Jessica Paquette Makes Plans for Retired Thoroughbreds

In addition to her work with the foundation, she does public relations work for TVG, the horse racing network. She is also handicapper for The Saratoga Special, a must-read tabloid here for anyone besotted with racehorses and the human characters who surround them.

Those lessons with the old-timers at Rockingham Park have paid off. This month, Paquette selected a horse named State of Rest to win the $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational. He did, rewarding $2 bettors with a $44.20 payoff.

“I don’t like picking favorites,” she said. “When you are a public handicapper, you have to pick some favorites to satisfy the armchair quarterbacks. But it’s more fun to come up with a horse that is overlooked.”

Each Sunday, Paquette boards a plane in Boston, her home, for Richmond, Va., where she is the paddock analyst for Colonial Downs.

On Thursday, she flies home to her husband, her dogs and the two racehorses she rescued from the racetrack, What a Trippi and Puget Sound.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/sports/horse-racing/saratoga-springs-retired-thoroughbreds.html