Sunday, July 25, 2010

Live blog for Sunday, July 25

For live race results throughout the card, keep an eye on our Twitter feed.

7:38 p.m.: Still working on stories for the newspaper (pick it up tomorrow. really), but here's a quick peek at Maybesomaybenot winning the Sanford in frontrunning style. Really a nice story behind the gelding's connections - his owners gave an interest in him to their daughter-in-law, who is quite ill and battling lupus, to try to inspire her. Wild and emotional day all around, and that's why we love Saratoga.



4:30 p.m.: What a wild and newsworthy day at Saratoga. Fastus Cactus, under Edgar Prado (no mount in this one for Castellano!) sets a new track record for 5 1/2 furlongs in the seventh, coming home in 1:02.51. The old mark, 1:03.13, was set by J Be K in 2007.

3:53 p.m.: Holy cow - make that FIVE! Castellano got left at the gate with Stand Proud, but got him up in the shadow of the wire to take the sixth. That's another winner for trainer Brown too.
Coming back, Castellano got a big round of applause from the crowd. He smiled, held up five fingers, then doffed his helmet to the heavens.

3:41 p.m.: Make that four in a row for Castellano - takes the fifth with Fiddler's Chaparito.
The rider came back with a huge grin and flashed four fingers to the photographer while getting his picture taken aboard his latest mount in the winner's circle.
"It's very tough [to do] and I appreciate it," Castellano said while heading back to the jockey's room before the sixth race. "[Saratoga is] very prestigious, a lot of good riders, very competitive."

3:02 p.m.: following that win for Brown, Castellano is on fire. He's won the last three straight races - the second with Yawkey Way, third with Cody Samora, and the fourth with Desert Key.

1:49 p.m.: And Brown comes through with that next winner, as Yawkey Way got a perfect trip under Javier Castellano to break her maiden first time out.
Brown said the daughter of Grand Slam has been a bit of a project due to her flighty nature - but "As soon as we got her head straightened out, she had the talent."

12:48 p.m.: Welcome back to the Spa for the first Sunday of the meet. Refreshingly decent weather today - very little humidity, mostly cloudy, doesn't appear to be rain threatening. Track is good, turf yielding.
Sam the Bugler just blew the call to post for the first race, on the Mellon turf. An interesting card on tap today - we have everything from promising 2-year-olds in the day's feature, the Sanford, to veteran 6 and 7-year-old campaigners.
A belated congratulations to Mechanicville native Chad Brown on saddling his first winner of the meet in yesterday's nightcap. Brown has three horses in today, including the nice 2-year-old Yawkey Way in the second.
Stay tuned...

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