Far Hills Spotlight: Championship on the line in Grand National
The big one. The richest race of the year at $400,000, the Grand National attracts America’s best and Europe’s ambitious.
Sean Clancy
Check Lists
Passes. Pin. Form. Sport coat. Cords. Boots. Tie. Dress shirt. Socks. Form. Binoculars. Laptop. Ipad. Voice recorder. Pen. Another pen. Mints. Sunscreen. Phone.
Far Hills Spotlight: Novices dance without Moscato in Foxbrook
The Foxbrook Champion Hurdle offers more than the prelude to the Grand National, it offers $125,000 and the grudge match between the best novices. Well, it was meant to be a grudge match, but Jack Fisher changed that when he decided to swing for the fences with Moscato, who has beaten eight of the 12 runners, and go for the Grand National. That’s fine with the novices, they’ll play while the cat is away.
Back in the Game: Champion jockey Kieran Norris returns
It’s good to be back.
In a year of battered jockeys, Kieran Norris returned for the Shawan Downs/Foxfield weekend Sept. 23-24. The National Steeplechase Association’s 2016 champion jockey missed the summer after suffering an occipital condylar fracture in a fall at Radnor in May, the same day five-time champion Paddy Young was injured. By summer, 2015 champion Willie McCarthy also hit the shelf.
My Summer Rental with Penny Chenery
Four boys rented a top floor apartment on Circular Street in Saratoga Springs in the summer of 1994. Three future champion jockeys and an assistant trainer of the stars reserved the top floor in a white column mansion. You know the ones, porches, flowers, a mix of Victorian/Roman beauty and excess. Up a fire escape, along a set of stairs in the back, through a kitchen and finally up another steep set of hidden stairs, we were in the attic, at home, walking distance to the Parting Glass, cheap rent. It was sweet.
Belmont Park Jump Analysis and Picks
The September nap is over. Time to open the blinds and read the form. It’s time for the autumn steeplechase schedule. The ST handicappers took the summer off (tending to The Saratoga Special and other projects) but we’re back with two races at Belmont Park Thursday and a full weekend of races at Shawan Downs and Foxfield.
2017 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Shug McGaughey
Shug McGaughey did the ultimate Stable Tour in The Special back in 2004 when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Shug’s 32 Flavors began with Inside Information and finished with Aldiza, with everything else in between. Just McGaughey talking about the horses who shaped his career. (Originally published in the Sept. 2 edition of The Saratoga Special.)
Goodbye
You’d think this would be the easy one. I’ve written this one every year since 2001, the final blank page, the final goodbye. The old feel-good, get-out-of-town farewell, the last swipe across the canvas, push back the chair, marvel for a moment and turn off the lights. As my Uncle Lew always said, “When you get up to go. Go.”
I’m going.
Missing You
It’s that time of year. Time for the annual ‘I’ll miss, I won’t miss.’
I’ll miss seeing The Special at the Morning Line Kitchen. I won’t miss The Special blowing off the tables at the Morning Line Kitchen.
I’ll miss Joe and Tom’s enthusiasm and respect for the craft. I won’t miss Joe and Tom walking around the office at midnight saying, “…only Sean’s column left.”
For the Moment
Aron Wellman lobbied hard. “That’s got to be the moment of the meet. Come on…it is for me.”
It was minutes after Catholic Boy provided Jonathan Thomas with his first win at Saratoga, in the Grade 3 With Anticipation no less. Your first win and your first stakes win at Saratoga, that’s a hell of a moment. Wellman, a client and a friend (perhaps not in that order) of Thomas’, helped to convince the 37-year-old to run a few horses off his Bridlewood base, the plan percolated, crawled and burgeoned with a stakes win at Saratoga.
