[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 Geesy. And welcome to the Parting Shots podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the parting Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York, we have another great show for you. Mike Pagan is back with us at the track with Max Saban. We look back at a very interesting week five of the Saratoga meet where weather played a role in the car, which was Friday's car got canceled because of the remnants of Tropical Storm Debbie. Some races were moved from Saturday to Sunday, including the four star Dave Mack will talk about that. And we'll look ahead to Alabama week this coming week. That's race. The Alabama takes place on Saturday. Then Lisa Bluder, who was the women's head basketball coach at the University of Iowa 24 years, recently retired. Of course, she was a head coach for Caitlin Clark, the phenomenon that she has been Iowa, of course, now in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever. Lisa was the virtual guest speaker at Monday's Capital district sports Women of the year gala at GE theater at Proctors.
And she'll be on to talk about what she said to in her speech and talk about Caitlin Clarke. And we should mention the winners of the Capital district sports Women of the year. For the scholastic, it was Ariana Dingley from Lansingburg High School. And for the collegiate athlete, it was Katie Pascal of the University Albany women's lacrosse. So congratulations to both those women athletes. So coming up, Mike began it with us at the track segment. As we talk, Sara took a horse racing. 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 Carl and Naira Beth. You will also get Mike McAdams takes on the races. There are direct links to Naira Betts you can find at the track
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[00:02:58] Speaker B: Hey everybody, this is Don Barnes from 38 special. And you're always rocking into the night when you're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott. Hold on loosely, Ken. Just don't ever let go.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast. And it's time for our weekly segment with Mike McAdam at the track with Mac as we look back at Saratoga racecourse week five. And look at the week six. Mac, how are things going?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Pretty good. We got some gorgeous weather up here for a couple days, so it looks like it's going to be around for a little while. I'm not sure about the weekend, but we'll take what we can get for the time being.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, weather's. We'll talk about that right now. In fact, you know, looking back at week five, Saratoga meet 2024, starting resemble 2023. That's not a good thing because Tropical Storm Debbie wreaked havoc on what was supposed to be a big weekend of turf, stakes and some schedule. And after some scheduling shuffling, at least we got to see Carl Spackler put it on the green in the gray one four star Dave on Sunday.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we got absolutely pounded with Tropical Storm Debbie and rain, it rained all day pretty much last Friday. And so naira did the smart thing the day before and announced they were canceling the Friday cart ahead of time, which they've only done a few times in probably the last 20 years or so. A couple times when the heat index looked like it was going to be bad, they canceled a card that morning. And then there was another instance where they canceled the whole card two days ahead of time when it looked like the heat index was going to be dangerous as far as raining out a whole car. That's something that used to happen way back when the track opened in the late 18 hundreds, but it doesn't happen that often nowadays. But I mean, the writing was on the wall. You know, it's one thing if they're just predicting some rainstorms and, you know, they might be 50 50 whether it's going to hit or nothing. Tropical Storm Debbie had pretty much asserted herself well enough that they could look into their little weather crystal ball and see that Friday was going to be a washout. So they did the smart thing, canceled the card, reshuffled some of the stakes races.
Excuse me. You know, they had the two, the two turf races designated for three year old Saratoga Oaks and the Saratoga Derby had to get moved around the. Troy had drawn Cogburn, who had broken the north american american record the last time he ran, which was in the Jaipur up here at Saratoga. So we were all looking forward to him running. He scratched out when that race was taken off the turf. So you lose one there. And then the Saratoga Derby, as I already mentioned, in the four star Dave, which is a great one, were moved from Saturday to Sunday.
So there was a lot of shuffling going on, going on. But they scheduled those two races for the end of the cart on Sunday to give the turf courses as much opportunity to dry out as possible. And by the time, you know, we got to those races at the end of the card, which, by the way, was after 06:00. So that was a long day for everybody.
You know, we're kind of rewarded with seeing Carl Spackler win. He's absolutely a horse for the course.
He's won four out of five races he's run here, including the two three year old turf races. Last year gave trainer Chad Brown his first four star Dave victory. He's won every big turf race up here except the four star Dave, it seemed like. And then he finally won it on Sunday with a really good horse.
