Joe Clancy

Jockeys and agents study form, line up morning works, talk to trainers and carefully choose mounts. And sometimes they just answer the phone.

Elliott Walden laughed at the difference between Sidney’s Candy in the morning and Sidney’s Candy in the afternoon. “He worked faster than he ran,” Walden said. “He went three quarters in 1:14, he went in 1:09 the other day.”

Donnie Von Hemel thought long and hard. “Good question,” he said, finally looking up from his cowboy hat. “I don’t know if I would have made the move or not.”

Charles “Scooter” Dickey made a plan to come to the Whitney about the time Flat Out ran past the eighth pole in the Grade II Suburban at Belmont Park July 2. Preston Stable’s 5-year-old son of Flatter drew off to a huge score that day, taking his first stakes since winning the Smarty Jones back in January 2009.

Todd Pletcher liked winning the John Morrissey. For one, it was a stakes at Saratoga. For two, it was with one of his favorite horses, Ibboyee. For three, and perhaps most importantly or at least entertainingly, he beat Mike Repole.

Mike Puype uttered three simple words from under a pair of quaking binoculars as the field swept past the three-eighths pole in the Test, Saturday’s Grade I companion to the Whitney.

Get Stormy won, and he knew it, so when Ramon Dominguez made like a rodeo rider and tried to vault back into the saddle after a workout Friday, the Grade I winner cantered off like a bad pony with Dominguez scrambling back into his tack.

Tom Bush and Charlie Lopresti stood in the pulpit of the clubhouse big screen TV for Friday’s feature. The trainers were separated by a half-dozen viewers – and a chasm of emotion.  

After a tough winter at Penn National, Tamarind Hall took her place in trainer Jeremiah Englehart’s barn at Finger Lakes. And became the running joke.

Larry Jones picked up a shank, shook jockey Ramon Dominguez’s hand and walked toward Havre de Grace as the field began to assemble for riders up in the paddock.