Joe Clancy

This morning, Friday, July 27, 2012, all of our services were down for a time due to an upstream provider issue. The data center that supplies all of our power and internet services lost all internal power and power backup systems. The result was that any servers and server systems such as ours that depend on them were totally shut down.

He won six races Sunday. He was asked to raise six fingers in the air, he did it reluctantly. He posed with kids. Signed autographs. Answered every question. Went to dinner with his agent Steve Rushing and never mentioned a ride, a race, the feat. Drove his Honda Civic to the track in the morning.

He’d be 34. Retired? Maybe. A champion many times over? Surely. One of the all time greats? No doubt. A name you’d put there with Aitcheson, Fishback, Adams, Smithwick, Walsh? Most likely.

Jockey Robbie Walsh hadn’t won a race since March. Trainer Richard Valentine last found Saratoga success in 2005. Their horse, Demonstrative, lost his most recent start by 30 lengths.

Stop 1. The porch. 1,500 newspapers await. They go in the van 50 at a time. It’s 6 a.m. and the teenagers are already out the door and at the track. The air is cool, the list is long; come on day, let’s go.

I didn’t bet the last race on Sunday, just watched it on the big screen in the clubhouse like normal – but I cheered, leaned, rooted, stomped my foot and took off running toward the track when Wet One crossed the wire first.

It’s a raw, foggy March morning and Mick Channon, former footballer turned racehorse trainer, is in high gear, driving his Land Rover between rows of turf and all-weather gallops at his West Ilsley Stable, the one Channon bought from The Queen, outside Lambourn in England.

Two years ago, I had to hunt for Charlie Lopresti. He was a name on a page, a trainer shipping in for a stakes and we needed a preview. He was also largely unknown.

There’s a chair outside the office of Kelly Breen’s barn. There’s an open brown box on top of the chair, inside that, a black briefcase; a white feed bucket tops off the mound. The trainer struggles to find a spot to place his iPad to charge. You’ve been there; those white cords are just never long enough. Breen places the iPad on the mound and in a perfect balancing act everything stays put.

Dear Mr. Lee “Toadie” Taylor:

I hope this letter finds you in good spirit and health. This office received a complaint from your office about the first two versions of the Cup of Coffee column in this paper. Your comment, “Too Syrupy” was duly noted in the Complaints Department at The Saratoga Special (otherwise known as “There’s the Door”). A representative of the company will be in touch with you as soon as possible (2027 looks like the next opening).