And as he said afterwards, the reason I've never won it is because it's a really hard race to win, and it absolutely is. It's a grade one turf mile, so it draws good horses every time.
So it was kind of cool to see Carl Spackler do his thing again. And the turf conditions were in great shape, and they continue to be for the time being.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'll give some insight into newspaper stuff here. I was putting out, laying out the ours, our wraparound wrap for the Saratoga read. And obviously with early Dylan's, they'll get stuff out. Or so I think I had the page out by 434, so. And then we get the word about five minutes to 06:00 that, oh, the races are canceled. Like, oh, yeah, scramble that point. We got to call the people who print the paper, say, look, we got to bring this section back here. We got to make changes. And they had a rush to get you ended up, you know, taking off the handicappers picks, your, your take on the race and the entries and all that stuff. And it's just basically scramble mode. Throw, throw, slap a couple pictures on. And we have this new section out there. So that was just a crazy day. I know. Probably for you and definitely for me.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Well, I'm happy to report I didn't have to be involved in that headache at all, other than supplying copy.
So God bless you guys for pulling that out. I'm sure that had to be kind.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Of a nightmare because you wrote a story about how this affected the cancellation. How did the cancellation affect naira as far as finances are concerned?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Well, I did a little homework. I went back and pulled up the charts from the corresponding Friday. For the last ten years leading into this year and the last three years, they've averaged, I think it was like 20 million in handle each of those Fridays for the last three years. And then the overall average number for the ten year span was probably closer to 15 million. So they took a pretty big hit and they knew they were going to, but there really wasn't anything they could do about it. It's just sort of one of those, you know, chalk it up and move on and, you know, kind of lick your wounds a little bit. So, yeah, I mean, they probably, the number probably would have been about 20 million in handle.
So it was a big hit for them. Indiana Nash called some people downtown, and apparently business was booming at, on Broadway with the restaurants and bars and stores because there's a lot of people in town. They didn't have anything to do. They had no track to go to, so they went and spent money on Broadway instead of down on Nelson Avenue.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Well, any of the non stakes races be made up?
[00:09:15] Speaker B: That's a good question.
Obviously, there isn't as much urgency to do that with some of those, but generally what they do is they'll try to add like one or two to subsequent cards. Now they've, they've drawn everything through next Saturday.
So, yeah, you know, so they, wherever they might sprinkle those races in here or there because, you know, they drew them and they had people lined up to run in them and you don't want to just lose a race on the calendar. So they'll have like extra races, they call them, that they'll sprinkle in, you know, when they get opportunities, they'll try to remake those as much as they can.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Well, it's Alabama week, which means some of the best three year old Phillies in the country will be, will be duking it out on Saturday with one obvious omission. Torpedo Anna with her skipping this to point toward the Travers. The Alabama drew eight Phillies. And even though an eclipse award looks out of reach is a chance to add a grade one to somebody's resume.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's still a huge race. I mean, because of one horse not being in it doesn't, you know, diminish the significance of it. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, the eclipse award is locked up by torpedo Anna. But, you know, one aspect of racing is you're trying to develop a resume for when you go to the breeding shed and you know, you'll command a higher price if you got a nice race like the grade one Alabama to show to the breeders. That said, we've got eight in here. And the clear favorite, candied, trained by Todd Pletcher, seven to five on the morning line.
I mean, she's a huge favorite in this race, and she's coming off a loss. Of course, that was by 40 half lengths to torpedo Anna and the coaching club American Oaks earlier in the race. So it's still a nice race. I did a little research on Eclipse awards and how the Alabama fits into that. In the last 16 years, eight of the Eclipse award winners for three year old Phillies also won Alabama as part of their, you know, their championship season.
You know, not going to happen this year because torpedo Anna's just so stacked in her favor to win the championship. And who knows, she could win the Travers. I mean, I'll take a hard look at her when I'm trying to come up with my Travers pick, but it's still a really good race. You know, we got eight, you know, good Phillies in here. And as I already mentioned, candy is the obvious favorite.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Is there any other race that stands out on Saturday?
