BH 100: Summer Saturdays

This feature originally appeared in the July 30, 2016 issue of Blood-Horse.

Once upon a time the Saratoga meeting lasted four weeks and was billed as the “August Place to Be.” The meet now extends seven weekends—from mid-July to Labor Day—and with 40 programs and 16 grade I races is now the “Summer Place to Be.”

In the summer of 1987, Saratoga had six grade I races spread over a tidy 24-day meet with four Saturday programs. Saratoga that summer turned into a personal playground for breeder/owner Paul Mellon and his Hall of Fame trainer Mack Miller as the stars aligned for them to win major grade I races on three of the four Saturdays. During the weekend he didn’t win a grade I, Miller was being congratulated after his Aug. 13 induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Java Gold, who missed the classics but came to Saratoga off a series of allowance races at Belmont Park for Mellon’s Rokeby Stables, bested older rivals on the meet’s opening weekend and topped fellow sophomore Gulch in the Whitney Handicap (gr. I). Two Saturdays later Java Gold defeated a deep cast of 3-year-olds over a deep, muddy track in the Travers Stakes (gr. I). If that weren’t enough, Mellon and Miller struck again the following Saturday when Crusader Sword won the Hopeful Stakes (gr. I).

“It’s been the most exciting month I’ve ever had,” the understated Miller told The Blood-Horse in the Sept. 5 issue. Writer Ernie Munick told readers “(Trainer) Elliott Burch was the last trainer to win three Saturday stakes races at Saratoga, and Mellon was the owner then, too. In 1972, Burch won the Alabama with Summer Guest, and the Whitney and Travers with Key to the Mint (the sire of Java Gold), all Rokeby runners.”

Russ Harris reported in the Whitney recap:

“Java Gold’s victory was the fourth win over a two-day period for Rokeby, three of the wins coming in photo-finishes.

‘This is getting a little nerve-wracking,’ ” Miller said the next morning, ‘but I was proud of Java Gold. It was the first time he experienced all that dirt coming back in his face, and it has to help his education as a race horse. I was mighty pleased with him, especially because Mr. (Paul) Mellon bred him and was here to see the race.’ ”

Crusader Sword gave an indication of bigger things to come in one of those close calls, getting a neck victory over Tejano in the Saratoga Special Stakes (gr. II) the day before the Whitney.

On Aug. 13 Miller was joined by LeRoy Jolley, jockey Walter Blum, and the connections of Gallant Man and Real Delight at the Hall of Fame inductions across the street from Saratoga Race Course.

That year’s Travers brought together Alysheba, the winner of the first two legs of the Triple Crown, and Bet Twice, the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner. Bet Twice had just gotten the better of Alysheba again in the Aug. 1 Haskell Invitational Handicap (gr. I). The rest of the field wasn’t exactly chopped liver.

Neither Bet Twice nor Alysheba hit the board over a sloppy surface at the Spa. 

Java Gold, fresh off his Whitney win, trailed the field early as the 3-1 second choice under Pat Day but wound up splashing home by two lengths. Cryptoclearance also rallied from far back for second with Polish Navy third and eventual sprint champion Gulch finishing fourth.

Editor Ed Bowen noted:

“Where the 1987 running fits into Travers history is not in the price of its winner, but in the inconclusive element of its running. With the rains, the form went awash in several cases. Bet Twice and Alysheba failing to place—beaten by runner-up Cryptoclearance after handling him most of the spring—is a signal that the Travers cannot be read as is. Something must be searched for between the lines.

“On the positive side, the race ratified the high opinions held of Java Gold. In two weeks, he demonstrated he can run on a fast track as well as a wet one, beat older horses, picked up 13 pounds and beat other 3-year-olds, and earned his way into the championship picture.

“In the end, the million-dollar Travers does not have to be seen as a disappointment. It did not satisfy the craving for a definitive race, but it had a drama of its own and certainly did nothing to lessen the appetite for another showdown.”

The Travers win was the fourth in the “Midsummer Derby” for Mellon. He would add another in 1993 with Sea Hero.

Java Gold, who was out of the Nijinsky II mare Javamine, went on to win the important Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap (gr. I) in September, but fell short of catching Crème Fraiche in the 1 1/2-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I) in what would be his final start. He was retired the following year after nagging injuries precluded him from starting as an older horse. He stood at Lane’s End Farm but after disappointing results at stud he was sent to Turkey and later Germany, where he died in 2009. He sired 21 stakes winners, none more important than champion sprinter Kona Gold.

Crusader Sword’s win as the 6-5 favorite over second-choice Bill E. Shears also came over a sloppy track. Miller wasn’t convinced his 2-year-old colt would handle an off track and thought of not running. After Crusader Sword blew out a quarter mile in the mud over the Oklahoma training track the day before the race, he opted to go. 

“Miller said he spoke with Paul Mellon three times the day of the race and then said: ‘I put stickers on him and took the chance,’ ” The Blood-Horse reported.

Third in the Hopeful was Success Express, who would go on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) but miss out on the juvenile male championship to Forty Niner.

Crusader Sword (Damascus—Copernica, by Nijinsky II) made 17 more starts after the Hopeful and won just three allowance races. He went on to a solid stallion career in Florida and New York, siring 16 stakes winners before dying in 2014. 

Mellon and Miller continued landing the best races against the best competition. They reached the top in 1993 when Rokeby homebred Sea Hero won the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). A statue of Sea Hero graces the Saratoga saddling paddock.

While Mellon died in February 1999 at age 92 and Miller passed at 89 in December 2010, the memories of the magic of ’87 live on. 

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