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Sean Clancy 
Linda Rice stood alone on the clubhouse stairs and took a deep breath. With a raincoat draped over her left forearm and her papers pinned to her chest, Rice breathed that great sigh of elation and relief, the one that only a horse trainer at Saratoga knows.
Today is the Fourstardave Stakes, run in the memory of the New York-bred gelding who won a race at Saratoga for eight consecutive seasons from 1987 to 1994. Friday evening, Richard Migliore talked about his memories of Fourstardave’s magical run. We turned up the TV and listened to the jockey who can tell stories better than Tolkien. Migliore got me thinking about my memories of Fourstardave, when I galloped horses for Leo O’Brien and his family.
Dennis Lynch doesn’t know where he’ll watch. He doesn’t know whether he’ll sit or stand or pace as Hip 68 sells tonight. Maybe he’ll surround himself with a couple of close friends or maybe he’ll drift off by himself, somewhere in the crowd, perhaps back in the trees, lost in his thoughts, lost in his emotions. The co-breeder of the Into Mischief filly knows what he’ll be thinking, knows who he’ll be thinking about as the bay filly with the cyclone blaze walks into the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion tonight.
Originally published in The Saratoga Special August 5, 2018.
Saturday afternoon, over about two hours, through the rain, the sun and even a rainbow, I saw all of Rick Violette’s life – all that he represents, all that he is about, all that he has built.
Rick Violette slammed his right fist down on the ledge of his front-row box and yelled one word – one sharp, definitive, door-slamming, declaration of a word.
Wayne Catalano stood still for a moment. The 62-year-old trainer leaned against the outside rail, waiting for his big horse, Farrell, to complete a circuit of the main track the day before she won the Shuvee at Saratoga. This is the only way Catalano pauses, when his horse is on the other side of the infield lake and there’s nothing else to do but wait for her.
A few readers have told us that they save up The Specials all summer, then pull them out and read them one by one in the dead of a Saratoga winter.
Steve Asmussen walked out of the Saratoga Room, 12 horses galloped past in the finale and New York State of Mind was cuing up. Asmussen talked about Tenfold, his talent, his looks and the inexplicable antics that nearly threw away the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga Race Course Saturday. It took Asmussen awhile, but he eventually found the right words to describe Tenfold’s mind frame.
Bill Mott lowered his binoculars, fans clapped, Mott’s wife Tina patted his right shoulder and kissed his left cheek. As Mott walked along the top row of the clubhouse box seats toward the winner’s circle, the Hall of Fame trainer summed up Hofburg’s romp in the Curlin Stakes over a sloppy track at Saratoga Friday.
We’re proud of Quint Kessenich, Pete Fornatale, Frank Scatoni, Jim Mulvihill, Travis Stone, John Lies, Liz Ronk, John Panagot, Brian Nadeau, Joanie Morris, Katie Bo Williams, Gabby Gaudet, Kristin Brennan, Madison Scott, Michael Smith, Annise Montplaisir and all the former interns. They got up early, stayed late, made The Special their own before finding their own niches, some in our sport, all in life. I know we’ll be proud of the 2018 class.
