BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office has issued a public advisory regarding a game with “dangerous and potentially deadly consequences,” according to the department.
Referred to as “Senior Assassin,” the game is played by high school seniors who “target” one another with water pistols to eliminate their opponents while typically wearing goggles and inflatable swim “floaties” as attire, the sheriff’s office said.
Recently, there was an incident in the town of Malta where the Sheriff’s 911 Center received several calls of a male with a firearm on U.S. Route 9 that turned out to be a water gun. In a separate incident, a suspicious vehicle complaint in Halfmoon resulted in a young female running towards the vehicle while screaming and holding an object in her hand as deputies spoke with the vehicle occupant. Both incidents were connected to the game.
“If you’re going to participate in this game, for everyone’s safety, use good judgement, Undersheriff Jeffrey Brown said in a statement. “Water guns may look realistic, and running towards any active police investigation can have significant unintended consequences.”
BALLSTON SPA — Saratoga County District Attorney announced Stephen A. Frank, 48, of Lake George, was sentenced May 2 to an aggregate 8-1/3 to 25 years following a jury trial during which he was found guilty of four counts of criminal contempt, three counts of aggravated criminal contempt, and two counts of assault. A week-long trial took place in January.
“A Saratoga County Court jury heard testimony from multiple witnesses regarding defendant Frank’s actions that resulted in injuries to the victim on multiple dates. He was also convicted of repeatedly violating orders of protection,” Heggen said in a statement.
The victim provided the court with a statement describing how the defendant’s abuse caused physical injury as well as lasting emotional and mental wellbeing effects, Heggen added, and also spoke about similar effects Frank’s actions had on two minors – one of whom testified at the trial.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Pratt and Joseph Frandino, together with county District Attorney Investigator Jack Barney.
BURNT HILLS — Janelle M. Lisney, passed away December 10, 2020. Family and friends are invited to gather on May 16, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Compassionate Funeral Care, Saratoga Springs, NY. A funeral service will follow at 12:30 p.m. at the funeral home. Online condolences visit www.compassionatefuneralcare.com.
THE VILLAGES, FL — Patricia Ann Yager (McGee) (Hedge) Ritchie passed away on October 3, 2024 in The Villages, Florida. She was born on September 25,1942 in Greenfield, NY, the daughter of Mildred Burton and Francis (Holly) Drew.
A proud graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, Class of 1962, Pat pursued her passion for hairstyling at Royal Beauty and Barber in Schenectady, NY. She built a successful career as a talented hairdresser and stylist, beginning with a salon attached to her home in Greenfield, NY. In 1980, she relocated her business to Saratoga Springs, and after a decade, she constructed a new building on Ballston Avenue, where she combined her home and business. She continued to serve her loyal clients there until her retirement in 2005, after which she moved to The Villages, Florida. Even in retirement, Pat continued to do what she loved, working part-time at Cal’s Barber Shop. She worked up until the day she passed.
Pat had a vibrant spirit and a love for life. She was always impeccably dressed and had a special fondness for Halloween, playing golf, and spending time with her children and family. She had a way of making every moment special, and her warmth and humor left a lasting impact on everyone she met.
She is survived by her son, Kent B. Hedge (Dorota) of Clearwater, FL; her brother, Nelson Yager (Linda), and sister, Holly Drew (Don Roy), both of Saratoga Springs, NY; seven cherished grandchildren, niece and nephew, Kristina (Richard), Brett (Sarah), Tyler (Kelsey), Sydney, Garrett, Melodie and Alek; her daughter-in-law, Susan Hedge and her former husband Thomas Hedge and her lifelong friend and “partner in crime,” Paula Carr.
Pat was preceded in death by her beloved son, Keith B. Hedge and her loving husband Robert Ritchie who recently passed away on Monday, April 28, 2025.
Family and friends are invited to calling hours from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Compassionate Funeral Care, 402 Maple Ave, Saratoga Springs, NY. A graveside service will follow at Maplewood Cemetery, 3035 NY-50, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
A celebration of life will follow at the American Legion, 34 West Ave, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
Arrangements are under the direction of Compassionate Funeral Care, Inc, 402 Maple Ave., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
For online condolences, visit www.compassionatefuneralcare.com
SARATOGA SPRINGS —More than 1,200 runners and walkers are expected to participate Sunday, May 11, in the 13th Kelly’s Angels Mother-Lovin’ 5K Run/Walk at Saratoga Spa State Park.
Kelly’s Angels is the all-volunteer Capital Region charity that brings joy and smiles to local children who have lost a parent or principal caregiver to cancer and to families who are fighting serious illnesses.
Founded by NewsChannel 13’s Mark Mulholland in memory of his wife Kelly who passed away at 37, Kelly’s Angels provides fun grants to children, dozens of college scholarships to graduating high school seniors and financial support to families struggling with a life-threatening illness.
