Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Rusty Arnold
Rusty Arnold is on the board. The Kentucky-based trainer won his first race of the meet when Borracho captured a tough allowance Sunday. (Originally published in July 25 issue of The Saratoga Special)
Sean Clancy
Paddy Neilson
I would not have become a jockey without Paddy Neilson.
Before school, my last two years of Unionville High School. Monday to Friday, one set. Eight dollars a horse, plus breakfast. Neilson’s wife, Toinette, toasted cinnamon rolls, I’d run up the steps, take a quick shower, pull on a slightly cleaner set of clothes, eat breakfast and listen to lectures and lessons from my mentors. Toinette, I had known her since she galloped and rode races for my father starting at Delaware Park in the 1970s, a great rider, a great cook, a great friend. She offered subtle points.
Paddy Neilson
I would not have become a jockey without Paddy Neilson.
Before school, my last two years of Unionville High School. Monday to Friday, one set. Eight dollars a horse, plus breakfast. Neilson’s wife, Toinette, toasted cinnamon rolls, I’d run up the steps, take a quick shower, pull on a slightly cleaner set of clothes, eat breakfast and listen to lectures and lessons from my mentors. Toinette, I had known her since she galloped and rode races for my father starting at Delaware Park in the 1970s, a great rider, a great cook, a great friend. She offered subtle points.
Life Preserver
Jimmy Jerkens threw his hands in the air in the first quarter-mile of the Whitney. Jerkens threw his hands in the air with a quarter-mile to run in the Woodward.
One to Go
It’s 8:32 Friday night. Issue 33. Column 33.
I just drank a double espresso cold brew from High Brew Coffee. Fifty calories. 130-150 mg of caffeine.
A Runner
“She was a runner.”
That’s how Randy Romero signed a photo of Personal Ensign winning the 1988 Whitney. That was it, simple and oh so sweet. Just like the man.
Digital
John Wayne Eastwood opened the office door and began to rant. “Hey, I can’t find the paper anywhere this morning.” Tom Law, ever the traffic cop, tempered the situation from the first chair in the office, strategically placed for situations like this (I hid in the back office). “We don’t do Wednesdays,” Law said to … Read more
Missing It
It’s that time of year. The Travers has come and gone, the downward slide has begun. To celebrate our final print edition (the final four Specials will be digital only), I bring you the annual “I’ll miss. I won’t miss” column.
Your Honor
Shug McGaughey walked straight to his pole, the one that offers a view and an escape. Second row, back right corner of the finish-line box, on the edge of the steps. Will Farish and his family settled into the first row boxes. Alison McGaughey stood in a third-row box over her husband’s right shoulder. The Fox TV crew, holding cameras and microphones, wedged into gaps, fans with beers and wine glasses filled in the steps, a waiter ran a ticket for a lunch order.
Replays
The first one I remember watching, really watching, was 1982. Joey and I finished watering off at the barn and drove the farm truck to the racing office at Delaware Park. There, we watched the Travers. It was the first time we had watched a race from another track at a track. We walked past shiny white trailers in the parking lot. Somebody said something about simulcast trucks, whatever that meant.
