks by Matt Donato, Gene Kirchner, Jeff Karl and Nyra Betts. You will also get Mike McAdams takes on the races. There are direct links to Naira Bettse you can find at the track
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Hi, this is John McGraw the voice.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Of Colgate hockey on ESPN.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: You're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shaw.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast, and it's our penultimate at the track with Max segment with Gazette horse rider Mike McGadam and Mac lot to unpack after an incredible traverse finish in which fierceness held off Philly torpedo Anna by a desperate head on Saturday. But before we get to that, there were a few other significant results, most notably the idiomatic randomized duel that did not materialize in the personal ensign last Friday. Was that a shock?
[00:03:44] Speaker C: I wouldn't say it was a shock, and it actually did materialize on the backstretch, but that's where they left it. Randomized kind of disappeared once they got into the turn. Idiomatic still ran a winning race and was very good, but unfortunately the work she did against randomized on the back stretch, she paid a price for it at the end so that the other Chad brown horse, besides randomized, raging C benefited from the speed duel that idioma had to fight her way through on the back stretch and she wound up getting caught right before the wire.
So a great win for Raging C, who's actually kind of quietly had a pretty solid campaign in the older Philly and Mare division. She's got three graded stakes wins on the season, including the grade one personal ensign, so she's in real good shape heading into the Breeders cup. Meanwhile, for the second race in a row, trainer Brad Cox and I jockey Florent Giroud said the same thing afterwards when idiomatic loss to randomized in that great duel that we thought was going to happen again in the Ogden Phipps on Belmont Stakes day, they said they still felt like she was the better horse, and then they said the exact same thing after this race, and she lost that one too. So two straight tough losses, but they will forge ahead to the Breeders cup as well. Very confident in the defending champ idiomatic, so kind of a surprise ending, and Chad Brown was pretty disappointed and randomized, while at the same the other side of that coin being very proud of raging c for pulling out a big win. Other than that, some of the other graded stakes on Traverse day, which was Saturday, we had two upsets to start right off the rip beating two kind of monsters. We had eight to one far bridge winning the sword dancer over the two, the dolphin juggernaut of measured time and silver knot, and shortly after that we had society beating Vava and Scylla in the ballerina. So it looks like the Philly and mare sprint division is kind of up in the air. And then sanity prevailed finally in the forego when Mullikin won by five and three quarters lengths at odds of eight. Betting odds of eight to five. So that was kind of the lead in that we saw on Saturday into the Travers.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: And of course, the anticipation and expectation were sky high for the 155th traverse, and somehow the horses exceeded that in what turned out to be an instant classic, even though torpedo Anna fell a couple feet short of making history. I know I was watching the race here in the office along with our colleague Adam Schindler. We were just amazed how torpedo Anak just, you know, just turning it on down the stretch yard. Almost all guts. Yeah.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
And I wrote a column about the fact that it was the second best travers I've ever seen, certainly the second most memorable traverse I've ever seen behind Holy Bull. Phenomenal effort in 1994.
There was so much hype leading into this race. We've been talking about it for four weeks after Kenny McPeak, Thorpe Anna's trainer, announced on tv that she was going to skip the Alabama and run against males in the Travers. We haven't had a female Travers winner since 1915, which was Lady Rotha, and she actually wound up winning it by a controversial disqualification.
This race was even without the filly angle of Thorpe Anna. This race was promised to be very good. They just had a solid field of three year old colts coming into it. And then you add that angle to it and it just kind of ratchets up the, as we already mentioned, the anticipation and expectation, and boy, did they put on a show.
It was wonderful to see fierceness win because that's the defending champ who's been wildly inconsistent throughout his whole career, really going back to his two year old season. And he finally put back to back tremendous efforts together between the Jim Dandy and the Travers. But the filly didn't go away, and she gave him everything he could handle, right up to the wire and past it. She actually, on the gallop out the first couple strides, she went past fierceness. So maybe if the race had been a mile and a quarter and 3ft, she wins it, but it isn't. It's a mile and a quarter in fierceness.
