Charming article about wayward horse Starforaday

[girly]

Horse knows his way around the track
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
By Mike MacAdam
Gazette Reporter

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Barn 54, where are you?

When Starforaday runs in the eighth race at Saratoga Race Course today, he probably won't need anyone to lead him over from trainer Gary Contessa's barn on the Oklahoma training track.

The 5-year-old son of Five Star Day knows his way around the grounds just fine, thank you.

Starforaday was scheduled for a workout on the morning of opening day, but got loose on the main track.

By the time Contessa was not­ified and scrambled to get over there, Starforaday had shown up back at Contessa's barn all by himself.

That means he was able to exit the track, cross busy Union Avenue and find barn 54, which is nestled tightly among several others. Since then, Contessa has been trying to get one last workout into Starforaday, which he was able to do last week, and he's ready to start in what is essentially a stakes race in every aspect except name.

"Amazing story," Contessa said last week, still shaking his head over the pluck of his horse and the luck of avoiding a catastrophe. "It's the last set of the day, it's pouring rain, I've got a ton of stuff to do in my office, so I take Starforaday over to the main track and train him. I'm in the office, the phone rings, my assistant says 'Gary, bad news, Starforaday got loose on the main track. I don't know where he is, I can't find him.'

"I get my rain jacket on, I called Kelly, my other assistant, 'We've got to go find Starforaday, he got loose on the main track.' I go running out of the office, grab the golf cart and there he is, standing there."

When a horse gets loose on the main track during training hours, the security guards are supposed to close the two gates through which horses pass to and from the Oklahoma side.

They're diligent about stopping traffic when horses are coming and going, but in this case, an emergency, someone was slow to act.

Contessa still doesn't know which gate Starforaday walked through, because he questioned the guards at each, and no one would admit to having seen an untended horse waltzing across the avenue.

"He got across Union Avenue," Contessa said. "So I said to the security guards over here, 'How did my loose horse get from the main track over here? Did he get through here?', only because I wanted them to learn that you have to shut the gate. If that horse hits a carload of children, somebody might get killed."

NYRA president Charlie Hayward made his annual visit to the pressbox that day to give his assessment of opening day and answer any questions the media might have.

When asked if there had been any glitches, he admitted that Contessa's loose horse had somehow gotten from the main track back to the Oklahoma side.

Contessa had notified Hayward so that it wouldn't happen again, and he didn't want to embarrass NYRA by delivering the story to the media, but once Hayward publicized it himself, Contessa was more than happy to talk about it.

"Nobody saw the horse come across the street, so I called Charlie," Contessa said. "Look, probably somebody's lying, but the rain was pouring down, who knows? These guys are huddled under their raincoats.

"The horse was without a pimple on him. Didn't have a scratch on him when he got back to our barn, so it was like, whatever, however he got home, we're happy, we don't care. But I thought that was worthy of telling Charlie."

Starforaday blew out five furlongs in 58.29 on the Oklahoma on Saturday, and has given Contessa every indication he's ready to run.

He'll need to be, because he faces a salty field that includes Premium Wine, Callmetony, Like Now, Diamond Isle and Chowder's First.

Premium Wine was three-quarters of a length behind the undefeated Bustin Stones in the Grade I Carter, and was third to Lucky Island in the Tom Fool.

Callmetony is owned by Loudonville's Roddy Valente, who also owns Bustin Stones. Like Now was seventh to Bernardini in the 2006 Preakness, and finished well up the track in the Grade I Forego last year.

Chowder's First is best known at Saratoga for winning the John Morrissey in 2005 despite a trip so wide around the turn it looked like he was going to hop the outside rail and gallop off into the picnic area.

That's Starforaday's department.

"He came right to my barn. Smart bastard," Contessa said. "Good horse, and he hasn't been there that long. He just shipped up from Aqueduct maybe a week earlier, so it was an act of genius on his part."

[Rick B.]

Well, after a cutesy story like this, we have to bet the horse today, don\'t we?

Because there\'s only two ways this story ends: he either wins for fun, or he hops the outside fence coming out of the far turn and gets home in time to watch Judge Judy.

[girly]

Te He! I think theses animals are a lot smarter than people give them credit for-

[alm]

It appeared she hopped at the start...got the typical mediocre Leparoux ride...and finished great.  The race was fun watching, knowing the back story.