Thorpedo Anna is running this weekend for a $1 million purse, as is Preakness winner Seize the Grey.

The Breeders’ Cup is still well over a month away, but the blockbuster Pennsylvania Derby card at Parx on Saturday has drawn horses from some of the most prominent and successful Thoroughbred operations in North America, like Godolphin, Repole Stable, Juddmonte and Klaravich Stables.

But racing exists on many planes here, and if you want a snapshot of an ownership group that is chasing smaller purses and less prestigious trophies — but is just as passionate as anyone about making it to the winner’s circle — the busy weekend ahead for Eddie F’s Racing offers as good a glimpse as any.

There will be a pronounced aspirational theme on Friday and Sunday for the partnership managed by Schenectady native Eddie Fazzone and named after his popular seafood restaurants in Saratoga Springs and Clifton Park.

That’s because the group has two 2-year-olds running that are lightly raced, but carry high hopes for the owners, who participate through modest means compared to the big guns of the sport.

Mischievous Trick, a daughter of 2016 Hopeful winner Practical Joke, will make her career debut as a long shot in the sixth race at Aqueduct on Friday.

Buttah, who continues the theme of seafood-related names for Fazzone’s horses, will face six rivals in the $125,000 Bertram F. Bongard stakes for 2-year-olds on Sunday coming off a maiden victory on closing day of this summer’s Saratoga Race Course meet.

“We’ve got a nice little fall going,” Fazzone said on Wednesday. “We’ve got Sweet Tone running next Friday at Aqueduct, too.

“Last year was tough. The winter was terrible. I was going crazy. I had all the yearlings who just turned 2 and couldn’t run yet. Bunch of turf horses that we had to give the winter off. The only horse I had running all winter was Darn That Song.”

That won’t be the case this season.

The Mont Pleasant High School graduate first started Eddie F’s Racing in 2018 through the claiming ranks and has about 17 or so partners now, with shares in eight horses currently in training for the races, some yearlings and one weanling who likely will bring tartar sauce to the table when he’s eventually named.

Eddie F’s Racing generally takes two approaches to acquiring stock, the New York-bred sales, and off the Fedwell Farms breeding operation run by John Jayko in Saratoga Springs, frequently the progeny of the mare Salty Little Sis.

The retired Chowda, who won the Gander at Aqueduct in 2020 and banked over $225,000 in career purse money, and Lobsta, who won two stakes in 2021 and earned over $359,000, are full brothers by the sire Emcee. Buttah is also out of Salty Little Sis, by Leofric.

Fedwell also bred Dreampoint, who has won over $234,000, and Dream Central, who gave Fazzone his biggest moment at his hometown track when she won the $125,000 Suzie O’Cain Stakes at saratoga in 2022.

Woodberry Payne serves as Eddie F’s Racing’s bloodstock agent at the sales, then trains the yearlings at his farm in Virginia until they’re ready to race. Eddie F’s Racing bought Mischievous Trick for $55,000 at the 2023 Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling sale.

Trainer Gary Sciacca believes she could be meant for the turf, but Mischievous Trick will run on dirt — even if it comes up sloppy due to rain, as expected — on Friday. She drew the outside post in a 12-horse field and is 20-1 on the morning line.

“We’re not crazy about the post first time out, but I guess she’s going to have to break and get a good spot, and hopefully she runs alright,” Fazzone said. “The other thing with the Practical Jokes is you don’t really know what you have. They’re sprinters, some are turf, some go long, some are in between. He puts out a little bit of everything.”

“This is the one I have the most hope on,” said John Keller, who co-owns Katie O’Byrne’s Restaurant on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady and is one of Fazzone’s biggest partners and a longtime friend.

Buttah, meanwhile, is one of six horses in the seven-horse Bertram F. Bongard who won for the first time at Saratoga, including the Bill Parcells-owned Pay the Juice.

Fazzone said if Buttah continues to perform well, they’ll target a $500,000 stakes in the New York Sire series at Aqueduct in December.

“He came out of the race great, he breezed really good yesterday [Tuesday], Gary talked to me this morning and he said, ‘You know, I’m going to enter him. He’s doing well. We’re going to take a shot, we’re going to run,’” Fazzone said. “We’ll see what happens. We’re excited about him.”

Eddie F’s Racing is open to accepting new partners and someday would like to perhaps take a swing at a higher-priced yearling at the sales, if the resources are available.

For now, they stick to their budget and make sure any potential new partners are made well aware of the challenging and highly speculative nature of owning Thoroughbreds.

“I tell them make sure you have money to lose,” Fazzone said. “Don’t use money that you can’t afford to lose, because anything can happen. It’s almost like being a real estate agent when you go to buy a house: ‘What’s your budget? What can you spend?’”

“Am I in this to make money? No,” Keller said. “I’m here [at Katie O’Byrne’s]. I’ve got my regular job. But I want to have fun, and I don’t want to get my butt kicked, either.

“That’s how you get in the game. Half of these people don’t care about enhancing their retirement by buying horses. They want to be in the paddock, in the winner’s circle, you’ve got a parking pass now, you’re part of the horse racing community.

“If that’s what you want to be, that’s what we’re about.”