Certainly a well deserving Travers winner, and elevates him right to the top of the three year old male division ahead of Dornoch, who really kind of flamed out in the traverse after winning the Belmont, and Haskell, two really hard races for him. I kind of. I didn't really think of picking Dornach at all, just based on his previous two races where, you know, had to take something out of him and that kind of played out that way. I will say that the NTRA National Thoroughbred Racing association puts out the poll that I vote on every week, and it's interesting that so they, they scale it on a 1098, you know, down to 110 points for your top pick. And fierceness. And torpedo Anna actually had exactly the same number of points this morning, 284 85. But fierceness gets the number one spot because he had eleven first place votes and she had nine. So that was kind of interesting.
But as far as the three year old male division, its fierceness to lose, and he's going to train up to the Breeders Cup Classic.
The only real three year old restricted race we have left is the Pennsylvania Derby at parks in Philadelphia coming up later in September, and we'll see who shows up for that. I know the top three of the top four finishers are the Travers. Their connections have already, including fierceness, have already said they're just going to train up to the Breeders cup classic. Breeders Cup Classic is going to be really interesting because I think the older male dirt division kind of stinks this year. I mean, nobody's really done anything or stood out, and this might be the year when a three year old wins it. I can't remember the last time that happened.
It was probably arrogate.
So, I mean, the three year olds are going to have a lot to say about what happens in the Breeders cup classic this year, and certainly fierceness will be right in the middle of that.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: What was the reaction, like from the crowd there when torpedo was coming down and stretching the excitement level sky high?
[00:10:03] Speaker C: It was interesting.
Yeah, it was. But just because it was like a knockdown, drag out, like, tight finish, you know, it was hard to differentiate the yelling because it was torpedo Anna and just the fact that it was just amazing finish between two horses. You know, I kind of walked around the backyard early just to get, you know, the lay of the land. I didn't really. I can't admit to seeing a ton of torpedo Anna like, you know, there's a lot of people wearing pink, but I don't know that it was any more than. Than usual. I'm sure a lot of those people were wearing pink in support of her because Kenny McPeek had kind of asked people to do that, and he bought a bunch of boxes of pink torpedo Anna hats that they were passing out for free. At one of the gates, naira was passing out pink torpedo Anna posters. Those babies went like hotcakes and people were just grabbing this stuff. So she's beloved by the racing public.
I think it depended on where you were, whether there was, like, a big, rousing reaction to her. I think, you know, when she galloped back, people kind of, I read, I didn't see this myself because I was in the winter circle, kind of in the middle of this storm, but apparently they gave her a standing ovation in the box seats when she came back, you know, galloping back to the winter circle to be unsaddled. So I think there were pockets of it here and there, but from my vantage point in the winner circle, you know, it was just a roaring crowd and, I mean, it was as much because of the dramatic finish as anything else.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: What does this do for the horse of the year race?
[00:11:36] Speaker C: Well, she's. I don't think it hurt her chances, and because I voted her number one this week in the NTRA poll, that that's my statement that, you know, basically, if the award was given out tomorrow, she would, you know, I would vote for her.
So I think it's still kind of hers to lose. There's a couple. I was talking to somebody the other day about that, and, you know, you pick cherry, pick certain other horses that are out there that have been putting up pretty solid campaigns and what do they have to do between now and Breeders cup, including Breeders cup, to kind of win that award?
I think it's pretty wide open. I think it's hers to lose. And the, the second in the travers doesn't diminish her standing, really that much at all. I mean, the three year old Philly Eclipse award, that's gone. Goodbye. I mean, that's hers already.
No matter what she does the rest of the way, she's going to win that. And you know what? Excuse me. It was similar to when Zenyatta lost to blame in her final career race. Out of 20 races, or 21 or whatever it was she ran in the Breeders cup classic against males, and it was very similar dynamics, although Zenyatta's running style was to come from way out of it, like last place and then kind of freight train her way to the front, and she just missed against blame. And I wrote a column after that saying that she didn't diminish her standing in my eyes at all. If anything, it enhanced it because of such a gutsy performance.
So I would make an easy comparison between Zenyatta finishing a very close second to blame in the Breeders cup classic torpedo, and if anything, it elevated my opinion of her.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Well, Nyra had to be very happy with the Travers numbers. And as all sources betting handle for the day smashed the record set in 2022.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Yeah, all sources handle was over just over 63 million, breaking the 22 record of 55 and a half million. That was a 13.4%. This is not an increase. This is not a negligible shift.
