In the years prior to transpontine jet service, international competition with thoroughbred horses was rare, and required a long ocean voyage. American horses had raced in England and the Continent, and European horses had come to America for breeding purposes, yet no European horses had traveled westward for competition.

During the Saratoga meeting in 1923, August Belmont and other members of the Jockey Club suggested a challenge contest, featuring victors from both shores. Mr. Belmont had raced his horses extensively in Europe during the 1911-1912 New York racing ban.

This resulted in an October 1923 match race at Belmont Park, termed the International Stakes, where the Kentucky Derby winner Zev defeated the Epsom Derby winner Papyrus on a muddy track.

In Paris the following month Pierre Wertheimer, owner of the French champion Epinard, issued a challenge to race Zev, “or any other horse America cares to name.”

Following a meeting with Mr. Belmont in New York, Pierre Wertheimer consented to bring Epinard to the United States, for a series of international races to be run at Belmont Park, Aqueduct, and Latonia, Kentucky in September and October of 1924.

Ironically Epinard’s dam, Epine Blanche, was a mare August Belmont developed in France and after being acquired by Mr. Wertheimer, bred to his sire Badajoz.

Devaluation of the French Franc due to war debts may have inspired Epinard’s owner to travel. Mr. Wertheimer’s French business interest was a theatrical make-up company, which he was at this same time expanding along with Coco Chanel to market her fragrance Chanel No. 5.

Trainer Eugene Leigh was a great believer in giving a horse a change of scene, yet realized Epinard would need time to adjust to the surface change to harder American tracks, and running in the counter-clockwise direction, rather than the European style of running to the right (sometimes referred to as “continental” style).

Gene Leigh was born in Illinois, and had trained and was part owner of the 1894 Kentucky Derby winner Chant. He had also relocated to Europe during New York’s racing ban. He decided to prepare Epinard in Saratoga Springs, which demonstrated that the salubrious reputation of the Spa as an equine training and conditioning center had spread across the ocean to European countries.

The connections of Epinard boarded RMS Berengaria in early July and arrived at Saratoga Springs on the twenty second. Everett Haynes, a bluegrass native, was in the saddle for all of Epinard’s French victories, also traveled to the Spa.

Epinard (the French word for spinach) was known to be a very good starter with a noticeably odd, or crabby gait, similar in action to that of his damsire, Rock Sand. The chestnut won six races out of seven starts as a two-year-old, and much like Man o’ War, was beaten only through a bad start.

Epinard was not always ready to work at Saratoga, and would often fight his jockey, anxious to return to his stable and his mascot/talisman, Peter, an Airedale terrier.

 In order to work Epinard counter-clockwise along the rail, with so many other horses on the main track and the Oklahoma, he was frequently taken to the Simms Estate, the present-day Godolphin facility.

Many admirers of the French champion were at the track each morning to see him work out. The horse, with a very recognizable blaze, delighted his fans when he passed the grandstand, where he stopped and bowed to his audience. Turf writer C. J. Fitzgerald commented on Epinard’s intelligence, “When lined up for inspection he returned the critical appraisement of the public like the monarch he is.”

The final week of the Saratoga meet would see Epinard depart for his Labor Day engagement at Belmont Park. On his final Saturday there, following the fifth race, he was brought to the paddock for all to see, and saddled by trainer Leigh in the picturesque enclosure, who gave a leg-up to jockey Everett Haynes in the blue and white colors of owner Wertheimer. Thirty thousand race-mad enthusiasts, by far the biggest throng that ever watched the races at Saratoga, gave the French horse huge applause.

Heavy rains the night before left the track in poor condition and occasioned much scratching. Eugene Leigh decided to abandon the planned time trial, instead following the bugle’s call, Epinard was led by outrider Redcoat Murray and paraded on the main track, his first appearance under colors in the US.

The large crowd stood at attention and removed caps, as the band honored their guest with playing La Marseillaise, the strains of the French anthem rang out across the racetrack. As the Star-Spangled Banner was played, Epinard was brought to attention in front of the grandstand. The New York Times reported, “the great French 4-year-old was accorded an amazing reception.”

Epinard disappointed his owner by finishing “runner-up” (sous) in all three international races during September and October, and was retired to stud and France in November. Jockey Club Chairman Belmont passed away in December.

Basketball and Thoroughbred racing share one important trait: success often comes from taking a shot.

