Friends with Finger Lakes roots winning at Saratoga

Friends with Finger Lakes roots winning at Saratoga

Trainers Charlie Baker and Jeremiah Englehart used to be on opposite sides of the same barn at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack more than two decades ago.

Englehart was helping out his father, longtime Finger Lakes conditioner Chris Englehart.

The two are still practically neighbors with horses stabled near the Oklahoma Training Track across the street from Saratoga Race Course.

Long removed from their formative years at Finger Lakes, a minor-league track, they're finding success at the highest level of the sport.

Baker started bringing horses to New York Racing Association tracks about 12 years ago.

Englehart said he got the itch to compete beyond Finger Lakes when he worked as an assistant for Mike Hushion and Ken McPeek at NYRA tracks.

[...] being around the really nice races and constantly wanting to try to do a little better, that's the reason why.

The one advantage you have working at Finger Lakes, you're constantly having to fix horses up, between the way you take care of the legs or how you train them,'' Englehart said.

Baker earned the first graded stakes victory of his career earlier this year, taking the Grade II True North with Joking in June.