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Phil Serpe brought home the first serious longshot of the meet when his Pure Gossip won Friday’s seventh race, paying $76. the trainer wasn’t quite as surprised as the rest of the crowd at Saratoga Race Course.“we liked her a lot, but she’s really bred to go long,” he said Saturday morning. “our horses tend to develop; we don’t really crank them up first time out, but we expected her to finish second or third. So it wasn’t as much of a surprise as the tote board indicated.”Serpe trains Pure Gossip for Flying Zee Stable, whose owner, Carl Lizza, passed away on July 8. “it was a bittersweet win for us,” said Serpe. “Mr. Lizza’s passing was a major, major blow to us.“mrs. Lizza was here Friday, and so were Mr. Lizza’s brother and his nephews. So any time we can do something like that, it makes us feel good.”Pure Gossip came out of the race well and is expected to run back later in the meet.on Wednesday, Winter Memories returns to the scene of her first victory when she goes in the Grade 2 Lake George. the 3-year-old daughter of El Prado by Memories of Silver broke her maiden at first asking at the Spa on September 3 last year. Winter Memories is undefeated in two starts this year, both graded stakes. She was second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.“She’s doing well,” said trainer Jimmy Toner. “She’s ready to go.”in her most recent start, the Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park, Toner saddled the filly away from the walking ring, and he expected to school her in the paddock this weekend.“She’s developed a racy attitude,” he said. “we schooled her at Belmont before we came up here, because she was a little on the anxious side down there.”Todd Pletcher’s More Than Real, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, is also expected to run in the Lake George.Nine-year-old Naughty New Yorker returns to the Spa on Monday in the Evan Shipman Stakes. though never officially retired, his owners, Fox Ridge Farm, tried to sell him as stallion privately and at auction but were unable to find a buyer. “Nobody wants stamina anymore,” lamented Naughty New Yorker’s trainer, Pat Kelly.the horse was put back in light training in Kentucky and brought back to the races in June, when he finished fifth in the Noble Nashua Stakes at Belmont Park. “Belmont’s not his favorite track,” said Kelly. “he always been good at Aqueduct and Saratoga, a lot like Evening Attire,” whom Kelly also trained.Kelly hasn’t tried to adjust Naughty New Yorker’s running style as the horse has gotten older. “He’s a pretty quirky horse, but he was always tough,” said the trainer. he did indicate that he would likely scratch the horse if the track comes up muddy.Naughty New Yorker’s last win came in February 2008, his last win at Saratoga in the Sunrise Stakes in 2007.Having won four of five steeplechase races held at Saratoga Race Course in 2010, trainer Jonathan Sheppard might have been expected to be ecstatic at the increase of those events held at the Spa this year, but at this barn Saturday morning, he didn’t sound too sanguine as he discussed the increase of jump races, from six to nine, this year.“I doubt they’ll fill,” he said. “we just don’t have that big an inventory, particularly with the economy.”he acknowledged that the new schedule had affected his racing schedule this year. “it made a difference,” he said, “in how we campaigned them early in the year, saving a few to be ready to go.”he also indicated that he might run a horse or two here that he might not otherwise. “we have to work together a little bit,” he said. “I’ll run them if it will help make a race go.”Sheppard doesn’t expect to duplicate last year’s success at this meet. “last year was one of those years when everything just kind of fell into place,” he said, pointing to the success of some older horses coming back from injury and of jockey Brian Crowley, who rode three of Sheppard’s four winners.Missing from Sheppard’s team this year is his assistant Danielle Hodsdon, who rode the trainer’s other winner last year. Injured in a training accident at Sheppard’s farm, she may miss the entire Saratoga meet. Earlier this month, she rode One Giant Step, a horse that Sheppard owns as well as trains, to a second place finish at Belmont Park, expertly guiding her mount over a horse that had fallen in front of her.“I’m not going to run that horse until Danielle is back,” said Sheppard. “It’s kind of stupid, but I feel badly for her.”