Kinnon LaRose is someone who knows that.

Following a Division I college basketball career, the 28-year-old Ogdensburg native took a chance in becoming a Thoroughbred trainer, and it is already paying off.

Since taking over Tom Amoss’ horses in March, LaRose had 12 winners from 76 starters prior to July 5 when he brought 23 horses to Saratoga Race Course – a place where childhood family trips first fueled his interest in racing.

LaRose earned his first Saratoga winner on Saturday as Midnight Still, a 2-year-old colt making his second career start, stalked the pace, then took command inside the sixteenth pole and drew away by 6¼ lengths.

“It means world to me. It was awesome,” he said. “I grew up coming here as a kid. I never really dreamed that I’d be in this position. I couldn’t be more appreciative to Tom Amoss for giving me this opportunity and all the owners for sticking with me. We’re still learning and still trying to figure it all out. Hopefully, we’re heading in the right direction.”

LaRose’s direction in racing began as a child when his family, including his father Steve, regularly crossed the St. Lawrence River to visit Rideau Carlton Raceway and Woodbine Mohawk Park.

“They always loved their races,” he said. “We grew up going to the harness tracks, then every summer, we would come down to Saratoga. I always loved coming to Saratoga and I couldn’t wait for the trip to come. This has been with my family for a long time with the handicapping, watching the races, and enjoying it that way.”

When he wasn’t going to harness tracks or Saratoga, LaRose developed as one of the top basketball players in New York. At Ogdensburg Free Academy, he scored 1,769 points, including 756 points during his senior year that placed him on the all-state first team.

From there, LaRose spent a season at Siena University before transferring to Sacred Heart for his last two seasons where he was a captain. Despite focusing on basketball and his sports management studies, he still made time for Saratoga during the summer when racing was on the television every day in the off-campus housing with his teammates.

“I followed it all through high school and in college, too,” he said. “When we weren’t playing during summertime, Saratoga was on in my house. They were like, ‘Why are we watching the races?’ I loved it.”

After earning a master’s degree in strategic communication and public during the COVID-19 pandemic, faced an uncertain future and wasn’t sure if basketball remained an option.

“I thought I was going to play for four years and try to keep playing basketball as long as I could,” he said. “I was in limbo whether to keep playing or not after college.”

While searching for work, LaRose followed Amoss on NYRA-TV and Fox Sports, impressed by his knowledge and expertise. He also found common ground with Amoss: both developed a passion for racing at a young age and both studied marketing and communications at college. Unlike LaRose, Amoss gained experience as a teenage stablehand for Hall of Fame trainer Jack VanBerg.

LaRose then took his shot by sending an email to Amoss about working for him. Amoss got back to him promptly.

“This opportunity kind of presented itself,” LaRose said. “I reached out to Tom, and he called me back the next day. I said, ‘I’m going to try pursuing this. Let’s go see what happens.’”

Amoss invited LaRose to join his operation for the 2020 Keeneland fall meet, starting him with demanding tasks such as cleaning stalls and hotwalking horses. It was a test that LaRose passed.

“I put him through six months of hell to see if he could handle it,” Amoss said. “He kept coming back for more with the thirst to learn. I knew he was special. At that point, I took him under my wing and said, ‘I’m going to get you where you want to be.’”

LaRose later became Amoss’ assistant before taking over the stable after this retirement. While LaRose handles the day-to-day operations, Amoss is still there for advice.

“I’m not out here every morning, but Kinnon and I talk every day,” Amoss said. “We go over his plans with horses, and I can recall I was well schooled when I first started training, but there are some things that you wouldn’t mind having advice on. He’s not afraid to ask, and I’m always there for him.”

Amoss is proud of LaRose’s accomplishments over the last four months, especially after Midnight Still’s victory. Amoss helped Double Down Racing purchase the colt for $350,000 at the Keeneland yearling sales in September.

“Talk about a kid coming full circle,” Amoss said. “I’m really proud of him. I’ll get the assist. I bought this horse as a yearling, but Kinnon did all the heavy lifting.”

Besides Midnight Still, LaRose trains Stress Relief, a five-length winner in her debut at Churchill Downs last month now targeting the Grade 3 Adirondack Stakes on Aug. 3, and It’s Our Time, who broke his maiden by 17¾ lengths at Saratoga last August.

