News

I hear Tom Durkin’s tone before I catch his words. You can tell when something bad happens, like when Doing Great died on the turn. You can tell when something good happens, like when Alex Solis slid through on the fence aboard Emerald Beech. You can tell when something crazy happens, like when the steeplechase race starts with 3 minutes still on the minutes-to-post clock. You can tell the enormity – good or bad – before his words come out, just by the lilt, the pall or the inflection. He’s the best in my lifetime.

The one-word name was legend around our house – Kelso. A horse that was more winged bird or mythic creature than Thoroughbred. He won five (5!) consecutive Horse of the Year titles from 1960-64. He won five (5!) consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup when the race crowned champions with its 2-mile distance and late fall scheduling. He earned $1.97 million back when it was real money.

Christophe Lorieul was in the paddock at Arlington Park, putting the saddle on two-time male turf champion Gio Ponti for the Grade I Arlington Million. Half a continent away, the horse’s stablemate Winchester roared down the stretch to win the Grade I Sword Dancer at Saratoga.

Old racetrackers used to say a horse that could roll over on both sides without getting up was worth at least a hundred dollars – something like that anyway.

You never know who you might sit next to in Saratoga, or anywhere really. I went to the Hall of Fame ceremony Friday and sat upstairs – almost dead center – and far away from the tables reserved for the press off to the side.

If David and JoAnn Hayden didn’t go to a horse show at Fair Hill, Md. in 1973 . . . If Ron Alfano didn’t claim Safely Home in 1980 . . . If Charlie McGinnis wasn’t so protective of his stallion Horatius . . . Safely Kept would not be going into the Hall of Fame today.

The golf cart pulled up to Terry Oliver by the quarter-pole gap on the main track Wednesday and a simple question came from the driver. “Where’s the big guy?”

“It’s OK, Dad. I’ll pat your back.”

And, with that Miles Clancy, 2 1/2, departed Saratoga.

Dad would have been proud.

Tuesday morning, I wrapped up an interview that meandered to and from horses, motor homes, the Civil War, California weather, college golf scholarships and Virginia grass with trainer Tom Proctor and walked up the road between barns at Oklahoma.

Editor’s Note: The characters in this story – some of them anyway – are real or close to real. The story itself? Well, it could happen.

Archie is where he always is on Tuesday afternoons, the bus. Driving, stopping, opening the door, closing the door, driving, opening the door.