Travers Stakes - signature drink?

[Glimmerglass]

Per this blog it is your opportunity to create not only the signature drink and also the name for it - and you’ll get the credit plus some unnamed goodies with it. Who knows maybe (if you win) you could get to meet the winning horse of this year’s 139th Travers as presented by Shadwell Farm

Announcing the Toast to Travers cocktail contest!

June 12, 2008 at 11:47 am by Steve Barnes, senior writer

Each of the Triple Crown races has a signature drink: mint julep for the Kentucky Derby, Black-Eyed Susan for the Preakness, Belmont Breeze for the Belmont Stakes.

Now the Saratoga Race Course is looking for your help to come up with a signature cocktail for the Travers Stakes, the biggest event of the Saraoga racing season, scheduled this year for Aug. 23.

Submit your recipe as a comment to this post, and be sure to include a working e-mail address (not for publication) so we can contact you if you win. Suggest a name for the drink, if you’d like, but it’s not required.

The winner will receive what I’m told will be a choice prize package (still being put together), including credit as the drink’s creator (or suggester, if you used an existing recipe). Judging will be done by a panel of bartenders and other cocktail experts.

There are no set criteria or ingredients, but the judges will be assessing how well a drink suits Saratoga and the Travers, its taste, creativity and, to a lesser extent, the degree of difficulty (bartenders working on Travers Day will loathe having to pour thousands of complicated cocktails).

Send 'em in. The deadline is July 25.

The direct url: http://blogs.timesunion.com/tablehopping/?p=2045

Somehow I think “The Man O’War” with just limoncello and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, while easy, won’t win you the contest

[horselips]

I know!

How about The Jim Dandy -

Crushed ice. 1 1/2 shots of Jim Beam.
Tonic water. Splash of pomegranate.

Make one and tell me what it tastes like.

[DLee]

Ohhh thanks for posting this! I’m originally from Saratoga and I have a great idea!:yes:

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=horselips;3286766]
1 1/2 shots of Jim Beam[/QUOTE]

I wonder if the need for a spirit made in Clermont, Kentucky is going to work. That said the original winner of the Travers in 1864 was a horse named ‘Kentucky’ so go figure

The name (‘Jim Dandy’) is a good one. I suspect calling some brew ‘Ruthless’ (the highly successful filly who took the Travers) would infer a tough as nails kick and a potent as turpentine!

Further I think sales would be slim no matter how good it is if it was named in honor of the 1921 Travers winner - Sporting Blood

[Sing_Mia_Song]

I always consider the Travers drink to be the Saratoga Sunrise. I couldn’t tell you what’s in it (other than orange juice) but I’ve got about a dozen of the ceremonial glasses (hic!).

[Gigi0427]

Yay!

Whoo-hoo, I’m a finalist! Which is a little surprising, considering the judges called my drink “bitter” and “unbalanced.”

Thanks for posting the link, and here’s hoping the modifications they made make my drink a little more appealing. I wouldn’t mind getting the Saratoga Track Pack they’re offering as a prize.

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=Gigi0427;3443955]
Whoo-hoo, I’m a finalist! Which is a little surprising, considering the judges called my drink “bitter” and “unbalanced.”

Thanks for posting the link, and here’s hoping the modifications they made make my drink a little more appealing. I wouldn’t mind getting the Saratoga Track Pack they’re offering as a prize.[/QUOTE]

Kudos to you!!

At Arlington Park on Million Day they had (drum roll please …) a signature drink aptly called the “The Millionaire” at $10 (including the souvenir glass) which was made with vodka, cranberry juice and lemonade. For each drink $2 went to the American Cancer Society.

Per the Times Union 140 drink recipes were submitted for the “Toast to Travers”

Very few of the suggestions looked completely unpalatable, although some gave us pause, including a cocktail with vodka, lemon juice and Tabasco; another featuring mint, lime juice, gin, amaretto and green tea; and a third that suggested rum instead of vodka in a bloody mary. Some of the drinks seemed too heavy for high summer – who’d want Goldschalger, Bailey’s Irish Cream and butterscotch schnapps on a hot August day? – while others were, well, lame: Just replacing club soda with sparkling Saratoga water does not a Travers drink make, nor will dousing a conventional cosmopolitan with Saratoga bubbles win a cocktail contest for you.

One of the drinks you’re up against sounds good …

Sparkling Funny Cider, Shawn Wolfgang, an Albany native living in Boston

[Gigi0427]

Thanks! I think my mom is more excited than I am. She’s been making that drink for years.

I know, I’m pretty sure the Funny Cider has me beat, too. I’m contemplating making it this weekend, because it does sound pretty good. Or if it wins, I’ll just have to convince my friends to head to Saratoga for the Travers so we can try it in the proper setting!

[Glimmerglass]

Well your drink looks attractive: Image: the proposed “Travers Blue Canoe”

Travers Blue Canoe

1 part vodka
1 part fresh-squeezed lime juice
part blue curaao
teaspoon real maple syrup
Lime slice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, shake, strain into a martini glass and garnish with lime slice.

The aforementioned Funny Cider while cute in name wasn’t, as you know, beloved:

… the sparkling Funny Cider, with as much apple cider as alcohol, plus sparkling water, was found to be “too diluted.”

[seabreeze]

What a cool idea…good luck, everyone!

[Glimmerglass]

Sorry Gigi0427 - I thought yours was the much easier drink to make and that is crucial when you have a line of 8 people waiting for service

The winning drink: Captial News9 August 17

The results are in for the Toast to Travers cocktail contest, and this year, folks will be sipping the Travers Cooler to celebrate the racing tradition.

Tony and Gloria Falco’s recipe was chosen from 140 entries. The cocktail will be sold on track, in commemorative Travers glasses and in select downtown restaurants during Travers week.

Gloria and Tony Falco’s cocktail recpie was chosen from 140 entries in this year’s Toast to Travers cocktail contest.

The Travers Cooler is made with vodka and lemonade.

Travers Cooler recipe:
1 part vodka
1/2 part triple sec
Lemonade
5-7 mint leaves
Lemon wedge or slice for garnish

Muddle mint 5 mint leaves in bottom of glass, add ice, vodka, triple sec and lemonade. Shake, pour into rocks glass and garnish with remaining 2 mint leaves and lemon.

There is a video off the link above to show it being made.

Hey I hope they still give you for being a finalist a cool gift

[Andrew]

In the words of my mother,“shitdamittohell!”

I’ve been in Hilton Head this past week w/o a computer well there were 10 lap tops in the house which I didn’t even look at!!

So here’s my entry for next’s years Travers

THE TRAVERS NAUGHTY NUTTY IRISHAMAN

Equal parts of the following (3 count)either severd as a shooter or sipping on the rocks… WARNING **** AFTER TWO YOU WILL DEFINATLEY BE NAUGHTY AND NICE! :-))))))******

MIDORI
BAILY’S
FRANGELICA
BUSHMILLS/JAMISON IRISH

“May ye be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead”

Enjoy all :-))

[Gigi0427]

Well thanks, Glimmerglass!

No consolation prizes, sadly, but I got a kick out of being a finalist at least. The prize to the winner was a nice admission/dining package to Saratoga, but I live too far away to be able to really take advantage of it, so I’m not too disappointed.

And on that note…I’m off to make myself a Blue Canoe now (which is admittedly a bit potent, but we Poles like our drinks sturdy ).

[lifesabreeze]

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