Behind the Scenes: "The Races!" Issue

Getting Joel Rosario and losing John Legend.

Shawn LaChapelle photographs jockey Joel Rosario in record time for the cover of “The Races!” Issue on the first day of the Belmont Racing Festival at Saratoga.

This year, for the first time ever, we were able to shoot the cover of our track issue (which became available online yesterday) here in Saratoga. That, of course, is all thanks to a little thing called Belmont, which swung through the Spa City a few days before we sent the issue off to the printer; typically, we have to photograph this issue’s cover subjects down at Belmont Park during the spring racing meet.

If you read our behind-the-scenes look at our summer issue a couple of months ago, you’ll remember how relatively easy it was to get an abundance of photos of Jena Antonucci down at Gulfstream Park (once we found a photographer): She posed for photos all over the race course for two days straight over Easter weekend. But when it came to future Hall of Fame jockey Joel Rosario, we would have to be a little, shall we say, faster.