Opinion

Kendrick Carmouche and his agent, Kid Breeden, set a goal before the meet. Win 10 races. After 14 racing days in their first foray of riding full time at Saratoga, the Mid-Atlantic duo are over halfway there. Six wins, including the Lucky Coin with Shore Runner, the Grade 3 Fasig-Tipton Waya with Goldy Espony and a double Friday.

Marc McLean went to the 2001 Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park, even told some friends from Connecticut to join him. His family’s big horse – well, a big horse his family bred – named Xtra Heat was running in the Sprint. 

John Servis brought his two kids, Blane and Tyler, to Delaware Park for a day’s work. It was 2003, maybe 2004. Blane was 15, 16. Tyler, three years younger. They got out of the car and walked toward the barn and saw a dozen stall screens leaning on the outside posts of the barn.

“What did you learn?”

That’s what I was asked as I crossed Fifth Avenue Thursday morning. The lessons began at 5:30 and kept going until 11:00. Some were about horses and some were about life. As always, there was a lot to learn.

On May 16, 2006…

Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea to formal charges of crimes against humanity.  Richard Hatch, the winner of the first Survivor Series, was sentenced to four years in prison for failing to pay taxes on his reality TV earnings. Barry Bonds chased Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron for the all-time home run title. President Bush said he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the Mexican border. Invasor approached his American debut. The Saratoga Special was three months away from beginning year six. And Jonathan Sheppard unveiled a first-time starter in the fourth race at Delaware Park.

Mike Luzzi stood outside George Weaver’s barn Monday morning. Wearing a helmet, flak jacket, stirrup-leather-worn jeans, Luzzi looked fit, healthy and ready. Nine months and a day from when it all nearly ended.

Luzzi broke his pelvis and his left leg when Tricky Zippy flipped over before the ninth race at Aqueduct in November. The filly has come back to win three times. Luzzi is working on his comeback.

College sports coaches deal with this sort of thing all the time. The door’s always revolving, players are constantly coming and going. Some coaches, like Kentucky’s John Calipari, deal with it on an annual basis. They call what he’s perfected “one and done” around the country and it works pretty well for Cal in the Bluegrass.

We’ve got a bit of a revolving door here at The Saratoga Special.

The full-brothers stand four stalls apart. Big, long, tall. Bone, scope, brawn. Present, alert, regal. Sharp features, blazes like a thick brush to a thin line, white rims around wild eyes. 

Al Khali looks out over his screen in the second stall to the end of Bill Mott’s barn on the Oklahoma side. Five stalls to his left, past Benediction, Privet Hedge, My Miss Sophia and Seek Again stands his little brother, Japan, he looks out over his screen.

You can’t call it a movement yet, or even a groundswell really. No, Racing Gratitude is more like the current flickering in an old neon sign. You know the kind. Zzzpppptttt…Eat at Joe’s…Pttzzzffftt…Rheingold Extra Dry Beer – To Go…Tkkkzzzrrrrmmmtt…Clancy’s Tavern.

“Don’t be a maybe, be a definite. You can write a column about the 5-mile trail!”

Tom Law – The Special’s Quenton Cassidy – forces me to find my running shoes Monday morning. They hadn’t been used for months. Yes, months.