More than six years after being a captain at Sacred Heart, LaRose still applies the teamwork philosophy to managing his stable.

“I certainly had that responsibility of trying to get people to perform at their best,” he said. “I try to take that same approach. I’m showing up to work every day, learning from different people, learning what their different skill sets are, and trying to get the best out of them.”

Now that LaRose has that winning experience as a former high school and college basketball player and as a trainer, he has a preference.

“Now that being on this side is for sure,” he said about being in the Saratoga Race Course Winner’s Circle for the first time. “We’re happy to be here.”

Starting a tradition of going to the races with his father, Kevin Cox has transitioned from a New York City police officer to a professional handicapper

Kevin Cox views his Saratoga Springs experience as triangulated with tradition, transition, and transformation, particularly when it comes to horse racing and handicapping.

The youthful 55-year-old, known as the “Brooklyn Cowboy,” has taken his childhood tradition of coming to Saratoga Racecourse with his parents, who helped him transform that into a second career as a professional handicapper, writer, and racing analysis for his Substack platform and other opportunities.

“My father got me into the sport,” he said. “My mother helped me get the ball rolling. So, it’s clearly the right path, and then I morphed into writing a column.”

The Saratoga tradition started for Cox when he was eight years old as his father Walter “Bijou” Cox and mother Patricia DeAngelo Cox brought him to the area. Over the next several summers, Cox and his father continued that tradition by watching the workouts and races at the track while staying at the Brentwood Hotel, eating at the Weathervane, and playing at Murphy’s Driving Range and Mini Golf.

Cox’s father also taught him about handicapping races. While Cox was growing up, his father often brought that day’s Daily Racing Form to their Prospect Park home in Brooklyn for post-race analysis and refining his handicapping skills.

“That’s how I got my love of handicapping,” Cox said. “He would bring home the ‘Form’ and save them. He tried to come up with the systems. I still have some of his copious notes on different systems. It’s kind of cool to see his handwriting on some of the old forms.”

It has been 21 years since his father’s passing. However, Cox created another tradition that started with his father’s birthday on Aug. 13, 2005: a memorial race in which a horse ironically named The Daddy won the race with domination. There is also plaque in honoring his father beneath the former scratchboard near the eighth pole.

Since then, Cox has continued to celebrate his father’s Aug. 13 birthday with an annual lobster gathering among family and friends that include Sackatoga Stables Operating Manager Jack Knowlton and trainer James Ferarro, as well as his column and Twitter post as a tribute to the father-son relationship and traditions.

“Every year, on his birthday, I put an opening in my column. It’s a tribute to him. Basically, it’s about traditions,” Cox said. “It’s about the same things we used to do: stayed the same hotel, drank the water, played mini golf, went for the twin lobsters. It’s those memories until I started becoming old enough where I was able to rent a place for a couple weeks on my own.”

After purchasing a summer home on Madison Street, Cox has created another tradition: painting salvaged a lawn jockey each year. For the last 18 years, he has painted a theme or something symbolic to reflect the Saratoga racing season that started with the West Point Thoroughbred colors when he won his first race as a jockey agent.

To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, Cox selected a design inspired by the 13-year-old horse Fourth of July, a winner of 7-of-25 races and competed twice at Saratoga. After thorough research, he found the silks that represented the horse’s career before going through the challenging painting process as he calls it a “labor of love.”

“Every year is a theme, an event, or a horse,” he said. “I always come up with something creative. It takes me five hours to do. It’s a beveled surface. It’s not like painting on a flat surface. I’m on my back going underneath [to paint it].” 

Despite Cox’s passion for horse racing and handicapping, his mother wanted a career for him. After his mother submitted the application on his behalf to New York City Police Department, Cox went through the training process, received the same shield number used by his uncle, and was sworn as an officer by 20 years old.

For the next 20 years, Cox was a member of the New York City Police Department. After spending 15 years as a transit and plain clothes officer, he transitioned into a mounted officer as he rode Carnival House, a gelding whose lone win in 28 starts occurred in a $5,000 maiden claiming race at Colonial Downs in 1999.

During his service, particularly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Cox also had an epiphany of following a dream: working on the Aqueduct backstretch.

“After Sept. 11th being down there and realizing how many people didn’t get to live out their dreams, I decided to follow mine a little bit,” he said. “I wanted to work for somebody and learn things.”

