SARATOGA SPRINGS — NY Gov. Kathy Hochul emerged from the fleet of black Chevy Suburbans Friday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, where she unveiled a recently legislated road sign dedicated as Marylou Whitney Way.
“This is a magical place, a historic place,” Hochul said during the ceremony on the backstretch. The governor reminisced about a conversation she once had with former NY Gov. David Paterson - who told her his great-grandfather had been a blacksmith for the infamous thoroughbred Upset, and about her own purchase several years ago of a retired thoroughbred named Max.
“We were at an auction, and (learned) that for 700 bucks we could own a horse. What was I thinking?” she said with a laugh. “He had…a very rambunctious manner about him.”
Among those in attendance was Whitney’s husband, John Hendrickson.
“I wish she could have been here to feel the love,” Hendrickson said. Whitney died July 19, 2019.
Marylou’s daughter Heather Mabee, Congressman Paul Tonko, Sen. Daphne Jordan, Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, former city mayor Joanne Yepsen, and NYS DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, were among the others also in attendance.
The new roadway sign will go up over a portion of Route 9P.