The paid admission crowd was announced as 47,844, which seemed about right.
It seemed just like a typical travers crowd size wise, just from walking around and how congested it was. And the foot traffic and stuff certainly reinforces everybody I've talked to who was at the Belmont, which sold out at 50,000, which is the capacity, said somehow more than 50,000 got in there because that was ridiculous on Belmont day.
And then the on track handle was just over 11 million. That's what the on track people contributed to the 63 million. So, yeah, they were happy with that number. You know, I mean, betting handle kind of drives the whole circus. So when you get a big number like that, you know you're doing something right.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Or down to the final week of the. The meat here and Saratoga promises to close with a bang with six interesting, great. At stakes Saturday through Labor Day. Talk about that.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Ok, before we get to that, though, on Friday, just this news kind of came out today. If you're a Sienna men's basketball fan or a Syracuse fan, new head coach Jerry McNamara is going to do a meet and greet at the track at 230 on Friday. So if you're a fan, Jerry will be there and you can go meet him. As far as the weekend stakes, stuff that we're looking, you know, Saturday's kind of cool. We got the flower bowl as kind of the main event with warlike goddess going against McCulich. They both have three wins in 2 seconds at Saratoga. They've butted heads before in turf races.
Warlike goddess, she's lost three straight, and so she kind of needs to get it together on a track that she's had success. But McCulich will be, you know, very imposing, one that Glenn S. Falls earlier in the meet and then the other two races on Saturday I'm really interested in looking at, because the priorist, which is for three year old Phillies, has drawn Breit work, who has not run since November when she kind of bombed out in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Phillies. But she won the spin away in the Adirondack last year to kind of put her to the forefront of the two year old Philly division. And then, like I said, she kind of flamed out at the end there. She hasn't raced since then. I'm not sure why, but she'll be jumping into the prior priors and then speaking of the spin away, that race is on the card as well. And a really interesting filly in there is the Queen's MG, based on the fact that she won the Schuylerville on opening day and then the Adirondack. And then she's taken a crack at sweeping all of the three graded stakes for dirt on two year old fillies, which has only been done once in the last 50 years by a filly named overall in 1987. And there's really, over that 50 year span, there's only been three horses who have actually won both legs and then attempted to win the third one, and the other two lost. And overall is the only one to have won it. So the Queen's MG is trying to pull off that very rare feat. Then Sunday we got the Bernard Baruch, which is always a really good turf race. They haven't drawn that yet, so I don't know who exactly is going to be in it. And the Jockey Club Gold cup, of course. Interesting thing there is Arthur's ride, who is upset winner of the Whitney earlier in the meet. He should be back, but I noticed that next is nominated to the Jockey Club Gold cup, which everybody was kind of wondering if that would be the case. Whether he runs or not, I don't know. It would be great if he did. This is the horse that won the mile and three quarter, Birdstone, who's this marathon specialist that never jumps into races like the Jockey Club Gold cup despite fans clamoring for it. I mean, they want to see this guy attempt something like this, as well as the Breeders cup classic. I mean, there's no Breeders cup race for him if he's just going to stick to a mile and a half and longer on the dirt.
So he's nominated. I'd like to see him in there. I don't know if he's going to run or not, but at least he's on the list. And then, of course, Monday, the meet closes with the traditional hopeful for two year old.
You know, it'll be. It's not restricted to colds, but it'll be all colts and kind of the traditional closing day, Labor Day stakes that everybody looks forward to.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Well, enjoy that last week, Mac, and we'll wrap things up next week with a review of the meat. It's been a lot of fun and like I said, enjoy.