This year’s Mother-Lovin’ 5K begins with registration from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., a kids’ fun run at 8:45 a.m., and the 5k run/walk at 9:15 a.m. An awards ceremony will be held at 10:15 a.m.
The event will be based at Saratoga Spa State Park’s Orenda Pavilion. Free parking will be available in the Saratoga Performing Arts Center lot off Route 50. There will be auctions, food and more.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The city’s Department of Public Works announced paving will take place this week in Saratoga Springs on South Broadway.
Work is scheduled to take place from 129 South Broadway to NYS Park entrance, just before Avenue of the Pines from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, May 12 through Thursday, May 15, inclusively.
There is no parking of cars on the street during these hours and driveway access/egress will be limited with potentially lengthy delays.
On the day of paving, the road will be closed to all through-traffic until mid-afternoon.
BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum is pleased to announce an upcoming presentation on the fascinating archeological and environmental history of the region on May 15 at 7:00 P.M. at Brookside Museum. The discussion will be led by Ph.D. candidate and Hartgen Archaeological Associates researcher John Garbellano. Mr. Garbellano will also discuss two projects completed in Malta and Cambridge that have given a fascinating insight into the local and larger regional archeological and historical contexts. Both sites are located within what was once Glacial Lake Albany and fit into a larger story, helping to expand our understanding of Indigenous people’s movements from the end of the last ice age up to European Contact. This event is free and open to the public however registration is required to attend. Registration is now open on our website at www.brooksidemuseum.org.
In addition to his Ph.D. candidacy at SUNY Albany Mr. Garbellano is a Dissertation Research Fellow at the New York State Museum, researching cultural and environmental evidence for the earliest occupations and use of shellfish and other resources along the Hudson River Estuary. He has also worked part-time at Hartgen Archaeological Associates as an archaeological monitor and researcher for the last year.
Brookside Museum is located at 21 Fairground Ave. in Ballston Spa.
Erie Canal Lock 44 Grocery Store of John Brizolara Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.
Thousands of immigrants poured into the United States during the mid nineteenth century. Coming mostly from northern Europe, many arrived in New York City and from there spread out to every region of our country. One such immigrant who eventually found his way to Clifton Park was a restless Italian by the name of John C. Brizolara.
Brizolara was born January 1, 1822, in the village of Magniasco, Town of St. Stefano, County of Chiavery, Sardinia. At age 15, after two years of public school and further education at Bobbio Seminary, he was engaged in hotel keeping. At age eighteen he became a clerk in the city of Milan, and in 1845 when he was twenty-three, Brizolara, embarked at Genoa for New York on the sailing vessel “Constantino”. After a stormy and rather perilous voyage of eighty-eight days the “Constantino” entered New York harbor, and landed her passengers on July 31.
Brizolara could not speak English and was unable to find employment in New York, so he remained there for only a short time. He went to Boston and shortly after to Bangor, Maine where he eventually found a job. The harshness of the climate, however, impelled him to move to Albany about 1848, and then to Fonda’s Basin here in the Town of Clifton Park.
Fonda’s or Fundy’s (as the locals pronounced it) Basin no longer exists today, but in the mid nineteenth century it was a small canal side settlement near Lock 20 between Vischer Ferry and Rexford. If Droms Road extended past Riverview Road to the Mohawk River you would be at the site of Fonda’s Basin. This area is now under water due to the damming of the river in 1907 to create Lock 7 of the Barge Canal. It was here that Brizolara worked for three years as a clerk for the Fonda family, probably at a small canal side store that existed at this site.
Brizolara next moved several miles east along the canal to Willow Spring. This small canal side settlement was located about one mile east of Vischer Ferry and centered around the present-day home of Jim and Nancy Douglass. Their home was built in 1832 by John Clute, and during the canal era there was a station barn where fresh mules were available to canallers to pull their boats. There was also a small canal store, now a garage on the neighboring property, and a spring from which canallers could get fresh water. Above this spring was a willow tree from which the settlement derived its name. Today a small development across Riverview Road has assumed this identity.
Brizolara engaged in business for a time at Willow Spring, probably working in the canal store. It was while working here that he met Elizabeth Vandenburgh, born August 15, 1824, whom he married. In the spring of 1853, he moved west to Rexford Flats where he found employment at another canal store. This store was larger than the stores at Fonda’s Basin and Willow Spring and Brizolara actually operated the store rather than just clerking. Here he engaged in the business of a butcher, grocer and gardener. The store was located near Lock 22.
