Join The Saratoga Special Readers Club for exclusive access to news, swag, discounts, special events and more
Joe Clancy 
It’s just a book, right? And center field at Fenway Park is just grass. The Kentucky Derby blanket of roses is just a bunch of flowers. The Stanley Cup is just a trophy. This Was Racing, by Joe Palmer, was published in 1953. It’s so good, Red Smith edited it and wrote the foreword. The … Read more
From the February Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred
When the calendar clicked over to Jan. 1 and the great steeplechaser Flatterer turned 34, I had to go see him. To say hello, to say thanks, to honor him, to apologize. I took care of all four.
Terry and Ryan Finley stepped out for some father-son time, hitting up the Wawa convenience store near the family’s homestead for some necessities. Maybe a sandwich or two, and some other items to fill in the gaps after a long journey back to Lumberton, N.J. from America’s heartland.
We’re running down news from all over this morning, after a few days out of the office, and there’s plenty.
A badly spray-painted lamp made from a plastic Gordon’s Gin bottle hung from the ceiling. A $25 used desk held the printer, fax and other machines. A used Macintosh LC computer with a black-and-white monitor did the heavy lifting.
The Thoroughbred publications Steeplechase Times and Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred will solidify an ongoing business relationship with a partnership that merges the two print publications under the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred banner.
The little book, now more than 55 years old, belonged to Humphrey Finney, at least judging from the “Finney” scribbled on the cover in bluish ink. It’s a sales catalogue, one of the two or three dozen in a bin dug out at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s Fair Hill office this winter.
The questions and follow-up statements used to pop up all the time.
“What was it like growing up in Saratoga? What’s it like up there in the off-season? What do people do up there the rest of the year?”
The kind folks at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic called me about a bin full of sales catalogues they were taking to a storage unit. Would I care to have a look? Apparently, I guess I’m the resident community historian or packrat or goofball who really might have an interest in some 50-year-old paperback books. I jumped at the chance.
As expected, Demonstrative and Pierrot Lunaire headline the trio of finalists for the Eclipse Award as steeplechase champion of 2012. Each won two Grade 1 stakes on the year, the only horses to do so, and finished 1-2 in the earnings list.
