On Saturday afternoon, the rich and the rarefied will gather in Saratoga Springs, New York, a quaint Victorian Era throwback town where the horses who visit for races often cross the streets like pedestrians.
Belmont Park is still putting the finishing touches on its $455 million renovations and so, for one more year, the Belmont Stakes will be run at Saratoga Race Course. There is no Triple Crown on the line, but the race will still draw eyeballs, what with the caliber of horses expected to make the starting gate. Golden Tempo, the Kentucky Derby winner, will be there as will be the Derby favorites, Commandment and Renegade.
Another world away, where the pants are denim not seersucker and the only millinery confections come with ballcap brims or cowboy hat wings, Perry Wayne Ouzts will put his boot in a stirrup, launch himself into a saddle and go to work.
Ouzts is not famous, and if you’re measuring by money, he is not rich. His horses have never been wrapped in a blanket of roses nor have any of his races been broadcast nationally. Yet when he grabs hold of the reins for yet another ride, the jockey will also grasp the very thing every human craves: Contentment.
Star trainer describes the risky strategy Golden Tempo used to win Kentucky Derby
