Busy Saratoga for Migliore

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – In roughly 24 hours in early July, Richard Migliore's summer at Saratoga schedule changed from a bit too relaxing to a far more comfortable mighty busy.

First came a phone call from Kentucky-based jockey Chris Landeros, arranging for Migliore to be his agent at Saratoga. The next day, Migliore, 55, was offered several assignments for the expanded Saratoga Live television programming produced by the New York Racing Association. Suddenly, a week before the meet launched, the retired jockey and TV veteran had two more gigs to go with his work for Fasig-Tipton and Sport of Kings Media.

“I'm doing a lot,” Migliore said, smiling, and promptly repeating the four words.

Indeed. As the rainy and chilly spring in the Northeast finally gave way to summer, Migliore fretted that he would not have much reason to spend a great deal of time at a track he first visited as a 14-year-old in 1978. His duties as Fasig-Tipton's New York field representative would require him to be in the city prior to and during the sales, but Migliore said he wanted and needed more to do throughout the 40-day meet.

Landeros delivered nicely when he decided to commit to riding the entire Saratoga season for the first time. Migliore had spoken with Landeros–whom he met in 2007 when they were riding at Del Mar–about giving Saratoga a try prior to the Kentucky Derby. As Saratoga neared, he figured that the 31-year-old rider would spend the summer at Ellis Park. The situation changed when Landeros called and Migliore became a rookie jock's agent.

Migliore said that during that summer more than a decade ago at Del Mar he thought the teenaged Landeros showed promise.

“Jockeys know the other riders that can ride,” Migliore said. “Just because a guy isn't winning doesn't mean he can't ride. It's about opportunity. He was a young guy just not getting any opportunity. But I loved the way he positioned himself in a race. He saw the race but he just didn't have the horse to take advantage of things.”

The connections continued through the years. Landeros and Migliore's son, Joe, who now works for West Point Thoroughbreds, have long been friends. As his career progressed, Landeros moved from the Southwest to the Kentucky circuit, where he met and married trainer Ian Wilkes's daughter Shelby in 2016. Migliore said he paid attention as Landeros matured and improved.

“I watched him at Gulfstream this past winter–he had a tremendous meet–and I know he made inroads into some of the New York outfits,” Migliore said. “When he got a Derby mount this year, I heard that he was talking about potentially coming to Saratoga for the summer. So I called him up to congratulate him and wish him luck in the Derby and I just kind of threw it out there.”

Migliore chuckled as he recounted the conversation.

“I said, 'I heard that you might be coming to New York for the summer. I don't know if you'd bring your agent along or not, but if you don't and you need someone to represent you…I never aspired to be a jockey's agent, but I'd like to represent you because I really have a lot of confidence in your ability and I know that you belong at this level. And I think I might be able to be of help getting in some doors.'”

Landeros did take Migliore up on his offer to work together at Saratoga. Despite their late start, Landeros had a record of 2-2-2 in 19 mounts through the first nine days of the meet.

“I was supposed to come last year and I felt like I needed one more year under my belt and then go back to Gulfstream,” Landeros said. “I figured we'll go after a couple of years at Gulfstream because it's a lot of the same people. It worked out good. I had a great winter, a successful winter. I won a lot of stakes. And here we are.”

Prior to this summer, Landeros had ridden seven times at Saratoga, six of them for his father-in-law. In the most recent three racing days he had a total of 10 mounts, one for Wilkes and the rest for seven other trainers. Landeros won Sunday's 10th race on Borracho (Uncle Mo), who Migliore figures is stakes-bound for trainer Rusty Arnold.

Migliore's distinguished riding career ended abruptly at 4,450 victories with a serious fall in January 2010. Eight months later, he began working as an analyst for HRTV and accepted a multi-task position with NYRA in February 2011 that included TV, handling the apprentice jockey program and working on marketing projects. But weary of the commute from his farm in the Hudson Valley town of Millbrook, Migliore left NYRA in the summer of 2017 to take a post with XBTV, which built a studio in his house.

“I was driving 200 miles a day, five days a week,” he said. “That was 1,000 miles a week without running errands, just to and from work. That was getting to me. Then I saw an opportunity of a better balance for me of XBTV, which was great while it lasted. They say, 'All good things come to an end.'”

Migliore was let go in November during a shakeup of personnel by the Stronach Group. He had an usually quiet winter with his family on the farm, indulging his new passion for hiking, second-guessing his decision to leave NYRA and thinking about what was next.

“After the fact, I learned that if I had communicated better with NYRA that the commute was becoming that much of a demanding, arduous routine that they would have tried to modify my schedule so I wouldn't get worn out,” he said. “But I didn't realize that and I didn't communicate that, which is too bad. But along came this opportunity and I took it.”

Though Migliore told Tony Allevato, the executive producer of NYRA TV, that he hoped to return to television, he figured that the NYRA lineup was set with retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens on the team.

“But then I was contacted in the spring if I would be interested in doing a block of shows at Belmont. We made a deal,” Migliore said. “That went very well at Belmont. It felt like I jumped right in and didn't miss a day.”

No sooner than Migliore had made the arrangement with Landeros on a new venture, NYRA called and asked he was able to work on some of its Saratoga programs. He did not hesitate to accept what he expects will be 15 shows.

“I didn't want to turn that down because there have been a lot of exciting things going on,” he said. “They are continually adding hours. I think next year there are even more hours. So I don't want to preclude myself from being a part of that as it grows. I like doing TV. I think I'm fairly good at it. I like talking about horses. I like saying something and someone will come up to me the next day and say, 'I never thought of it like that.' You open up someone's mind to a different perspective.”

With his new intense workload, Migliore is on the go every day. He's an agent for a jockey trying to grow his business at a tough meet, the co-host of Sport Of Kings Media's three weekly podcasts, a field rep for Fasig-Tipton, a TV commentator making a weekly 200-mile commute back home to check on the farm. It's a good fit.

“During the idleness of the winter, I realized about myself that I don't idle well,” he said. “That was the most time off that I've had without being injured. I need purpose. I kind of need structure. I need to have things to go after and plan.”