[00:18:03] Speaker C: Yeah, we got six days left. I'm actually going to take degenerate Wednesday this.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Good for you. Good for you. So. All right. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. Mike McGowan with that to track with Mac. Coming up, we'll have a new segment on the parting shots podcast. Adam Schindler is going to talk area college football. Ultimately, football opens this season Saturday hosting LIU. We'll talk about that and much more here on the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:18:41] Speaker D: 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 the community where nobody else is covering. It's who we are. It's what we do.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Chad Arnold.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: You're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast. And we're going to debut a new segment on the parting shots podcast. We're going to dedicate some time each week during the college football season to the local scene. Union, new Albany RPI and Adam Schindler, who covers college football for the Gazette, joins us now. And you already gets ready to kick off its season on Saturday hosting LIu and you open had a great 2023, got to the semifinals in FCS. And what's in store for the team? A lot changed, I believe.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: Yeah, there's some left the offense has, because the entire offensive line returns, which for a team that did what it did with an offensive line that was a mix of young guys and some injury replacements, last year is really, really big. But there's a lot changed between guys leaving for the NFL draft behind, between guys leaving for bigger FBS schools. A lot has changed, especially on the defensive end. But it'll be interesting to see starting Saturday night, how they can follow up on an eleven four season that was by any measure the best season in the history of this program.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: How big was that season last season? Not only for the program, for Greg Ituso, because his job on the line.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: I don't think his job was on the line. He did get an extension off of this season that he's indicated is probably his final coaching contract, so he's probably looking to wind it down in the next several years. But it was big because it got the program back to where it was at the end of 2019. End of the 2019 season, this was a program on the rise. Young quarterback. They just reached the FCS playoffs for the first time in a while. They'd won a game in the playoffs for the first time in program history. And then 2020 happened and their recruiting, they basically couldn't be on a field for an entire calendar year. Came back, got crushed with injuries for a couple of years, really struggled on defense for one year, on offense for another year. Last year they put it all together and what it really did was reestablish the momentum of the program. And now they get a chance to actually build on that. And even though they've lost so much, this was a really impressive recruiting offseason.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Big loss. Speaking of change, a big loss of quarterback.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah, Reese Poffenbarger probably would have come into this season as the top quarterback in all of FCS, maybe one or two. I can't remember if Mark Granowski, the the quarterback at national champion South Dakota State, is still there. Poffenbarger became a star on the national level FCS last year, transferred to Miami for a brief moment, looked like he actually might end up being the starter there until Cam Ward transferred from Washington State. But Miles Burkett, Wisconsin transfer, comes in, he's been named the starter. Trey Lindsey, who was the backup last year, stays as a backup as an experienced grad.
Covid grad student, fifth or 6th year in school, but Burkett has a similar athletic profile to Poffenbarger. A little bit smaller, can move. Didn't really get a chance to show what he could do at Wisconsin, but he's got Griffin Weddell, the Glens falls grad back at running back. He was the CAA offensive rookie of the year last year. Couple of returning receivers, even though they're two big targets. Brevin Easton and Julian Hicks both went and were in NFL campsite this season, but Marquis Dietz was a complimentary receiver last season. They like seven. McGee is a transfer from the Rochester area, played at Jackson State and is now here and has been named the team's leadership council. So be interesting to see how this offense looks. But in his two years at Ualbany, Jared Ambrose has gotten a lot out of this team as this offensive coordinator.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Is there pressure on the new quarterback, you think?
[00:23:16] Speaker B: I mean, there's pressure. I mean, with as good as Poffenbarger played over his two years at Ualbany, there's plenty of pressure.
I think there's not as much pressure because you just don't know what he is. He's not like he's coming over with a reputation from somewhere else. He's put very little on film since high school, but there's a lot to live up to and a big performance Saturday night would be a good indication. They do have two very tough games right after this going on the road. They go to West Virginia for their FBS game and then they go to Idaho, back to the Kibbe Dome in a rematch of what was an incredible late, late night FC.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: You already football after dark?
[00:23:57] Speaker B: I think I still haven't slept that game off.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: That was an incredible game. That's amazing how that speaking of Idaho, this facility play and looks more like a hockey rink than it does really a football field.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Wild. It's a barn in every sense of the word. You got the uprights back right against the walls, the crowds right on you. That'll be an interesting game in a few weeks. That's going to be LIu should certainly be a winnable game. West Virginia is obviously being competitive down there would be great, but you can't necessarily expect any big results against an FBS team, especially a big twelve team.
But that Idaho game is going to be the first real indication of where this team is going. The big question we've talked about offense, the big question for this team is going to be on defense, where I think it's ten starters. They're replacing Anton Yukon and the late AJ Simon, who very sadly passed away while he was preparing for the NFL draft, combined for almost 30 sacks last year. Dylan Kelly, Washington one of the best linebackers in all of fcs. Mir hall was an all American corner. He's now at Michigan. Yoon Kaj is at Arkansas. Elijah Hills, defensive tackle is at Wisconsin. So you can see there was a lot of talent on this defense and it's going to come down to a lot of replacements just to step up this year.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: How important will these non league, non conference games help get them ready for Colonial Athletic association action?
