Eclipse Award winning jockey and TRF board member Richard Migliore has been pivotal in creating a golf day to benefit retired racehorses and injured jockeys.
Enthusiasm and passion is building as the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF, Inc.) and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) prepare to tee off a golf event raising funds and awareness for injured jockeys and retired racehorses.
As Tee Off for the TRF and PDJF prepares to get underway Aug. 23 at the McGregor Links Golf Club just outside Saratoga, N.Y., buzz is growing for the event, says Eclipse Award winning jockey and TRF board member Richard “The Mig” Migliore.
“It’s going to be such a fun event. Enthusiastic and passionate people have really rallied behind this idea,” says Migliore. “It’s such a natural fit for the TRF and the PDJF to partner up that I’m surprised nobody’s thought of it before!”
Once the idea took hold, it caught on like wildfire, he adds.
Migliore’s personal friend Blake Crocitto, a co-owner of the 18-hole, semi-private golf course stepped up immediately to offer the sprawling facility as a beautiful backdrop for a fun day of golfing to benefit two causes “near and dear” to his heart, Migliore says.
Nancy LaSala, executive director of the PDJF says when Richard Migliore picked up the phone to propose the dual fundraiser and golf tournament that she was thrilled to sign on. Agreeing the first-time collaboration with the TRF and the PDJF is a “natural fit,” she confirms between seven and eight big-name jockeys are ready and eager to participate during Travers week in Saratoga.
They include Johnny Velazquez, Javier Castellano, Jose Ortiz and Angel Cordero Jr., Migliore says.
The idea of a golf event arose from discussions within the TRF spearheaded by director of annual giving and event planning, Mary Abbruzzese, says Migliore, noting, “Mary had a lot to do with this. It was just a great idea and golf is the type of event that brings people together” in lighthearted, fun-willed way. And still raise money for charity.
The day will include a luncheon and cocktail reception, and prizes will be awarded for a hole-in-one, closest to the pin, longest drive and a putting contest. And there will be a special award for the Most Honest Team!
For more information about Tee Off for the TRF and PDJF— and a chance to bid on an American Pharoah halter— please visit this site: http://www.trfinc.org/event/golf/.
