Trainer Phil Gleaves looks to make solid return to Saratoga

It’s been many years since trainer Phil Gleaves made the Saratoga Race Course backside his summer training base, but the next 40 days of racing will be a welcome change for the English-born conditioner who has called Florida home for the last 15 years.

Should Rythmia draw in from the also-eligible list in Saturday’s sixth race at the Spa, for 2-year-old maidens at 5 ½ furlongs, it will be the first entry Gleaves has saddled at Saratoga since Csaba, who ran fifth in the 2014 Alydar.

“It’s good to be back on a full-time basis,” Gleaves said. “It’s been like 15 years since I’ve been up here, but I’ve come up sporadically to run a horse here or there, but only stayed a week or so. I feel real blessed to be here.”

Gleaves has saddled 582 winners from 4,070 career starts and recalls his last Saratoga winner Miami Cat, who captured the 2012 Equalize. In the years since his last summer at the Spa, life outside the racetrack forced him to make a decision as to where he would call home.

“I was a single dad at the time when I was up here before, and when my son Scuyler became school age, I had to make a decision where to have him go to school,” said Gleaves. “I didn’t want to bounce around from state to state, so I had to choose between Miami or New York, and since I can’t handle New York winters I went to Miami, and I spent 15 years there.

“He’s going to be a sophomore in college, and my wife now and I spoke to him about it [coming to Saratoga] and got his blessing. He said, ‘Dad, go back Saratoga.’”

In the ensuing decade and a half since he’s been able to spend time in Saratoga, both the town and track have undergone plenty of changes. Gleaves said he has plenty of fond memories, highlighted by winning the 1986 Travers with Wise Times, which followed eight years as Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens assistant.

“It’s like I’ve never left. It’s a new appreciation,” he said. “When you get used to doing something and just do it, I don’t think you appreciate it as much, and of course there’s the old adage of losing something, and when you lose something you really miss it. You really don’t know how much you miss it here, and having not been here for 15 years, it’s just a blessing to be back. No matter how we perform, I just feel great being part of the show. Brings back a lot of great memories: the Travers, I got married here, a lot of good things.

“This town is all about horses, you don’t find another town like this in the world, maybe Newmarket or Chantilly in France, but this town lives and breathes horses,” he added. “I think I missed the respect of the horse that we don’t have in others cities. People love horses in this town. They love horse racing.”

Gleaves brings a stable of eight 2-year-olds to Saratoga, and is “cautiously optimistic” about their chances.

“I’m not going over there to play around,” he said. “We’re always hopeful. Everyone’s got their best athletes here, and nobody brings slow horses to Saratoga. God willing we’ll be wintering in Ocala, and summers will be here. to