Vibe Check: "The Races!" With Johnny V
PLUS: Skidmore's Palamountain Benefit, Mike Tyson comes to town and more mid-July happenings.
Johnny V’s Big Bash
The first thing you need to know about our Wednesday evening soirée with jockey John Velazaquez is that it was hot. That was the main topic of every conversation I was a part of or overheard, but yet more than 150 warm-weather warriors turned out at The Horsehoe, sweating on the newly paved outdoor area in unison.
Once you got past the idea of the 90-degree day, though, it was actually not too bad with the breeze sweeping through The Shoe’s two gigantic tents. Plus, there was plenty of hydration. Chandon provided the complimentary welcome cocktail—a delicious Garden Spritz I had actually sampled for the first time earlier that day on the roof of the track (read all about that adventure next Saturday)—and Northway Brewing slung samples of its Saratoga Tea & Honey Crimson Berry Hard Tea/Seltzer and Horseshoe Lager, the latter of which was brewed specially for the bar.
Guests started rolling in around 6pm, picking up a complimentary pack of NYRA playing cards on their way in. The man of the hour (Johnny), rushed over after competing in the ninth race of the day next door, and was whisked away to have some dinner (yes—The Horseshoe has food) before joining the party, which consisted of Jack Knowlton of Sackatoga Stable, jockey Dylan Davis, retired jockey Ramon Dominguez, Saratoga saddlecloth guru Bob Girodano, the son of Triple Crown–winning jockey Warren Mehrtens, and other members of the racing world…many fans included. “Can you take a picture of me with Johnny?” Someone asked. “Is he personable?” Someone else said. (He is.)
Over at the food station, guests were snarfing down pizzas as fast as The Shoe could churn them out, and the raffle table posed quite the quandary—attendees had to decide whether they wanted to go for a chance to win tickets to NYRA’s Stars at the Spa event with Real Housewife Teresa Giudice, an insulated drink cooler and four-packs of beer, a charcuterie board by The Charcutebrie, or a basket of Saratoga Race Course swag. All this happened while musician Michael LeVan, who caught the eye/ear of at least one former music promoter in attendance, performed an impressive acoustic set from the stage.
See more photos from the hot-in-more-ways-than-one evening by Konrad Odhiambo here.
Palamountain Majesty
The excitement began even before my friend Kate and I stepped foot in the Surrey-Williamson Inn. “Is that Bobby Flay?!” I asked as she got into my car on Broadway. Upon further inspection, it was indeed the celebrity chef, who recently purchased a home in Saratoga Springs, walking into Salt & Char with The Adelphi’s GM, Patrick Toomey. “Good eye,” Kate said. After my GPS brought us in circles around the Skidmore campus for 15 minutes, we finally found our way onto a trolley (more on the local trolley trend below) that was bringing well-dressed guests from campus across North Broadway to the Surrey-Williamson Inn for Skidmore’s 43rd Annual Palamountain Benefit.
While check-in was inside the historic building itself, the party was outside under two giant tents. The first was finger food central, with all sorts of savory stations and passed hors d’oeuvres whirling around. “I tracked down the lobster rolls,” I heard one woman say. During the cocktail hour, I spotted Skidmore President Marc C. Conner, retiring Saratoga Hospital President Angelo Calbone, Sweet Mimi’s owner Jeanette Liebers, National Museum of Racing Development Director Maureen Mahoney, and Creative Compliance founder and CEO Gary Harker and his wife, Beth. “Can I take your photo for Saratoga Living and do you play tennis?” I asked the Harkers in one breath (I recognized them from a doubles match on the Spa Park courts last summer).
After meeting Zach the builder, who swooped in heroically just as Kate dropped her cocktail napkin (it really was out of a movie, but unfortunately, they did not proceed to fall in love); self-described garbage men Dillon Flynn and Nicholas Baptie; and “slight vegan” Steven, we made our way to the second tent, where dozens of tables were set with summer salads. “I’m recognizing people from when I go to jazz at Caffé Lena,” Kate said of the cultured crowd taking their seats. We were seated at a table with auctioneer Chris Ward, Skidmore Dean Adrian Bautista, and Don and Judy McCormack, who have been to every Palamountain benefit since the beginning. “Between the two of us,” Don said of he and his wife, “we worked at Skidmore 65 years.”
Being in the front, our table was served first; dinner was wine-braised beef short rib and citrus grilled jumbo gulf shrimp brochette for the meat-eaters and slight vegans, and Sicilian eggplant braciole (a rice and veggie–filled eggplant wrap) for the vegetarians and vegans. Chris gobbled down his dinner, and then took the stage to facilitate a game of “Heads or Tails,” which guests had paid to play for a chance to win a day in a box at the track. Players wearing light-up bracelets placed their hand on their head or their rear end as a coin was flipped. If they guessed correctly, they got to keep playing. Eventually there were two competitors left. “Will,” Chris said, addressing finalist Will Orthwein, “you can’t win if your wife is cochair.” (He won.)
