Tom Law

Rudy Rodriguez leaned his elbow atop the rail in the winner’s circle, his chin resting in his palm and eyes pasted to the big screen in the center of the infield. The giddy, sociable trainer kept to himself, motionless as the pack rounded the far turn.

Matt Skelly got introduced to Little Red Feather Racing through word of mouth.

The midpoint came and went over the weekend and the fourth week of the 2017 Saratoga Race Course meeting comes to a close with a nine-race card Monday.

 It’s about 4:45 p.m. Sunday and the Saratoga Race Course paddock is loaded with a few hundred horsepeople and fans here to see the 2-year-old colts before the 112th running of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes. The late-afternoon sun beats down on the scene, making the 81-degree heat unbearable for most. As the trees cast their organic, rounded shadows on the carpet of grass, they created dark, inkblot-shaped refuges for the droves to escape the sun.

Late Friday morning the sales barns at Fasig-Tipton were humming. By the afternoon they were packed. Yearlings were everywhere. Consignors hustled and agents stacked up waiting to look at horses in lines almost as long as TSA security at LaGuardia International Airport on a weekday morning.

Good horses frequently bring out-of-town trainers to Saratoga Race Course. Kentucky-based Michael Tomlinson has trained plenty of good horses, but a Saratoga winner has eluded him from limited attempts.

David vs. Goliath. Phil Schoenthal vs. Todd Pletcher. D Hatman Thoroughbreds vs. Gainesway. Sheldon Russell vs. Javier Castellano.

Goliath won this time.

Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. finds it superstitious to check the sales results in real time during the course of a session. He’s been around long enough to know that things can change quickly and long enough to get a general sense of how the session is faring as horses come and go in the sales ring.

The fourth week of the 2017 Saratoga Race Course meeting springs into gear with a 10-race card Wednesday topped by the $100,000 New York Stallion Series Statue of Liberty and a competitive steeplechase handicap.

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings got off to an extremely solid start Monday on a night that might not have been ideal for fireworks in the sky but produced a few explosions inside the sales pavilion.