After four years at Rexford Flats, Brizolara, his wife Elizabeth and two young children, Kate and Albert, left the Town of Clifton Park for East Frankfort in Herkimer County. Here he purchased in 1857 the canal store and hotel at Lock 44 from George Folts. He was still engaged in selling canal supplies at this location in 1879 when the History of Herkimer County was published by F. W. Beers. An engraving of J. C. Brizolara’s store and hotel appears in that publication. It was his restlessness – the three years with the Fondas at Fonda’s Basin, further clerking at Willow Spring, and the four years running the Rexford store – that gave him the experience necessary to make his own store successful. Brizolara died in 1900 and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Frankfort.
On Saturday, May 3 at 10 AM, the Town of Clifton Park will dedicate a new historic marker at the site of Willow Spring, the canalside settlement where J. C. Brizolara once worked. The home of John Clute that once served as a canal inn and the remains of the canal store still exist. The unveiling of the marker will be followed by a walking tour to Lock 19 led by Historian John Scherer.
This event will kick off Clifton Park’s bicentennial celebration of the Erie Canal. A series of events are planned, including lectures, an Erie Canal exhibit at the Historic Grooms Tavern, a bike tour along the towpath, and a talk on clothing of the 1820s. A bus trip will feature a canal boat ride on a restored section of the Erie Canal and aqueduct at Camillus and a stop at the Dry Dock Museum at Chittenango. The Clifton Park Halfmoon Library, also participating in the celebration, will host an exhibit from the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse and a series of talks on the canal. These commemorative programs will culminate in a weekend long event in Vischer Ferry on October 11 and 12 featuring antique cars, re-enactors, musicians, a parade, hay wagon ride tours to Lock 19, exhibits, food vendors and a play involving life on the Erie Canal. Check the web sites for the Town of Clifton Park and the Clifton Park Halfmoon Library for further information.
Smarty Jones at the 2004 Preakness Stakes. Photo by Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club. Photo provided by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs added seven inductees to its Hall of Fame last week.
Racehorse Smarty Jones, a finalist for the first time, was the lone selection in the contemporary category
Racehorses Decathlon and Hermis, as well as trainer George H. Conway, were chosen by the 1900-1959 Historic Review Committee
Edward L. Bowen, Arthur B. Hancock III, and Richard Ten Broeck were elected by the Pillars of the Turf Committee
The 2025 Hall of Fame class will be enshrined on Friday, Aug. 1, at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the museum’s website. The event is open to the public and free to attend. Tom Durkin will serve as the master of ceremonies.
Smarty Jones
Bred in Pennsylvania by Someday Farm, Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality—I’ll Get Along, by Smile) raced from 2003 through 2004, winning eight of his nine career starts, including the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in his sophomore season, and he won the Eclipse Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Male in 2004. Owned by Roy and Pat Chapman under their Someday Farm banner, Smarty Jones was trained by John C. Servis and ridden exclusively by Stewart Elliott. On May 1, 2004, Smarty Jones became the first undefeated Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977, with a 2¾-length victory over Lion Heart before a crowd of 140,054 at Churchill Downs. Two weeks after his Derby victory, Smarty Jones romped by a record margin of 11½ lengths in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course with 124,351 in attendance. He earned a career-best 118 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, the fifth of six times he achieved a Beyer of 100 or higher. Smarty Jones was retired after a failed attempt at a Triple Crown sweep in the 2004 Belmont Stakes. He earned a record of 8-1-0 from nine starts and earnings of $7,613,155. He won his eight races by a combined 47½ lengths.
Decathlon
Bred in Kentucky by the Nuckols Brothers, Decathlon (Olympia—Dog Blessed, by Bull Dog) raced from 1955 through 1957, compiling a record of 25-8-1 from 42 starts and earnings of $269,530. Purchased at Keeneland in 1954 for $15,500 by Robert J. Dienst (the president of Ohio’s Beulah Park) and campaigned under his River Divide Farm banner, Decathlon was trained by Rollie Shepp. In his three years of racing, the bay colt won 18 stakes and was twice named Champion Sprint Horse (1956, 1957). He set track records at Monmouth Park, Suffolk Downs, and Tropical Park, equaled two track standards at Tropical, and matched the world record for 5½ furlongs (1:031/5) at Tropical in the first division of the Inaugural Handicap in 1956. Following his racing career, Decathlon stood at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky, where he sired 165 winners from 253 foals, including 12 stakes winners. Decathlon died in 1972 at the age of 19.
