Howard Hamilton

This is the week when SARATOGA really comes alive. TRAVER'S week has been traditionally a week of festivities, parties. And a time for real camaraderie among racing people. The running of the TRAVER'S on Saturday is the highlight of this 36 day meet.

At the time of writing only six horses have dared to oppose the morning line favourite -BERNARDINI. The race has turned out to be a walk-over for the Tom Albertrani-trained Preakness and Jim Dandy winner. Tom Pletcher has different ideas and he will be bringing THE BLUEGRASS CAT fresh from his Haskell victory to spoil the party for all the BERNARDINI lovers.

Todd Pletcher remains on top of the trainer's championship with 17 winners ( 80 starters) At the time of writing his closest rival is Richard Dutrow Jnr with 8 winners and it is now a foregone conclusion that Pletcher will retain his championship and surpass his total of 22 winners in 2005. The Jockey's championship is proving to be much more interesting, Edgar Prado seems all set to defend his 2005 crown. He currently leads the championship with 29 winners (!35 mounts) seven ahead of his nearest rival - Garrett Gomes. This is the toughest circuit for jockeys to prove themselves. Although Prado is ahead by seven winners, there are six jockeys within striking distance —- all they need is some racing luck and the championship could well be decided in the last two days of the meet

Over the last several years, Velasquez and Prado have dominated the Saratoga meet. Between the two of them they have captured four straight riding titles. Prado won last year's title with 44 victories, while Velasquez broke his own meet record of 61 victories in 2003 with an astonishing 65 wins in 2004. Prado's riding title in 2002, his first such title at the Spa, broke a string of three straight victories by Saratoga's winingest jockey —- Jerry Bailey.

Enjoying good season

While Prado is enjoying a good season the meet has been somewhat of a disappointment for my favourite jockey - John Velasquez, He explained: "I have been getting my butt kicked for three weeks. Hopefully I can turn things around in the last three weeks." Velasquez has three Saratoga riding titles to his credit already but getting a fourth is going to be difficult because of the time missed after breaking his shoulder and cracking a rib in a spill in April. He remains the "go to jockey" in the successful Todd Pletcher camp. but he has difficulty finding live mounts in other stables. With so many young jockeys around the competition has really stepped up - Fernando Jara, Rafael Bejarno, Julier Leparoux —- to name a few, the older jocks have to really work to keep their positions among the top contenders.

With all this excitement, Saratoga remains the place to epitomise the elite of racing. Apart from the heat wave early in August (which had me spending some days in hospital) the weather has been absolutely perfect. There has been only one day out of 26 that has been disrupted by rain. And this was only some overnight rain which caused the turf races to be re scheduled

Next week we will look at some of the more blatant examples of our failure to deal in a meaningful way with the level of punishment currently being handed down.

Howard L. Hamilton CD JP is a former president of Racing Promotions Ltd. and Caymanas Track Ltd. He is currently president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Assn. o Jamaica. He can be contacted at howham@cwjamaica.com