[00:11:52] Speaker B: We have Lake Placid, which is restricted to three year old Phillies on the turf.
So that's on Saturday. Other than that, it's a bunch of listed stakes this week and then next Sunday, also two listed races, Evan Shipman and the Bolton landing, are on Sunday. And Evan Shipman is one of the races that was supposed to have been run last Friday. So that one got moved to this Sunday. So Alabama really stands head and shoulders above everything else as far as prestige and purse. It's a $600,000 race, so it's Alabama week.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Of course, it's the calm before the storm next week with the Travers. So. Oh, yeah, it's going to be interesting. Next week. We'll have lot to talk about with the trappers.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Alabama is a standalone this week, but next week we're so stacked with stuff besides the Travers, it's ridiculous. So. So the pod will probably be a little longer next week.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: All right, sounds good, Mike. Appreciate a few minutes.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: All right, thanks, Ken. Talk to you next week.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: That's Mike McGadam coming up. I'll talk with former University of Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder, who was the virtual guest speaker at Monday's Capital district sports Women of the year gala. We'll talk about Kate Clark as well. You're listening to the parting shots piece. Guest it's time to take part in the Daily Gazette's 2024 best of the best people choice award. We are excited to find out who you think the best people, places and businesses are in our region. The contest has two phases, nominations and voting. There is a dollar 500 prize for both phases. The nomination phase continues through 01:00 p.m. saturday, August 17 and that's when voting begins. In order to be eligible to win the $500, you must nominate 25 people, places or businesses. The nomination process is very easy. Click on a group. Click on a category. Type the name of the person, place or business. Click nominate. Complete the registration form.
Once you've registered, you can nominate as many people, places or businesses as you would like. Remember to nominate at least 25. Go to dailygazette.com. best of good luck hello.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: This is Union College hockey alum Jeremy Welch.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: You're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast. My next guest coached women's college basketball for 40 years, the last 24 with the University of Iowa before retiring after the 2023 24 season. She coached one of the greatest players in Caitlyn Clark, and on Monday night, she was the virtual guest speaker for the Capital District sports Women of the year gala at the GE Theater at Proctors. Please welcome Lisa Bluder to the podcast. Lisa, thanks for doing us. How are you doing? And how is retirement treating you?
[00:14:51] Speaker C: I'm great, Ken. Thank you for having me. And, you know, retirement hasn't felt too different. I've been so busy. I feel like since I have left my position at Iowa that it doesn't feel like I'm retired. They say you get busier when you retire, and I think that might be true.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: The only thing is you don't have to worry, worry about recruiting players. It's a good kind of busy this time, I think. Right?
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Well, that's, that's true. It's the I can do now, the things only I want to do. And so that's kind of nice.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Well, I'll ask you about Kate and Clark in a few minutes. But first, let me ask you about your speech that you gave on Monday. What was the message you gave to the women athletes?
[00:15:26] Speaker C: Well, I mean, basically, you know, we talked about just the importance of being an athlete, what you can learn from being an athlete. There's so many life lessons that are, that are there that it, that can't be emulated in anything else. That you do not from a textbook or a class. It's through real life experiences on the court and how important it is to help other women. I think that's just a message that I want to send out to everybody is women. We need to promote our fellow woman to greatness. We need to have each other.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Now we're seeing the rise of women's sports getting coverage both locally and nationally. And certainly Americans were on the edge of their seats on Sunday watching the USA women's basketball squad holding off France to win the Summer Olympics gold medal. And earlier in the Olympics, a couple days before that, Team USA women's soccer squad beat Brazil for good for the gold medal. I mean, how happy are you that women's sports is getting this attention, especially what we saw at the women's college, we asked, will torment this past season?
[00:16:28] Speaker C: It's thrilling for me because I remember the days when there'd be 200 people on the stands and now to play in front of out arenas and in front of millions on television and national broadcasts. You know, it's what you dream about as a female athlete growing up, you know, in title ix and gender equity. You dream about this. And now we're seeing it happen and we're seeing the explosion of women's sport. And to see the point where it came from to what it is now is so rewarding.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Can more be done?
