Take Down Two peers out of stall No. 3 in Gary Gullo’s barn next to Union Avenue near East Avenue in August 2014 in Saratoga Springs. (Tom Keyser)

Trainer Gary Gullo pets Take Down Two outside his barn in 2014 in Saratoga Springs. (Tom Keyser)

Sue Smith finishes washing her 20-year-old thoroughbred, Take Down Two, a former racehorse that raced until age 11, an astonishingly long career with 128 starts and $567,356 in career earnings.

Sue Smith pours love and resources, totaling about $20,000 a year, to give her former racehorse a good and comfortable life at the boarding stable Spa Equine in Ballston Spa.

Sue Smith, 68, of Colonie, a partially retired IT consultant, first saw a photo of Take Down Two in a Times Union feature story in 2014 when he was still finishing in the money at age 9, a senior citizen among other racehorses, at Saratoga Race Course. “It was love at first sight,” Smith said.

Sue Smith looks over photos from her scrapbook of the long racing career of Take Down Two, whom she nicknamed TD.

BALLSTON SPA — Sue Smith dates her love affair to Aug. 19, 2014, when she read an article with accompanying photographs, both by Tom Keyser, former features writer for the Times Union, about a 9-year-old racehorse still finishing in the money at Saratoga Race Course.

“Take Down Two carries the banner for senior citizens everywhere,” wrote Keyser, who added that the big bay gelding was the oldest horse to race at Saratoga at that point of the meet.

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It’s unlikely that a 9-year-old racehorse will be pounding the turf down the home stretch when racing begins Thursday for the 161st season at the historic Spa track.

Keyser’s 2014 photo showed Take Down Two, his inquisitive eyes fixed on people walking along the sidewalk past an iron fence fronting Union Avenue alongside trainer Gary Gullo, whose barn was closest to the main track entrance at Union and East........

© Times Union