Eliot Spitzer got another lesson in political humility from one of New York’s wealthiest and most-connected society mavens this week.
The disgraced former governor of New York was recalled – or more accurately, mocked – at Saratoga Racetrack, when a pair of colts named “Luv Gov” and “Ninth Client,” made their debut at the races. The colts’ owners are Marylou Whitney, the so-called Queen of Saratoga, and her third husband, John Hendrickson.
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“We just wanted to have a horse named after a big part of New York history,” Hendrickson told the Albany Times-Union. “Don’t you think a dead heat with Skipadate and Ninth Client is a classic?”
Ouch.
“Luv Gov” was part of the headline splashed across the cover of the New York Daily News after Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap arranging a visit with a high-priced prostitute. The wiretap captured the voice of a man identified in court papers as Client 9, arranging to have a prostitute travel from New York to Washington to meet him. After Spitzer was identified as Client 9, the governor was engulfed in a political furor, and resigned a few days later.
So why would would an 82-year-old socialite, famous for her philanthropy and her parties, seek to rub Spitzer’s face in that?
Whitney, as it turns out, had a history with the former governor. The grand dame of racing had been the honorary chairwoman of Empire Racing Associates, a consortium of companies bidding to take over the racing franchise in New York State from the not-for-profit New York Racing Association. Whitney was a powerful advocate of the take-over, arguing that a for-profit company would “protect Saratoga’s historic traditions and put horse racing first.”
Spitzer, however, nixed the deal, suggesting antitrust and other concerns involving Empire’s partners, Magna Entertainment and Churchill Downs.
If that wasn’t enough, Whitney was reportedly outraged by Spitzer’s efforts to sink the fortunes of her longtime friend, Joseph Bruno, until recently, the leader of the state Senate and a longtime advocate of horse racing.
When news broke that Spitzer’s aides had tracked Bruno’s use of state aircraft for personal travel, and then leaked their findings to the press, Whitney told the New York Times, “It made me very unhappy.”
The Times described her reaction this way: “Squinting ever so slightly, vowels stiffening, she added: ‘I stand by him. We all do.’”
When Bruno resigned last month, Whitney broke down during an interview with an Albany television station. She described him as a longtime advocate of horse racing, as well as of Saratoga County, which he had represented for more than three decades.
Whitney first came to Saratoga 50 years ago, on the arm of her late husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt “Sonny” Whitney, the scion of both the Vanderbilt and Whitney fortunes. When he died at 93 in 1992, he reportedly left his widow $100 million.
She has used that money, among other things, to carry on her late husband’s passion for horse breeding and racing., as well as for Saratoga Springs. Her colt Birdstone, a product of Marylou Whitney Stables in Lexington, Ky., defeated Smarty Jones in the 2004 Belmont Stakes.
The socialite famous for grand gestures – arriving at charity balls by balloon, in carriages shaped like pumpkins, or towed by horses disguised as unicorns – has also given millions of dollars to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the national museum of dance in Saratoga, Saratoga Hospital, and a thoroughbred retirement fund.
About 10 years ago, she married Hendrickson, a former aide to Gov. Walter J. Hickel of Alaska. Hendrickson, who is 39 years her junior, has run many of her business affairs, among other things, negotiating the sale of a large tract of Whitney family property in the Adirondacks to the state of New York for a hefty price.
Whitney remains active despite suffering a stroke in 2006, hosting her traditional opening day luncheon in Saratoga’s Carousel Restaurant late last month.
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