Monday, July 19, 2010
Contact: Ashley Herriman
aherriman@nyrainc.com
COACHING CLUB CELEBRATION AT SARATOGA RACE COURSE JULY 23 & 24
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and The Coaching Club of America will commemorate the 94th running of the Grade 1 Betfair TVG Coaching Club American Oaks on Saturday, July 24, with a two-day celebration of coaching at Saratoga Race Course.
Formerly run at 1¼ miles at the close of the Belmont Park Spring/Summer Meet, the historic Betfair TVG Coaching Club American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies will be staged at the Spa for the first time this year at its new distance of 1 1/8th miles. The race was run for the first time in 1917 and named to honor the Coaching Club, which then required its members to be able to drive a coach and four horses with a single group of reins, called "four-in-hand." The original race conditions of the Coaching Club were set by August Belmont II to emulate the Epsom Oaks (now known as the Investec Oaks) run at Epsom Downs in England.
In recognition of the change in distance and new home of the race, The Coaching Club will display two antique coaches at Saratoga Race Course on Friday, July 23, and Saturday, July 24, one near the fountain at the Clubhouse entrance, and the other in the Grandstand Backyard area, both attended by Coaching Club members.
One display coach will be the Nimrod, a road coach used for public transportation in England in the late 1920s and 30s, and the other a fully-restored, custom-made "Park Drag," or private coach, originally manufactured in 1892 for prominent New York businessman Joseph Tuckerman Tower.
At 12:30 p.m., before the first race on Saturday, July 24, Coaching Club president Louis G. Piancone will drive the Tantivy, also a road coach, pulled by four horses down the Saratoga stretch, followed by a parade of Coaching Club members.
Coaching Clubs originally evolved in England in the 19th Century in order to preserve the pastime as horse-drawn mail carriages were increasingly replaced by railroads. Towards the end of the century, the desire to safeguard coaching reached America. The Coaching Club of New York was formed in 1875 by Col. Delancey Astor Kane and Col. William Jay, and the group held its first coaching "meet" to showcase the skilled drivers and fine carriages at Madison Square in 1876. Though such meets were popular events, coaching historians assert that Coaching Club members would also strive to drive public coaches carrying paying passengers over established routes. Today, coaching exists as a throwback to another era, an opportunity to exhibit the mastery of "four-in-hand" driving and emphasize the careful workmanship of historic carriages.
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