In the Paddock

Carl Nafzger walked down Ludlow Street toward Madison Avenue and the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds the afternoon of Aug. 2 – not long after the 2019 Hall of Fame ceremony he attends every year as an inductee himself in 2008. A catalog from the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select sale in hand, Nafzger went to check out a few yearlings that afternoon before ending his annual Saratoga sojourn.

The looks on the faces of the two men standing on the sidewalk here on Circular Street said it all, after this writer attempted to make light about water percolating out of the ground the morning after the Super Bowl.

Rolling out of bed this morning and the first thing to do – even before pouring that first cup of coffee – was ask Alexa the current temperature.

Rick Violette passed away more than a month ago. That still seems difficult to believe, let alone write. The news of Rick’s passing trickled in the afternoon of Oct. 21 through the usual channels, by phone calls from friends, social media or news reports online, and hit the game hard.

Jane Crager buzzed into The Saratoga Special office Thursday afternoon, new sandwich board in hand and an update on the significance of July 26.

A passport isn’t something needed or even thought about during the course of writing, editing, producing and distributing The Saratoga Special.

The sound of the snowplows outside the window started relatively early, at least by “offseason” standards here in Saratoga. Up and down the nearby streets they went as the coffee pot in the kitchen bubbled and burped.

A thin layer of frost covered the grass and the thermometer read a mere 20 degrees as a red-orange cloud hung high in the sky as the final official day of training in Saratoga started to unfold.