Hermis
Bred in Kentucky by Hiram Berry, Hermis (Hermence—Katy of the West, by Spendrift) raced from 1901 through 1905 with a record of 28-8-6 from 55 starts and earnings of $84,155. A chestnut colt, Hermis was trained by Charles Hughes (July 1901 through August 1902), Jack McCormick (August 1902 through October 1902), and Alexander Shields (June 1903 through July 1905). He raced for a variety of owners, including H. M. Ziegler, L. V. Bell, and Edward R. Thomas (who paid a record $60,000 for the horse), among others. Hermis was retrospectively recognized by The BloodHorse-published book “The Great Ones” as Horse of the Year in 1902 and 1903; Champion 3-Year-Old Male in 1902; and Champion Older Male in 1903 and 1904. Overall, he won 14 stakes, earned victories at eight tracks (Aqueduct, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Hawthorne, Latonia, Morris Park, Saratoga, Sheepshead Bay), and carried 132 pounds or more in four of his wins. He was exported to France in 1910 and was sent to Belgium three years later. What became of Hermis is a mystery, as all knowledge of the horse’s whereabouts were lost during World War I.
George H. Conway
Conway (1873-1939) is best known for training Hall of Famer War Admiral to a sweep of the 1937 Triple Crown and to an overall record of 21-3-1 from 26 starts and earnings of $273,240 from 1936 through 1938. A native of Oceanport, N.J., Conway also conditioned Hall of Fame member Crusader, as well as standouts Speed Boat, War Glory, and War Hero, among others. In addition to the Triple Crown, Conway trained War Admiral to victories in the Eastern Shore Handicap, Chesapeake Stakes, Washington Handicap, Pimlico Special, Widener Handicap, Queens County Handicap, Wilson Stakes, Saratoga Handicap, Whitney Handicap, Saratoga Cup, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Rhode Island Handicap. Suffering from heart trouble, Conway announced his retirement a week after War Admiral was retired to stud in 1938. Conway died on June 20, 1939, at his sister’s home in Oceanport.
Edward L. Bowen
Bowen (1942-2025) was a prolific racing journalist and historian for more than 60 years and served the sport in various other capacities, including 24 years as president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. A native of Welch, W. Va., Bowen was an Eclipse Award-winning journalist, editor in chief of The BloodHorse, author of 22 books about horse racing, and chairman of the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame Nominating Committee from 1987 through 2024. He was the inaugural recipient of the Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Award for meritorious contributions to the Museum in 2023. The prior year, Bowen was the Thoroughbred Club of America’s Honor Guest.
Arthur B. Hancock III
Hancock III was born in Nashville, Tenn., and for six decades has been a significant presence in American racing and breeding through his establishment of Stone Farm in 1970 near Paris, Ky. A member of one of the sport’s most distinguished families, Hancock’s grandfather, Arthur B. Hancock, Sr., founded Claiborne Farm, while his father, Arthur B. “Bull” Hancock, Jr., expanded the business to where it became arguably the most important breeding farm in the U.S. during the 20th century. In his capacity as an industry leader, Hancock has served on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, as a director of Keeneland Association and Fasig-Tipton Company, and as a member of The Jockey Club. He co-founded the Water Hay Oats Alliance (WHOA), a group dedicated to eliminating performance-enhancing drugs in racing. Hancock is also a devotee of bluegrass music and has written songs that have been recorded by artists such as Grandpa Jones, Willie Nelson, and Ray Price. He released an autobiography in 2024 titled, “Dark Horses: A Memoir of Redemption.”
Richard Ten Broeck
Ten Broeck (1811-1892) was one of American racing’s most prominent and accomplished figures in the 19th century, enjoying success as a racehorse and racetrack owner, thoroughbred breeder, and international racing pioneer. During the 1830s, Ten Broeck became associated with Col. William R. Johnson, one of America’s most renowned racing figures. By 1840, Ten Broeck was racing horses in his own colors in St. Louis, New Orleans, and New York. Ten Broeck’s stable began to rise to prominence and he was known as a leading turfman in the South when he took over management of the Bingaman (Louisiana) and Bascombe (Alabama) courses in 1847. In 1851, he purchased Metairie Race Course in New Orleans for $27,000. Under his management, Metairie became the premier track in the country in the decade prior to the Civil War. Ten Broeck later purchased Lecomte, Prioress, and Starke to race in England and became the first American owner to win an important race in that country. Ten Broeck raced in England for around 30 years. He became the first American member in the English Jockey Club. Ten Broeck regularly returned to America between English racing seasons and purchased 525 acres near Louisville, Ky., naming it Hurstbourne Stud in honor of the Duke of Portland’s estate in England. He eventually sold Hurstbourne and moved to Oakland, Calif., where he died a recluse in a small cottage.
On tour: blink-182 will stage a show at SPAC in September.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Following a blockbuster 2024 tour that saw them headline stadiums across the globe, blink-182 returns to the Capital Region with a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Sept. 7.
Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker’s Missionary Impossible Tour follows the release of their latest album “One More Time,” the first album in over a decade with the original trio back in the studio.
Special guests Alkaline Trio will play in a supporting role.
