A flashback …
Video replay: 1981 Grade 1 $175,500 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga
Note the assistant starter’s very nice catch (and outfit!) with the premature breakthrough!
The line-up included horses from Paul Mellon’s Rokeby, Calumet Farms, and Ogden Phipps among others. The winner was a shocker from Rochester, NY 
From the NYT’s Aug 2, 1981 edition by none other that Steve Crist: which is a wild tale
To win today, Fio Rito had to overcome more than the disdain of the horsey set, which considers New York-breds akin to donkeys. Even before Fio Rito delayed the start of the Whitney by dragging an assistant starter through the stall doors, he barely made it to the gate. Series of Mishaps
Two days ago, it was less than even-money that Fio Rito would start today. Wednesday night, he was sent here by van from Finger Lakes Race Track and was bedded down in Barn 36. But there was a filly in the next stall who perked his eager libido and he caused such a ruckus he was moved to another stall. Fio Rito was so upset by this forced separation that he dug a hole in the bottom of the dirt floor, uncovering a rock and bruising his left front foot.
This morning, Raymond LeCesse, who owns Fio Rito, nine other statebreds and a 56-lane bowling alley, waited outside the stall impatiently waiting for Ferraro and a veterinarian to make a final decision.
‘‘He always does this to me,’’ LeCesse said of Ferraro. ‘‘Whenever we take a plane I tell him the flight’s an hour later than it really is and he still barely makes it.’’
Ferraro finally arrived at about 11:45 with Dr. Robert Carr, who looked at Fio Rito’s foot and told them to go ahead and run him. ‘‘He said the worst that could happen is that he’d come back a little sore,’’ LeCesse said. He and Ferraro had been saying this week that they thought Fio Rito deserved a chance to run in open company.
‘‘If he gets beat five or six lengths by horses this good,’’ Ferraro said Thursday, ‘‘I wouldn’t be disgraced.’’ Aquisition by Accident
LeCesse ended up with Fio Rito six years ago by accident. A friend was running an auction at his farm near Rochester, and a broodmare named Seagret was on the block.
‘‘I thought I’d do him a favor and bid on the mare, who was in foal,’’ he recalled. ‘‘I got her for $2,300.’’ Seagret’s foal was Fio Rito, who raced almost exclusively at Finger Lakes except for a yearly trip to Saratoga. He won statebred races the opening week of the meeting each of the last three years. Last year, Ferraro and LeCesse began coming to Aqueduct and Belmont regularly for the statebred races, and winning them most of the time.
LeCesse and Ferraro say they honestly never thought they’d win a race like the Whitney. ‘‘But when I saw him staying on the lead, and knowing how tough he is, I began to get excited,’’ Ferraro said after the race. ‘‘I can’t believe how dry my mouth is,’’ LeCesse said. ‘‘Let’s get some champagne.’’
Has Sour Disposition
Fio Rito is not as sweet as his success. He is unpleasant and badly behaved, eager to take a bite out of anyone who gets too close. ‘‘One time last year when he ruined one my sport jackets, which he’s done several times,’’ LeCesse recalled, ‘‘I said to him, that’s O.K., pal, you paid for it.’’
Raymond LeCesse, the first owner to win a grade I stakes with a New York-bred with Fio Rito, died June 5, 2011 in Rochester, N.Y.
Fio Rito is buried along side Tin Cup Chalice (co-owned by LeCesse’s son) in the in field of Finger Lakes Track - the only two horses to have such an honor.
My guess is the photographer snapped many photos and didn’t keep the notes straight.
