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Todd Wyatt heard my stress. It was a couple of weeks before Saratoga and I was feeling the pinch, the impending metamorphosis of farm life to city life, leaving my wife, my son, my farm, my routine for the great Saratoga stakeout – 35 issues in 46 days. Overwhelmed and understaffed, everything will change.

The Dirty Dozen. Twelve Angry Men. Baker’s dozen. Cheaper by the dozen. Twelve pack. Ten and two. Two touchdowns, no extra points. Four field goals. Double sixes. Tom Brady, Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw.

Charlie Lopresti stood in front of the big screen with Reeve McGaughey, Kelly Wheeler and Damien Rock to watch the Fourstardave early Saturday evening. 

Tweed coat folded over his right arm, just a few feet to the right of Get Stormy’s trainer Tom Bush, Lopresti watched confidently as his Wise Dan found a stalking spot, then trepidly as Wise Dan got bottled up on the turn, then awed as Wise Dan snuck inside Get Stormy, passing the eighth pole in overdrive. Wise Dan opened up effortlessly, accelerating through the yielding turf to win by 5 lengths. Strides before the wire, Lopresti began walking, fist held high, then slammed it down like a high school principal handing out a detention.

Kate Fitzpatrick and Bernie Dalton met at Saratoga. She worked for Jonathan Sheppard. He worked for Kiaran McLaughlin. At the end of the year, she went home to Pennsylvania. He went off to Dubai.

They’ve been together ever since.

It was 1990. John Velazquez and I were kids in the jocks’ room, trying to make it in Saratoga. I think Snook had his tack, straight ahead in the old room, I was just down the wall with Denny McCabe and Chop Chop. I’d come in twice a week, spend four hours in the box and four minutes on the track. Velazquez came in every day, went about his business, quiet, focused, his only mistake was when he made premature five-wide moves on the turf (he learned).

Class.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony – no matter who gets inducted or how long the speeches last – is about class.

The class of the past inductees showing up every year. They wear their blazers, come to the front of the room, get saluted once more.

Roger Attfield sat down between two radio hosts, maneuvered a headset over his ears, held his Hall of Fame plaque in his lap and began to answer questions, as quietly, politely, delicately as he’s trained his horses for the past 42 years. The British-born, Canadian-based trainer joined Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame Friday morning.

He trained Damascus, Tom Rolfe, Forego, Ruffian and other horses great and not-so in a career that lasted nearly 50 years. Along the way, he trained people including fellow Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Barclay Tagg, Kip Elser and more. Legendary trainer Frank Whiteley died in 2008 at 93, but he still comes to mind whenever anyone thinks of old-school horsemen.

We don’t get much mail at The Special. So far this summer we’ve received a couple pairs of shoes, a schedule from the water company, some way cool CDs from Bob “the Music Man” Buika, a computer hard drive and a plain white envelope from Paul Asward of Waterford, N.Y.

So, how’s it going up there? Nearing the halfway point, the question is asked over and over, from a variety of sources.