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Sean Clancy We’ve had better starts. We’ve had worse starts.
The printer broke in the middle of the night of the first print run. We sleep while it prints, like waiting for Santa Claus, most mornings, we wake up and there’s the paper on the porch. Sometimes, Santa gets re-routed, grounded or off course and the tree is bare when we wake up.
Fozzy Stack took a long deep drag on his cigarette and walked toward the end of the barn where assistant Craig Allen was grazing Lake George hopeful Diamond Fields Thursday morning. The bay filly stood still and stared across the paddock fence.
“You’re running a little late this morning…?”
That was my first greeting Thursday morning in Saratoga. It was 6:33.
“You’re just getting to work now…?”
That was my second greeting Thursday morning in Saratoga. It was 6:46.
Let the games begin.
The car is half packed. Ran out of daylight yesterday, so now an Espresso machine, two bags of shirts and a Saratoga Special jacket sit in the hallway while my Subaru Outback waits in the driveway.
The wave is about to crash. Saratoga has started to consume us. I wrote this for the Irish Field last week.
Barclay Tagg called. The Kentucky Derby trainer doesn’t call often, actually, ever. We made small talk, he eventually got to his point, correcting a story that I (luckily) didn’t write and then we made more small talk.
“You ready for Saratoga?” Tagg asked.
I hesitated, really, didn’t say anything, just let it hang there, a throwaway line that wouldn’t go away.
“Yeah, I guess none of us are ever ready for Saratoga…” said Tagg, answering his own question. “It just happens, no matter if you’re ready or not.”
The long weekend of fireworks – on and off the track – starts now. Gulfstream hosts a plate of stakes, Belmont Park offers the Mother Goose, Prairie Meadows continues its weekend stakes festival and we even discovered action at Albuquerque and Arapahoe. Here’s your Saturday Special for the first Saturday of July.
It was 1999 and I trapped Russell Baze in a clubhouse box at Saratoga. The 41-year-old jockey had been inducted into the Hall of Fame that morning, presented a trophy that afternoon and was flying back to northern California in the morning. If people are down to Earth, Baze is the Earth, humble, low-key, just a regular guy wondering why he was being interviewed.
Monmouth Park is in hard times. Handle’s down, fighting politicians, competition everywhere, down to three days a week, a track from a bygone era needing a lifeline.
Or, so I hear.
Inti might not have become Invasor for Shadwell and Kiaran McLaughlin. But, he did become the horse who changed everything for Cyril Murphy.
The final serving. Royal Ascot’s five-day extravaganza comes to a close with another six-race menu of 2-year-olds, distance and sprint handicaps, Group 1 sprinters and a stamina-zapping 2 3/4-mile handicap. Aidan O’Brien leads all trainers with five wins while Frankie Dettori, with four wins, holds a one-race lead over Ryan Moore.
