Harry Rice

Riders and valets at Aqueduct delayed the start of Sunday's card by 14 minutes after refusing to saddle and ride because of a dispute with management over the status of a jockey's room employee, according to DRF Sunday. Valet Harry Rice told DRF that Fernando Rivera, who works in the jockey's room as a part-time valet/laundry person, was asked by NYRA not to come in Sunday. To offer some context, Rice explained that Rivera is close to having enough hours to join the union, which would make him eligible to...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Without hesitation Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he knows what he will be doing Monday, his 89th birthday. "Training horses," he said. "I got two in, and I'll see if I can make it a special day by trying to get those things at least closer or win one. I told Laurie, my wife, 'for a birthday present, I'd like see one of them jump up and win.'" A victory on closing day of the Saratoga Race Course season would enable...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - Four days short of two years after her death, Marylou Whitney managed to upstage Thursday's feel-good, season-opener at Saratoga Race Course. Pretty Birdie (Bird Song), bred and owned by Marylou Whitney Stables, struck just the right emotional note--bridging the past and the present--with her gate-to-wire victory in the 103rd running of the GIII Schuylerville S. "It's a little bittersweet. I wish she was here," Whitney's husband John Hendrickson said. "She would love this. Saratoga is open and she's won a race. Things are the way they...