Next up was the live auction, which included a week-long stay at a house in Cape Cod, a week in a private home in St. John, 2 percent of a West Point Thoroughbreds horse, and tickets to see Sting at SPAC. “I’m going to have to call my babysitter and tell them I’m gonna be late,” Chris said when the auction got off to a slow start. “Can you hear me on that side of the room?” (The right-hand side of the tent far out-bid the left-hand side.) After Chris threatened to cancel dessert, the bidding picked up, and tens of thousands were raised for the Joseph C. and Anne T. Palamountain Scholarship Fund.
“When Anne started this scholarship fund and held the first benefit 43 years ago,” Marc Conner said in his welcome address, “she recognized the role we all share in shaping our future by investing in education—creating paths for deserving students to gain access to exceptional learning opportunities. And that’s our goal: To provide Skidmore’s life-changing education to every student who is up to the challenge.” One such student is Georgia Dittemore, this year’s honored Palamountain scholar. Georgia graduated in May, and will pursue her Ph.D. in chemical biology at Harvard this fall.
Near the end of the evening, Chris asked for monetary donations for the Fund a Scholar program, starting at the $10,000 level. “We need one more person to give $5,000 or it’s gonna get really awkward,” he said, hyping up the crowd. “It feels so good to give—you should all clap.”
Quote of the Week
“The thing that really makes Saratoga stand out is the people.”
—Saratoga Race Course announcer John Imbriale
Trolley Tales
I’ve been a fan of CDTA’s free Saratoga Summer Trolley (which runs from Excelsior Courtyard to the Nelson Ave track entrance Wednesday-Sunday from noon-10pm through racing season) since before COVID. But in the past week or so, I can’t stop seeing/riding on trolleys. First it was the aforementioned summer trolley, which, after reading the schedule backwards and waiting 25 minutes for it, I took from Division Street to the track on opening weekend. Then I heard about the Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center’s 90-minute guided trolley tours of Saratoga, which take tourists to North Broadway, Skidmore, High Rock Park, Union Avenue and Saratoga Race Course on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of August. Then I saw an Instagram photo of the Albany Trolley being used to transport guests at a Shaker Heritage Barn wedding, and then, I took yet another trolley from Skidmore to the Surrey-Williamson Inn for the Palamountain Benefit. And that’s not to mention the trolley that’s been bringing guests from the track breakfast to a tour of Saratoga Lake’s Old Tavern Farm on Fridays during racing season.
Draft Kings
This week’s Major League Baseball draft saw two Capital Regionites make it to the big leagues: Former Ballston Spa Scotty Luke Gold, who has been playing for Boston College since 2020, was picked in the fifth round by the Detroit Tigers; and Troy High School graduate Mike Kennedy, who was named the 2022 New York State Gatorade Player of the Year, was drafted in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Pirates. This comes the summer after Shenendehowa alum Ian Anderson helped the Atlanta Braves secure their second World Series ring in program history.
You Know We Like Our Chicken Fried
In a recently released rating of fried chicken from coast to coast, Saratoga’s own Hattie’s restaurant was named the best place in the state to get the southern specialty. “Hattie’s in Saratoga Springs,” a Food Network story reads, “has received many accolades for their standout fried chicken over the years, and even beat Bobby Flay in fried chicken on Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. Hattie’s famous fried chicken has been served since 1938, and there’s a reason it’s still around: it is that good!”
Yik Yak’s Back
If you were on a college campus between 2015-17, chances are, you remember Yik Yak, the app that allowed you to post anonymous messages to people within a five-mile radius. (You didn’t have to be on a college campus to use the app, but it worked best within a community located in a confined area.) It was shut down in April 2017 following a series of controversies involving racist threats and bullying, but was reborn under new ownership earlier this year. While some of the messages are harmless, such as someone anonymously confessing a crush, others aren’t: the app recently caused an uproar at Purdue after someone posted a false rumor that a flight major had crashed a plane. At Skidmore, Dean Adrian Bautista says, there have been some issues with accusations of sexual assault that the college is not able to verify due to the app’s anonymity.
Tyson’s in Town
Ahead of this evening’s Mike Tyson’s Fight Night at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Mike Tyson himself stopped by Rivers Casino for a weigh-in ceremony yesterday. The Baddest Man on the Planet actually made his professional boxing debut in Albany at the age of 18, when he defeated Hector Mercedes in a first-round TKO, and will return to the city that launched his illustrious career to provide ringside commentary for the MMA show.
This Week in Saratoga Living After Hours
On Monday, readers were asked to decipher three racing-related word plexers.
On Tuesday, we recapped Saratoga Race Course’s whirlwind opening weekend.
And on Friday, SLAH hopped on a hot new Instagram trend, bringing you 10 Saratoga themed Little Miss and Mr. Man memes.