Join The Saratoga Special Readers Club for exclusive access to news, swag, discounts, special events and more
Sean Clancy 
Rabbit, rabbit, it’s the first of October. Wow, what a day of racing. From coast to coast, Flintshire and A. P. Indian at Belmont Park, California Chrome and Beholder at Santa Anita and everything in between. Put the dog out, send the kids to the neighbors, pay the yard man extra, do nothing but enjoy a day of stars. Here’s your Saturday Special for Oct. 1, presented as usual by Pin Oak Stud.
Keri Brion told Jimmy Day her plan for the Foxfield feature. Standing in the paddock Sept. 25, the apprentice jockey explained to the veteran trainer how she was going to settle the 7-year-old Irish-bred behind expected frontrunner Bau Bai Gold.
“Good luck,” Day said, with a smirk.
Sean McDermott had a choice for the timber feature at Shawan Downs Sept. 24. Jack Fisher aimed three horses at the $25,000 fall opener and gave the Irish-born jockey his choice between Two’s Company, Straight To It and Ballylifen.
“Cheers Sean…Just got out of op not feeling to bad now!”
That was the text from Jack Doyle, delivered at 12:02 Friday morning, after a crashing fall from Rudyard K in the novice stakes at Belmont Park Thursday afternoon. Doyle suffered two small fractures in the front of his pelvis and a fractured coccyx (tailbone). Atop the standings, Doyle is now grounded with rides like Rawnaq going up in flames, Doyle’s name scratched off today’s overnight like yesterday’s sandwich special.
Stash it under your hat brim while watching youth sports, fold it in your shirt sleeve while eating dinner, email it to yourself and take a gander when you can. Laurel and Parx put on Broadway-worthy cards while there’s action all over the country, the world. Songbird is just part of the show. Here’s this week’s edition of Saturday Special presented by Pin Oak Stud. Good luck and enjoy. Enjoy.
Yes, there is life after Saratoga. Well, some life. Tom Law is in the woods. Joe Clancy is at a swim meet or cross country meet or some kind of meet (though he spent Friday visiting Pennsylvania’s Crane Thoroughbreds for a feature in Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred’s October edition). Sean Clancy’s still at it, heading to Laurel Park and bringing you The Saturday Special – including stakes-studded action from Kentucky Downs and Laurel Park. As always, it’s presented by Pin Oak Stud (home of the best A-B-C stallion lineup in the country with Alternation, Broken Vow and Cowboy Cal).
Timing is everything. At The Special, we like to time things just right. Scheduling a Stable Tour with Leah Gyarmati Friday morning was good timing. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Sept. 3 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
Kent Sweezey accepted congratulations yet again from the woman holding the rope, funneling people into the winner’s circle. She’s been there all meet, always applauding, always congratulating – everybody. Upbeat, she congratulates owners, trainers, writers…if you’re well dressed and walking to the winner’s circle, you’re a winner to her.
And then there was one. The last page in the last paper, I think I’ve been here before, trying to find the words for the long goodbye.
It’s down to this, the pressure of one final deadline and the levity of one final deadline. Tomorrow, I’ll watch races but my voice recorder will be at home, I won’t scramble around trying to figure out where the winner’s watching the race, I’ll simply enjoy a race like everyone else. I’ll laugh at things people say, but I won’t wonder if I can print them. I’ll eat a real meal at a real table and go to bed when I want, instead of when the paper allows. That goes for Tom, Joe and the rest of The Special team who have brought you this year’s volume of work, our 16th loop on this crazy ride.
It’s that time of year. Time for the annual – or at least occasional – ‘I’ll miss, I won’t miss,’ from Saratoga. I have a list, you have a list, everybody has a list as Saratoga fades away for another season. With all its energy and charm, Saratoga brings stress and angst. There is nowhere else where we are so on for so long. It’s not love/hate, as I will never hate the place, for me, it’s miss/won’t miss.
