Snacks return to Gary and winner's circle a well-received result

[Kasept]

Saratoga Snacks returns to form for old barn
By David Grening

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In his 35 years training horses, Gary Sciacca has won 853 races, including four Grade 1 stakes, and campaigned a divisional champion. But the victory by Saratoga Snacks in Thursday’s $69,000 New York-bred allowance feature at Aqueduct rivals any of those feats.

“I never had the feeling I had yesterday,” Sciacca said Friday morning. “It’s something totally different. Great story.”

Saratoga Snacks ran down Readthebyline to win the one-mile race by one length, the 6-year-old’s first win since the $250,000 Empire Classic in October 2013. Overall, it was the eighth victory from 18 career starts for Saratoga Snacks, a son of Tale of the Cat.

“I’m glad he came back to his old self,” said Sciacca, who trained the champion 3-year-old filly of 1992, Saratoga Dew.

Sciacca picked out Saratoga Snacks as a baby for his friend, Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells. Sciacca did well with the ridgling, winning seven of 12 starts, including three stakes.

Saratoga Snacks has been plagued by foot problems throughout his career. It took Sciacca a long time to get Saratoga Snacks right in 2014, and Parcells – acting a bit like the impatient owners for whom he once patrolled the sidelines – fired Sciacca in July and moved the horse to Bill Mott.

Mott, a Hall of Famer himself, didn’t have much success with Saratoga Snacks. He raced him five times, managing only a second and a third in a couple of allowance races. Discouraged, Parcells agreed to sell the horse back to Sciacca just before Christmas.

Sciacca said everybody in the barn was happy to have Snacks back – from his groom, Juan Angel, to assistant trainer Paul Barrone to blacksmith Tom Costello, who has worked on those troubled feet. Recently, farrier Ian McKinlay joined the team to help patch a quarter crack.

Sciacca said he spoke with Parcells both Thursday after the race and again Friday morning.

“Bill was great. He said, ‘I’m glad it was for you. You believed in him,’ ” Sciacca said. “Bill said, ‘I learned something very valuable ... certain horses belong in certain places.’ ”

Sciacca and Parcells remain friends, and Sciacca lavished praise on the coach from whom he will be receiving a 2-year-old horse later this year.

“I love the guy. He’s been so good to me and my family,” Sciacca said. “They don’t make them like Bill Parcells.”

Sciacca said he has received 54 text messages since Saratoga Snacks won, including one from Mott, whom Sciacca also counts as a friend.

Sciacca said Saratoga Snacks came out of Thursday’s win “as good as a horse could come out.” Sciacca has no immediate plans, acknowledging that he didn’t allow himself to think beyond Thursday’s race. Sciacca said the only thing he is sure of is he won’t be running Saratoga Snacks anytime soon.

“He’ll get all the time he needs,” Sciacca said. “That was an effort he hasn’t put in in a long time.”

Saratoga Snacks ran a mile in 1:38.29 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93.

One midseason goal for Saratoga Snacks could be the $200,000 Commentator Stakes, a one-turn mile for New York-breds on Memorial Day, May 25, at Belmont Park.