Courtly Banker (John Velazquez) rallies past Fidelightcayut to win Thursday’s Rick Violette Stakes. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo
By Alec DiConza
When the rain started as an eight-horse field walked into the paddock for the $125,000 Rick Violette Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Thursday, trainer Barclay Tagg was excited, thinking it would benefit his 3-year-old gelding Courtly Banker.
“When it started to rain like this, I was confident,” he said.
On the other hand, assistant trainer Robin Smullen hoped that there wouldn’t be too much rain, saying after the race that Courtly Banker would have scratched if the race was moved from to dirt. Courtly Banker came into the Rick Violette with zero wins in four starts and was still eligible for a maiden race, which Smullen had in the back of her mind as an option if the Rick Violette didn’t stay on the grass.
“If it was off, we were out because there was a maiden race going a mile on the 30th,” Smullen said.
Despite a brief, powerful blast of rain, the race stayed at its originally scheduled 1 1/16-mile distance on the Mellon turf course, and Courtly Banker accomplished the rare feat of breaking his maiden in a stakes race.
Breaking from post four, Courtly Banker sat second behind Fidelightcayut through fractions of :25.45 and :51.40 over the yielding course. Under John Velazquez, the son of Central Banker owned by Sackatoga Stable moved up alongside that rival moving into the stretch. Fidelightcayut put up a fight on the inside, but Courtly Banker proved too strong as he edged clear to win by a neck. Fidelightcayut held second, well ahead of Cable Ready and Russian Realm. The final time was 1:47.36.
“He had been knocking on the door to breaking his maiden,” said Velazquez, aboard for the gelding’s most recent start, a second in the Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Series July 18 at Saratoga. “He has been very consistent and today was his day. He powered home nicely for me and did everything I asked of him. The turf was really soft, and he didn’t mind it. You just have to hope in situations like this that you get a horse who likes the ground, and he happened to today and everything worked out.”
Courtly Banker started his career at Gulfstream Park in March, finishing third in a 5-furlong maiden race on the Tapeta synthetic track. He again finished third in a maiden event restricted for New York-breds at Aqueduct in April, and then twice finished second behind talented New York-bred The Big Torpedo in stakes. The Rick Violette, for 3-year-old New York-breds, proved that the fifth time was the charm.
“It’s great,” said Jack Knowlton of Sackatoga Stable. “This horse we bought as a 2-year-old in training and he didn’t get to the races last year because we had to do a little surgical procedure. We started him in Florida, and he ran very well down there. He came up here and was second in two stallion stakes races. This race came up and we took a shot – we could have always run in a maiden race, and you’d think he’d probably be able to win that, but we are sportspeople, we took a shot. Here we are against multiple winners and Johnny V. gets the job done.”
Courtly Banker will likely run in allowance company in his next start rather than stretching out to a longer stakes race.
“We’ll go in an ‘a other than’ hopefully a mile to a mile-and-a-sixteenth,” Smullen said. “He doesn’t want to go any further than a mile-and-a-sixteenth. We’ve at least got him settled enough to do that distance. I don’t see a mile-and-an-eighth in his wheelhouse.”
Bred by John Eaton and Steve Laymon, Courtly Banker sold to Sackatoga for $65,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale last year. His dam Courtly Lark won once in six starts for Eaton and Laymon and has had three foals to race – all winners. Courtly Banker is her first stakes winner. A 2-year-old Fog Of War filly has yet to start and the mare had a colt by Central Banker in 2023. Eaton, Laymon and partners raced Courtly Lark’s dam Dare To Mambo. In addition to Courtly Lark, Dare To Mambo produced $494,956 earner and six-time stakes winner winner Daring Kathy and the stakes-placed winner Zeb. Going back one more generation, Eaton won three races with the Violette winner’s third dam, the graded-stakes placed Ginny Dare.
The race is named for trainer Rick Violette, who died of lung cancer in 2021. In addition to training graded stakes-winning horses such as Diversify, Upstart and Samraat, Violette was well known for his advocacy for retired racehorses and workers on the backstretch. Smullen shared her respect for Violette afterward.
“Rick Violette meant everything to the racing community,” she said. “Everything to the horsemen, everything to the retired horses, everything. He was it. He was a pillar of excellence. I watched him work around a horse one day in the paddock here, and it was amazing to watch him work. Amazing. Unbelievable horseman.”
