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Some people envy Steve Asmussen. Others pity him. Some congratulate Larry Jones. Others console him. Some days Asmussen wants to be Jones. Other days, Jones wants to be Asmussen.

Robby Albarado has been that guy before. The hunted. The target. The jockey on the favorite. The man with the horse to beat.

Bill Mott stopped his pony along the outside rail of the Oklahoma training track Friday morning. The Hall of Fame trainer had something to say to future Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Larry Jones, riding long and looking like he outgrew his pony, lobbedKodiak Kowboy a circuit of the Saratoga main track Friday morning.

Your horse flips in the paddock and gets scratched – hits his head, wrenches his neck, scares himself. What do you do?

Andrew Rosen and Marty Wolfson came to Saratoga, confident, for theTest Aug. 8. First Passage turned her head at the break, bobbled andthe Grade I went up in smoke. The second choice rallied to finishfourth.

The banners on Broadway say “Run like a girl,” and now I know what theymean. Until Monday morning I had never seen Rachel Alexandra run otherthan on television.

Six more racing days. Four more issues. Then shut the lid, Saratoga 2009 will be over.  Under the lid, this is what I’ll remember:

The tone blares like it always does from the Verizon BlackBerry World Edition – Alarm_Antelope, medium, two beeps, 10 minute snooze. Time to make the doughnuts. The Travers edition seems like it just went to the printer, it was raining then. It’s raining now, 5:10 a.m. There she is on the porch, Quality Road on the cover, stacked and ready for Travers Day.

Tim Ice walked out of the Trustees Room after the Travers and wanted to correct one thing.