7/21 (SAR): Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), Willard Straight S.
 

1st (Post time 1:00) Willard Straight S.

5 1/2 Furlongs (Turf) | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $100,000

Post # Horse Jockey Weight Claim Price Equip. Med.
1 Zero Rate Policy Castro E 120 L
2 Great Mills Leparoux J R 120 L
3 Zeb Rosario J 118 L
4 Fiddlers Patriot Dominguez R A 123 L
5 Perfect Officer Napravnik R 120 L
6 Yield Bogey Prado E S 118 L
7 Bridgetown Castellano J J 120 L
8 Awakino Cat Velasquez C 120 L
MTO Head Heart Hoof Napravnik R 118 L



10th (5:45) Coaching Club American Oaks (G1)

1 1/8 Miles | Fillies | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $300,000

1 Questing (GB) Ortiz I Jr 121 L
2 Disposablepleasure Napravnik R 121 L
3 Yara Rosario J 121 Blk-On L
4 Funny Proposition Bridgmohan S X 121 L
5 Zo Impressive Maragh R 121 L
6 In Lingerie Castellano J J 121 L

I'm interested to see how Questing runs. Her allowance win last out was super impressive and I don't think there are any monsters in this 3YO filly class.

Is there really a stakes named after Willard Straight?


Why?

The threads with confounded questions about overnight stake names are becoming as prevalent as the Derby weather thread.

Yeah, but you gotta admit having Turf Paradise name a stakes race after Cotton Fitzsimmons is just awesome.:tro:

Shouldn't being at least a graded stakes winner be a requirement to have a stakes named after you how ever insignificant it may be? In the history of Saratoga and NY racing it is hard to believe there arent enough qualified horses/people to name races after.

Of course it doesnt really matter in the grand scheme but it just seems silly to name races after forgettable horses like Willard Straight.

why do you say that?

Cotton Fitzsimmons deserves a stakes far more than Willard Straight. I don't ever remember going to Turf Paradise during my 3 years in AZ and not seeing him there. At least he has a wikipedia page...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Fitzsimmons

I was just breaking your balls. This race is obviously a prep for the Troy, a race of which Willard Straight was the first winner.

I dont know if the Troy having a prep is a positive development or a sign of the apocalypse?

Yeah I remember that first race because Pat Day did the exact opposite of what I asked him to do...

Do you consider sometimes telling a jock to do the exact opposite of what you want them to do in order to get them to do what you really want them to do?

You don't think having a stakes race named after a former NBA Coach is awesome? I love it.

I was going to say something similar, I know he was a big race fan.

Yea, but there was a real racing connection as well, he owned some horses at Tup, its not out of left field like some of this other stuff.

I realize that. My point probably didn't come across as intended.

Maybe its named after the Willard Straight who married into the Whitney family and has a dorm named after him at Cornell..

I just hope the first turf route restricted to ridglings is named the Prince Will I Am.

I assumed the CCA Oaks was part of the Summer at Saratoga series. I guess not. It doesn't start til August which is kinda interesting in that NBC's gonna have Olympics programming on all their platforms (including NBC Sports, I imagine). I wonder if it'll help our ratings to have horse racing coverage plopped in the middle of that or if people will just flip over to more Olympic events on another NBC channel. Here's the scheduling:

Saturday, August 11 - 6:00-7:00 PM ET – NBC Sports Network – Grade 2, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap

Sunday, August 12 - 6:00-7:00 PM ET - NBC Sports Network - Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack and Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special

Saturday, August 18 - 5:00-6:00 PM ET - NBC Sports Network – Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama and Grade 1, $600,000 Sword Dancer Invitational

Saturday, August 25 - 4:00-6:00 PM ET – NBC – Grade 1, $1 million Travers, Grade 1, $500,000 Foxwoods King’s Bishop, Grade 1, $500,000 Test, Grade 2, $250,000 Ballston Spa presented by Jose Cuervo

Saturday, September 1 - 5:00-6:00 PM ET – NBC – Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward. Grade 1, $500,000 Forego, Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap

Almost all Olympic live coverage will be done by those telecast start times. 6 PM NY/TOR is 11 pm London time.

For the most part it is a waste of time either way. I rarely gave instructions to Day when he rode for me and it worked out well except this was one occasion where I wanted to do something specific with the horse because of a change in training and he just absolutely disregarded what I said. And the funny thing is his agent got mad when I took him off the horse and rode Bejerano next out in stake at KY Downs and then at Keeneland.