Following his 9 p.m.-6 a.m. shift with the NYPD, he spent his mornings on the Aqueduct backstretch doing various tasks that included massaging horses for the late Joseph Aquilino, helping other trainers like Ferraro and Gary Contessa, and even learning how to become a jockey agent.

Once Cox retired from the NYPD and experiencing the challenges of being a jockey agent, he transformed his second career into a professional handicapper, especially after winning $40,000 at a Belmont handicapping contest that landed him a spot on the Esquire Network docuseries Horseplayers in which he displayed his signature appearance with the black cowboy hat and boots.

Building from that success, Cox launched a handicapping column and later expanded his work to the Substack platform with help from his cousin Stephen DeAngelo and Laura Arth, founder of the marketing and communications company Triangulate.

Cox, an advisory board member for Old Friends at Cabin Creek and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, also makes appearances for Capital OTB with his Play of the Day every Friday and Saturday that has produced a flat-bet profit for the last four years. He also provides analysis for other tracks and events, including the Breeders’ Cup. 

During his 12½ years of handicapping close to 25,000 races, which includes 5,000 winners, Cox has never taken off a day as he has battled through illness and computer glitches to publish his analysis. While Cox spends about seven hours on a given 10-race card, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m master of my own domain,” he said. “Seriously, how many people are fortunate enough to do their job in their underwear!”

Thoroughbred horses are generally nervous, but frequently make friends in the barn, where they spend quite a bit of their time indoors, and need pleasant distractions. Today, several goats reside on the Saratoga Racetrack backside, and their fossil record reveals a hoofed relationship with horses, yet their present-day rapport is what makes them good companion animals.

The Westbury Stables won the 1902 Saratoga Special with Irish Lad, who had a goat companion named Billy, naturally. The Seagram Stable’s goat evinced a strong desire to masticate Mr. Whitney’s newly planted shrubs on his rebuilt racetrack. 

Trainer George Phillips had an extensive menagerie, with a rooster and a pair of monkeys at his barn, along with a rambunctious goat named Eli, who loved to butt unsuspecting visitors to his stable.

Cats seem like natural stable mates, and besides camaraderie, they help to control the unwelcome presence of vermin.

Hall of Fame trainer Sam Hildreth, whose worldly remains repose just down Lincoln Avenue from the track, employed a parrot named Dick as a companion to his champion McChesney. The bird perched on a beam above Big Mac’s stall and exercised a salty vocabulary, similar to that coming out of the White House these days.

When Pierre Werthheimer’s French champion Epinard arrived in Saratoga in 1924, he was accompanied by his mascot and talisman, Peter, a hyper-alert Airedale terrier.

Leader on the turf Joseph E. Widener had an old German shepherd dog travel and reside with his horses at Saratoga. The notion of a “dog-in-the-manger” goes back to Aesop. Another owner who valued the shepherd dog was Liz Whitney who also employed a white circus horse with china-blue eyes for her lead pony, which the racers adored.

Hirsch Jacobs was a Brooklyn boy who started by racing pigeons, and each year at the Spa he would rehabilitate birds injured at the track. Both he and his horses appreciated the cooing.

Willis Sharpe Kilmer had built a personal fortune with quasi-medical products, a crafty man of business who would do anything to keep his prized equine herd healthy and happy. An introduction he made, and what became another breeding interest for Mr. Kilmer, was the Sicilian donkey stock he had acquired in his travels to Mediterranean countries. These composed animals had a calming effect on his high-dollar, high-strung thoroughbreds and provided a sense of familiarity, especially when traveling together with his racing strings on railcars to remote racetrack stables.

Recognizing that thoroughbreds like donkey company, many other owners and trainers sought these contented little companions. A portion of this sought after donkey production, with their distinctive cross-marks along their spine and over their shoulders, were gifted by Mr. Kilmer to others in the industry, with Racing Hall of Fame members Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Max Hirsch being among the recipients.

Legend has it that Jesus Christ arrived in Jerusalem on the back of a Sicilian donkey when he was welcomed there on the first Palm Sunday, and the faithful quadruped followed the fateful procession up Calvary, and stood in the shadow of the cross, which henceforth has marked the breed.

The fat, placid, dove-gray Sicilian donkey would live in the same stall box, travel together in a motor van, and walk together to the paddock, helping the thoroughbred to maintain composure while moving through the excited summertime crowd at Saratoga Race Course.