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Tom Law 
Opening Day of the Keeneland fall meeting featured a little bit of what everyone of sound mind and spirit would want – great racing, beautiful weather, an enthusiastic crowd and plenty of time to socialize and soak in the spirit of the season. It also featured at bit of Fair Hill flair, as the winners of the day’s two feature races raided in from Cecil County, Maryland, and punched their respective tickets to next month’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
The Horse Who Changed Everything for me never ran in a stakes race and I never cashed a ticket on him. He finished in the money a lot (32-for-56) in his Midwest pari-mutuel career, but I never saw any of those races.
I met Karen’s Look in August of 1975 at the Effingham County Fair in my hometown of Altamont, Illinois. He was a 6-year-old Illinois-bred, and so was I.
The Breeders’ Cup now less than five weeks away and one could really get a sense the World Championships was near as October opened with a Saturday filled with stars.
A significant amount of rain is expected Friday into Saturday, just in time for the first of two Super Saturday cards at Belmont Park that not surprisingly attracted more than its fair share of stars from the recently concluded Saratoga Race Course meeting.
The end of an era passed with barely a whimper August 31 as Rockingham Park closed its doors for the last time.
Rockingham, slated to be torn down and redeveloped into another housing project and shopping complex, was originally built as a poor man’s Saratoga. It was the summer place for horsemen to escape Suffolk Downs during the heat of summer with horses not quite good enough for Saratoga.
The crew from This Is Horse Racing and The Saratoga Special awoke from their very brief post-Saratoga respite, got out and about in recent weeks and filled up their notepads and voice recorders with plenty of quips and quotes.
Todd Pletcher’s spot in the Hall of Fame is as close to an absolute lock as there is in racing. He’s won seven Eclipse Awards, three U.S. classics, three Canadian classics, 10 North American earnings titles, nine Breeders’ Cup races and 145 Grade 1 stakes. Yes, 145.
Tepin knew something was up the moment E. J. Bowler walked out of the office, a sweet potato bigger than a Chipotle burrito and knife in hand, after training wrapped up Thursday morning at the Casse Stables’ barn at Saratoga Race Course.
Robbie Davis watched Ribbonite dash through the stretch to win the $116,775 Lady Fingers Stakes about two weeks ago and immediately flashed back nearly 18 years to one of his biggest wins as a jockey for one of the most respected horseman of all time.
Jovial, witty and distinctly British, 33-year-old U.K. transplant Tom Morley recently enjoyed his best Saratoga Race Course meeting highlighted by two graded stakes victories by Haveyougoneaway.
