Opinion

The date is marked on the calendar, more of a reminder than a celebration. April 3 marks another milestone in our lives – officially one year in Saratoga Springs.

Board meetings. All day. Volunteer board meetings. Pushing elephants up the stairs. Quick trip to Saratoga for the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Awards Dinner Tuesday, good trip to the Spa, still plenty of snow, the racecourse a desolate looking shell below the metal-color sky. The red and white of summer nowhere to be seen. Apse … Read more

Big day Saturday, racing around the world. Matt Coleman and I have downloaded form from around the world. If you had to throw the dice and pick a place, you’d struggle. Somehow, we are going to Laurel Park. Yes, Laurel Park. We’ll watch simulcasts from around the world. Meydan for the Dubai World Cup. Doncaster … Read more

I was arguing with another writer about my adoration for the horse trainer. Not necessarily an adoration of a particular horse trainer but the adoration of the horse trainer as a whole. The eclecticism, the individuality, the melting pot of the profession. The other writer – just kicked around by a trainer – wasn’t getting what I was saying.

Reality. The Cheltenham Festival has come and gone for another year. Home now, jet-lagged and wide awake at 4 in the morning, shoulders and shins sore from riding out each morning at George Baker’s, broke from gambles and gambits and deflated from knowing nothing will get my heart racing like seeing Valdez rise with the leaders at the second-to-last fence in the Arkle. It’ll be fun when it is our turn.

Drama. Daryl Jacob wins his first race of the meeting, then breaks his knee when Port Melon crashes into the running rail on the way to the start of the next. Davy Russell, fired in mid-season by Gigginstown, wins three on the day, two for Gigginstown and the Gold Cup on longshot Lord Windermere for … Read more

Three down. One to go. Gold Cup Day. Bobs Worth tries to win his second in a row while Silviniaco Conti tries to salvage a tough Festival for Paul Nicholls and erase a going-well-at-the-time fall in last year’s Gold Cup. Bobs Worth has proven it – albeit on softer ground – while the others still need to prove it.

Dad and Sheila on their way home. Annie and Stella about to be on their way home. It’s about to be my Cheltenham again. I’ll see horses today. Another classic day at Cheltenham yesterday as the father/son team of Gary and Jamie Moore combined to win the Queen Mother with Sire de Grugy. As we … Read more

I’ve said it over and over, a mantra learned and relearned – all you want in this game is that moment when it can actually happen. That moment when your horse is in the right place, he’s traveling, it’s going as planned, you can see it. Many times, you don’t get that moment, things are going asunder from the moment the flag drops, the gate opens, and you can’t possibly imagine a positive outcome. You don’t shout, hell you don’t utter a sound, you stand in utter disappointment, without a moment. In with a shout. That’s all you want.

Update. I survived two lots at George Baker’s this morning. They asked if I wanted to school Sinbad The Sailor, I gave it a long thought and passed. In the words of my old college roommate, Paul Wasserman, it is something I would have liked to have done. Ah well, discretion is the better part of valor or something like that.

I wrote the following hours earlier, also on front page of website. Enjoy.

It is here. Opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. The first of the four best days of racing. Champion Hurdle Day. Arkle Day. It’s 3:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I slept soundly for a couple of hours, then bolted up, awake, wired, revving. Bring it on.