Opinion

Paul Saylor laughs when you ask him how he got into racing, then asks you a question. “You really want to know?” Thirty-odd years ago, Saylor was at a charity auction run by former Texas Gov. John Connally in Houston. The auction items included western art, Santa Gertrudis bull sperm and Quarter Horses. By the end of the night, Saylor hadn’t bought anything so he bid on the last horse in the ring. And kept bidding. Connally loved it.

In the fading light, in the last race, on the final day of the 2013 steeplechase season, Paddy Young secured his fourth championship, becoming the first steeplechase jockey to win four titles since John Cushman in the 80s. Another long year had come to an end for Young, for all jump jockeys. Tack dangling between his left elbow and hip, blood-stained from an earlier fall and running his tongue across his teeth to make sure they were all there, the then 37-year-old veteran admitted he was near the end.

Jay Hovdey walked into the Mt. Washington Tavern two days before the Preakness, ordered a Guinness and tossed me his book, Long Rein, Tales from the World of Horse Racing.

I’ve been reading it ever since. Never more than three pages at a time, drone strikes into the last 15 years of Thoroughbred racing. 

I’m asked all the time, why don’t you train horses? My dad trained horses, my friends train horses, most of the jockeys I rode against are training horses. It makes sense. Ride races, then train horses. Allen Jerkens, Barclay Tagg, Leo O’Brien, to name a few, rode jumpers and made it big training flat horses.

The Ortiz brothers (1 and 1A) are 8-5. Mike Luzzi and John Velazquez are 15-1. Manuel Franco is 2-1. Leading jockey Javier Castellano is 6-1. 

There comes a time.

Valerie Buck, who had a set list of Wait A While, Fleet Indian, Rags To Riches and Octave one morning at Saratoga, broke her neck when a filly slipped and fell on the road near the Oklahoma training track in October, 2009. Buck came back. Had another surgery. Came back. Broke her ankle.

You’ve seen Kieran Norris before. You gasped, you might have screamed. You probably elbowed your neighbor and screamed, “DID YOU SEE THAT!”

It’s all about the kids.

First there was Ryan, then Jack and Jane. Of course, Nolan. Emmy and Lucca made some guest appearances. Chappy, if Nolan was there. Trevor McCarron wanted to hang off the side of the cart like he was auditioning for the X Games. A slew of others, day-trippers and seasonals, hopping in the golf cart and going for a ride.

Honey, they shrunk The Special. If you’re keeping score at home or adding to a collection you’ve kept in your basement over the years, yes The Special is smaller this year.

Happy Birthday James Edward “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons. The Hall of Fame trainer was born on July 23, 1874. We missed it by a day (if reader Dan Haney would have just texted Tuesday instead of Wednesday…) but, technically, I’m typing this on his birthday.