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Oh, I think so. I mean, I don't think we ever stop trying to grow and get better. And absolutely, we can get better.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about Kate and Clark. And I mentioned in my open that she is one of the greatest great players in college basketball history. I did not say specifically say women's basketball history. Would you agree that she is one of the greatest players in overall college basketball history?
[00:17:21] Speaker C: Oh, there's no doubt about it. I mean, when she's the all time leading scorer and has overtaken, you know, men's records, women's records, I mean, there's no doubt that she is one of the best basketball players to ever play the game.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: What was it like coaching her?
[00:17:39] Speaker C: It was fun. You know, you never knew it was going to happen. It was exciting. Every day, you know, everybody talks about the logo threes and the distance shooting, but I loved her passing. I loved her ability to see things before they happened, and her vision and the court was absolutely amazing. She's got a tremendous basketball iq, and sometimes that's what can be frustrating. And she knows somebody should be cutting before they know they should be cutting.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I noticed that she just seems to almost like a magic Johnson type player. I mean, she just anticipates what's going to happen and it's a matter of her teammates trying to be on the same page.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's true. And the more that they play together, the more that will happen. Well, they'll understand, you know, what she sees.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: When did you know that she was going to be a special player?
[00:18:27] Speaker C: When she was about 8th grade. I mean, honestly, when she was in 8th grade and we were watching her play au basketball, you knew she was going to be a great player. By the way, way she carried herself and the passion she had, and she was already like playing against high school players and being the best player on the floor.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: What was it like recruiting? Were there other universities looking at her? Oh, yeah.
[00:18:51] Speaker C: I mean, hundreds and hundreds. And so, yes, I mean, when you have a player, she was ranked fourth best in the country coming out of high school. When you have a player that's ranked that high, you know, everybody in the country is after them. And so we're thankful that she's a little bit of a homebody. And so it allowed us to have a relationship with her, build that relationship, and she is somebody that really wants to have that, that kind of, that relationship. It's really important to her.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: You mentioned that you played in solid out buildings a lot. I mean, not only at home, but on the road. What she did to increase the attention for women's college basketball was just truly amazing.
When did you sense that this whole thing was this phenomenon with her? When you're seeing, you're going to on the road and you're seeing sold out crowds?
[00:19:41] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it started happening in her junior year where we were, you know, going places and it was being sold out. And every, you know, it just that, you know, people were lining up hours before the game and waiting at the hotels for waiting, you know, to watch her get on the bus. And those are when you start realizing, wow, this is something special here, when all those people are just trying to get a glimpse of her.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, just, you guys were getting primetime games on Fox and the other networks. To me, that, that showed me something that, yeah, this, this is not, this is truly something amazing we're watching here.
[00:20:21] Speaker C: Yeah, we were on every primetime sports network that there was last year, and we had the highest women's highest basketball viewed game until just this weekend when the men's Olympic gold medal game broke the record. So otherwise we would have more viewership than any men's game at any professional game. This year up until the Olympics.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: How important will it be for women's college basketball to maintain that momentum going into next season now that Caitlin is playing in the WNBA?
[00:20:54] Speaker C: I think it's really important. I think they have to capitalize on the moment. It's like, it's here. You know, we've busted down a lot of doors. Now it's up to, you know, the next generation to keep it going, to keep it exciting, to keep the game fun, to keep it fan friendly, to have good television, good competitive games. And so, yes, we have to work hard to keep growing it so that it doesn't go backwards.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: I was mentioning to you, before we start taping the segment, that I had the opportunity to watch Caitlin play against LSU in the Albany regional final at MVP arena. And she had a three to open the game, and it was right in front of me. I was on press road, sitting behind the LSU bench, and she hit that three to start, start the game, and I was like, wow, she's good. I was. I was truly impressed with the way she played both, you know, not only shooting, but her passing.
She. To me, that was just, we, we've had tournaments, NCAA tournaments here, both men and women, but I can never think of the excitement we had when you guys were in town. It was just truly amazing.
