Horses head to the track for their exercise time the day before the opening of the 2024 season at the Saratoga Race Course on July 10 in Saratoga Springs. A new documentary in 2024 follows where thoroughbreds go after their racing days are over. Photo Special to the Times Union by Skip Dickstein

Filmmaker John Wager, in his studio in Saratoga Springs, discusses a forthcoming documentary he directed, “Off Track: Fate of a Racehorse.”

John Wager, a Troy native, shifted from a career directing and producing audiobooks for Random House to becoming a documentary filmmaker with his business, Galileo Media Arts.

Director John Wager and executive producer Jay Hanley brought a film crew to Ireland and several states to discover the ways that retired racehorses help heal the emotional pain of war veterans, prisoners and troubled teens.

Director and producer John Wager, of Saratoga Springs, partnered with thoroughbred horse owner Jay Hanley, of Nantucket, on a documentary film “Off Track,” that explores what happens to racehorses after they retire.

A selection of awards filmmaker John Wager has won, including three Emmys and numerous film festival prizes for his documentary, "Comedy Warriors: Healing Through Humor," starring Lewis Black, Zach Galifanakis and Bob Saget.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — It began with My Man Sam, a horse that reached the pinnacle of thoroughbred horse racing as a 3-year-old trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.

After finishing 11th in the derby, the horse was retired later that year as a 3-year-old due to an injury. My Man Sam had a career record of one win, three second places and one third in nine starts and $383,2000 in earnings — including finishing eighth in the 2016 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

Jay Hanley, a thoroughbred owner of Team Hanley racing stables, was a part-owner of My Man Sam. Hanley got busy with his flourishing custom home building business on Nantucket and with raising a family, and he lost track of the chestnut gelding Hanley loved for its great intelligence, quiet demeanor and creating excitement for its owners.

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One of the owners sent My Man Sam to California without informing Hanley,........

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