Rays of sunshine provide relief in annual Christopher Stewart race
SARATOGASPRINGS, N.Y. » Let light shine out of the darkness.
For the past five years there have been many dark days in the lives of Michael and Regina Stewart, from that fateful night when the lost their son, Christopher, along with Deanna Rivers in a car accident caused by the hands of an influenced driver.
There have been better days and then there are bright days of the Clifton Park parents and then there are days that the sun shines on everyone.
A win by John Velazquez on the Todd Pletcher trained Alberobello in Thursday’s sixth race, ‘ Remembering Christopher ‘Stewz’ Stewart 5th annual Memorial race under bright sunny skies after a dreary morning that caused a sloppy course, cancelled the day’s opening race and moved races off the turf, put smiles on everyone’s faces in the winner’s circle.
“He’s always with us, the things that he does,” Michael Stewart said. “He usually plays practical jokes on us all the time, so I was expecting it to downpour right after the fifth race.
“He’s with us, he would love this today.”
Saratoga Race Course was only fitting for a day to remember Christopher Stewart for the family and friends.
“This is what we did when I brought him over with Jeremy, his older
brother, when they were younger we brought them over in carriages and watched morning workouts,” Michael Stewart said. “Christopher would be out there nine races getting different jockey signatures on everything; I got a great picture of him.”
The bright afternoon continued to lift the spirits of the Stewart and Rivers families as the driver responsible for the two deaths and grave injuries to Bailey Wind and Matt Hardy, the driver Dennis Drue, was denied parole on Monday.
Drue was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in December 2013 after pleading guilty
to 58 counts connected with the Dec. 1, 2012 crash that took the lives of the two Shenendehowa students.
“I love this type of day, this is what we do especially after Monday,” Stewart said. “A great outcome, I’m very relieved, but it was pretty emotional those first couple of days trying to get through it.
“It was good timing, this can kind of bring us back smiling again and remembering some of those good memories that we have.”
Thursday was the fifth time the family has had a race dedicated in Christopher’s memory.
“We look forward to this every day and we know
about the time you have to start reserving these and its many months ago when we actually picked this particular date out,” Stewart said. “It’s kind of a long process where you have to be approved for a certain date and then you request the middle races, the late races or the early races. We put a lot of thought into it, think about the days.
“Usually it’s been on a Saturday and it’s just been a mob scene, which is fine, but we thought today this year maybe we would try a Thursday and have a great time. We had some lunch and a drink, a toast to Chris and came down and watched a good race.”