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Tom Law 
The road rolls along – less than two weeks until Cheltenham and about two months until the Kentucky Derby – as this week’s Saturday Special presented by Pin Oak Stud sets the stage for a monster afternoon in South Florida, a useful prep in New York and a smattering of other stakes around the country.
The lights flickered and the screen of my office iMac went dark just after 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
New Orleans is in the spotlight this week – not for Mardi Gras, even though it’s next week – but as the latest stop on the Kentucky Derby trail. A loaded card at Fair Grounds highlights this week’s edition of The Saratoga Special presented by Pin Oak Stud and there’s plenty of lagniappe at other racetracks around the world to keep you occupied.
Festivals here, festivals there; we’ve got them all covered for the most part in this week’s edition of Here & There. The Maryland Jockey Club rolled out a spread for its Winter Festival at Laurel Park last weekend, minus the winter of course, and the Cheltenham Festival is closing in quickly.
The two names became forever linked that fateful afternoon, June 5, 1999, at Belmont Park, and ever since it’s impossible to mention one without the other. Charismatic and Chris Antley. Chris Antley and Charismatic.
There’s an old saying out there that the cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea. Someone needs to come up with one about sunshine, too, because as winter set in for good in the Northeast the last few weeks a little bit of the bright stuff is undoubtedly a tonic for anything that ails.
President’s Day weekend and possibly another three-day weekend rolls in this week and with it another packed day of action on racetracks from Ascot to Aqueduct, Gowran Park to Gulfstream Park.
Old Man Winter reared his ugly head again this week, blanketing a large swath of the Northeast with snow, perfectly timed to give a good excuse to hunker down inside and cue up some top-tier racing. This week’s edition of The Saturday Special presented by Pin Oak Stud starts with a loaded card overseas at Newbury, winds its way to the U.S. for a major Kentucky Derby prep at Tampa Bay Downs, ventures out west and finally wraps with a big night of state-bred stakes at Delta Downs.
While the sun cherishes its last hour of slumber, Joe McMahon silences his 5:45 a.m. alarm and rolls out of bed, pulling on a green quilted jacket and brown driving cap as he leaves his cozy brick home for a brisk 10-degree Sunday morning at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds just outside Saratoga Springs.
Not much to look at. Pretty plain. A touch of attitude and opinion. Quirky. But a horse I will never forget.
