Tom Law

The people behind the scenes – the folks that often don’t appear in press notes, winner’s circle photos or get their names bandied about on social networking sites or racing blogs – are usually the most important factors to the success or failure of a racing stable.

All was quiet inside Barn 83 on the Oklahoma Training Track grounds as training hours wound down Wednesday morning. 

Kiaran McLaughlin won’t be on hand when Kentucky Downs hosts its Millions Day program Saturday. In fact, none of the key members of McLaughlin’s team will be anywhere near Franklin, Kentucky, when Side Road goes in the signature event of the program, the $400,000 Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes.

Good size, athletic, talented and fast, Mentor Cane seemed to have it all. Physically speaking, of course.

Mill Creek Farm wears some fancy clothes with its stone wall entrances and barns with wood finished interiors and sliding stall doors. Board fences crisscross the 110 acres of green landscape of the farm in Stillwater, N.Y., not far from Saratoga Race Course.

Imagine interning. Some of you might flash back to the useless days fetching coffee or hours full of boredom spent in a cubicle, but that just simply means you’ve never worked at the Race Track Chaplaincy of America-New York Division.

It’s an imposing racetrack, seemingly rising out of the bay. The San Francisco skyline serves as a backdrop while the Golden Gate Bridge looms further on, shrouded in fog.