[00:21:56] Speaker C: Oh, that's. Thank you for saying that, Ken. It was an honor to be there. And I, you know, Caitlin, it's fun to watch her on television, but to watch her play or to coach against her, you don't realize how good she is until you have to coach against her and sit down that other bench.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: How do you think she's doing in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever?
[00:22:15] Speaker C: I think she's doing great. I think she had a slow start because of fatigue and because of expectations and pressure that was put on her and just getting to know her teammates and them understanding each other. But now I feel like they've made great strides. They closed out the break really, really well, beat the liberty, you know? So I think they've done a great job, and I'm anxious to see them come back and see how they do in the second session here.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Were you disappointed that she was not named to the USA women's basketball team for the Summer Olympics? Really? The USA basketball got a lot of criticism for that.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: I was disappointed because I wanted it for her so badly. But at the same time, I know they have a hard job. I know to pick the twelve best athletes in America, the twelve best women's basketball players, is a really hard thing to do because we have so much depth. As you saw when the WNBA, all stores, defeated the national team in their exhibition game before they left. So there's just a lot of good players, so many combinations, and a lot of people could have been on that team, but they picked twelve. Caitlin wasn't a part of it, and so it was disappointing. But at the same time, I think she really valued the break that she had, because she has not had a break in a long time.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: You mentioned the fact that WNBA season basically almost starts right after the NCAA tournament. And, of course, if she's playing for the USA women's team, maybe she doesn't get to meet Aaron Judge. That's past Saturday, get to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.
[00:23:49] Speaker C: Oh, she's gotten to do a lot of fun things. She's met a lot of people and gotten to do a lot of things. She loved her time in New York. She thought it was just tremendous.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, getting back to the Albany regional, I mean, how much fun did you have in Albany, and how did you think the tournament was run in Albany?
[00:24:06] Speaker C: Oh, the arena was spectacular. The crowds were there.
I thought it was really well run.
You know, as a coach, you don't get to go out and do many things. You're really locked in with your team in the hotel, and so it's really hotel and arena, and that's the only places that you really get to go to. We did go to the Albany University. They opened up doors and let us practice there once, and it was a beautiful facility, and their coaches and administration were just tremendous to us. So that was very nice of them.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: Yeah, they just had refurbished the arena for. They had a year away. The teams had to play at different sites. A couple seasons ago, while they're refurbishing it. I know.
I think the Albany tour we had, we had just. I think we had the dream matchup. Obviously, your team was there, South Carolina was there with Dawn Staley, and, of course, they ended up beating you guys in the national championship game. That was just. That was just a wonderful. I think what, as I mentioned, I think one of the best weekends of college basketball we've ever had here in upstate New York.
[00:25:10] Speaker C: Well, that's an honor to say that, because I know how much basketball means to upstate New York and the traditions that have been had there, and so for us to be a part of that is really special.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Well, Lisa, I appreciate a few minutes. Enjoy retirement, and thank you. Thank you for doing this.
[00:25:27] Speaker C: Thank you, Ken. And say hello to everybody in Albany that supported us. We are so appreciative.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: I will do that. Thanks, Lisa. All right, thanks. I'll be back to wrap up the podcast and have the latest winner of the Daily Gazettes auto racing contest in just a moment.
[00:25:57] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Rick Marshall from the Daily Gazette's martial arts podcast. In each episode, I interview artists from around the region to musicians and comedians, to dancers, sculptors, even video game designers. After you finish the latest episode of the parting Shots podcast, I hope you'll give martial arts a try.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Chad Arnold Arnold, you're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Back to wrap up the podcast. The week 23 winner in the Daily Gazette's auto racing contest was Lenora Chamura of Schenectady with 45 points. Lenora wins a dollar 50 gift card. Congratulations, Lenora. The vip winner was Dwayne Leach of all seasons equipment with ten 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 Daily Gazettes. You pick them. Football contest is back. Pick the winners of the weekly pro football games and have a chance to win a $100 Hannaford gift card. To play, go to DailyGazette pro football dot up.net.
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, 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 de Gaddem and Lisa Bluder for coming on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's schottagazette.com. follow me on x and threads at Slap Shots the views expressed on 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 Schatz. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Pawnee Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day. Good sports.