[00:25:26] Speaker B: I mean, the CIA is a gauntlet every year. So they have the first three games, Liu at West Virginia, at Idaho, then buy and then Maine comes to Ualbany for the conference opener. Then they go to Cornell for a non league game and then it's all CAA games. CAA is so big. Last year they were the best team in the CAA and they still finished tied for the league championship because there were teams that they didn't play and you don't play so many of these teams during the year, but you never quite know who is going to be the team to step up from year to year. No one really had Ualbany in that spot last year. No one really had Richmond in that spot. Villanova is probably a consistent force, but with James Madison having moved on to the next level, with a few teams having shuffled around, it becomes very, very interesting. But these three games will be big to just get them on the right play because you cannot start losing games early on in the CA.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah, the LIu game you mentioned, it should be. It should be a victory for the, for you, Albin.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yeah, this should be, this strikes me as being exactly what last year's opener against Fordham was. If you're going to open at home, you want to open with a winnable game, and that's what this should be.
I certainly wouldn't think they're taking Liu lightly and with as many unknowns, you can't know what this team, what's going to be, but Ualbany would certainly be favorite, this one.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: And, of course, union opens up next Friday at Utica, I believe. So we'll talk more about them. But just quick thoughts on union right now.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: A lot of energy. When I went there earlier this month, actually day before camp open, they were hosting a youth clinic. John Drock, the new head coach, bringing a lot of energy, not quite the, the expressive energy of John Poppy, who I think was permanently wired on caffeine. So he's maybe a little bit more low key, but it's a team that they lost a lot. They had a ton, especially Donovan Piketty, their quarterback, a really good first front seven, a lot on the offensive line, but they bring back maybe the two best running backs in all the Liberty League in Michael Fiore and John Anderson.
Cul de Silva is a veteran linebacker who's been around this team for seemingly forever. Secondary is experienced, but it'll be interesting to see. Cause it is. It's gonna be a whole new offense, whole new defense scheme wise. So really interesting. And it'll be interesting to see. Cause I can't even say it. Cause union hasn't actually published its 2024 roster yet. My assumption is that patch Flanagan, who's been the backup the last couple of years, is the guy who'd get the first look quarterback. But you don't know what John Drock is going to want to see out there.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: I said we'll talk more about them next week on this segment. We got to get a name for this thing. If we come up with something, figure that one out. Well, Adam, appreciate a few minutes, and we'll talk next week.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: All right. That's Adam Schindler. And we're back to wrap up the podcast. And I have the latest winner in the dilly Gaza. I can talk to the Daily Gazette auto racing contest in just a moment.
Hi, I'm Rick Marshall from the Daily.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Gazette's martial arts podcast.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: In each episode, I interview artists from around the region, from musicians and comedians.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: To dancers, sculptors, even video game designers.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: After you finish the latest episode of the parting Shots podcast, I hope you'll.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Give Marshall arts a try.
Hi, this is RPI men's hockey head coach Dave Smith.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: You're listening to the parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
Back to wrap up the podcast. The week 25 winner in the Daily Gazette's auto racing contest was Nate Clements of Mechanicville with 45 points. Nate wins a dollar 50 gift card. Congratulations, Nate. The vip winner was Dwayne Leach of all season equipment with 20 points.
I'll announce the autoration contest winner's name and that winter scene will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the auto racing contest banner, the Daily Gazettes. You pick a football contest is back. Pick the winners of the weekly pro football games and have a chance to win a dollar 100 Hannaford gift card. To play, go to dailygazetteprofootball. You picked.
Just because Covid-19 mandates are easing, that does not mean you should relax. Be vigilant. If you have not gotten vaccinated and received a booster shot, please do so. Do it for yourself, do it for your family, and do it for your friends.
That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots podcast. I want to thank Mike McGadam and Adam Schinder for coming on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email to me at shot. That's sch o t
[email protected] follow me on x and threads at Slap Shots the views expressed on the parting Shots podcast are not necessarily those of 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 party shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Work. Good day, good sports.
