Opinion

They say the little things matter, right? I hope so, because the big things can be pretty heavy to carry around. Work, school, stress, money, life, time, age . . . you know the stuff. I’ve been in Saratoga about 10 days, and a handful of little things are way up on my list of highlights (including a hilarious trip to see Minions Tuesday night). A whole lot of big things are at the other end of the list.

Texts. Calls. Yells. Facebook messages. Part requests, part suggestions, part demands, they came quickly and they came often after the last race Sunday. All from racetrackers. And I use the term endearingly.

Florent Geroux leaned on a wooden rail after breezing El Guapo for Dave Carroll Monday morning and was asked a simple question.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Not too good,” Geroux said.

The security guard tells the guy driving the dark blue Chevy Tahoe with the North Carolina plates and the trailer hitch to move, then move again. Finally, with the truck parked by a Dumpster in a spot formerly occupied by a golf cart, Rae Fernandez hops out with a shavings fork a newly purchased blue tarp.

“Paaaaaaaaaaaapppppppeeeeerrrrrrrr”

Every morning for 55 years, the call wafted through the trees, from behind a barn, from the other side of the horse path, at the other end of the shedrow, down the alley. A long, lilting announcement that the Paper Lady had hit your stop on her daily paper route.

Long before she talked to trainers and jockeys after big wins, way before she interviewed football and basketball coaches on the sidelines, far back to when she was just a high-schooler in North Jersey, Jeannine Edwards went to Belmont Park to look for a job.

With her mother.

I hand a robot-themed lunch box to the teenager who runs the front desk at day camp, turn and lean down to hug Miles. I pick him up, squeeze him tight and the long goodbye has finally come to a close. I set him down, wipe a tear out of my eye and look him in the eye. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, buddy.” The bravest 6-year-old (actually 6 ½-year-old as he reminds me most days) looks me in the eye and says, “Dad, it’s just few weeks. Don’t cry about it.” 

The last morning. Off to Saratoga today. The end of summer. By the time I come home, Miles will be back in school, a first-grader. Doing the math, I’ve missed about six months of his life by going to Saratoga every summer since he was born in 2008. I wish I didn’t do that math. … Read more

The serious countdown to Opening Day at Saratoga is in full swing. Probably safe to say it’s been in fast motion for the last few weeks, but after Tuesday it’s single digit days remaining until the 40-day meeting gets underway.

Main Sequence is retired with a bowed tendon. California Chrome is about to be retired because of a bruised cannon bone. Lady Eli stepped on a nail and has laminitis. Good thing bad things come in threes or I’d be worried about Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Tough game.