The Inside Rail

Long weekend coming to a close. Sure, Monday morning feels like part of the weekend. Well, this part of Monday morning, when I’m at the computer, fresh-brewed coffee, wife and son asleep and a blank screen to fill. In a bit, when I walk to the barn to feed Gameboy and bring in Apse, Eagle … Read more

Race Day. Up early, with a to-do list and a departure time. Off to Willowdale for a seven-race card. Weather forecast improving in Pennsylvania while it’s drizzling here in Middleburg. Car full of hats, boots, jackets. Hopefully, they stay there. But it is Willowdale when the weather seems to play lead role more often than … Read more

As Coach Tom Law says, “The miles don’t run themselves.” I need deadlines. Everybody needs deadlines.  3.161825726141079. That’s the average daily mileage for the rest of the year to achieve the iRun Local Challenge.  Time to get to work.   

The barn awaits. Every Monday.  Like a tollboth.  Overcast, a little rain last night, enough to water the grass, settle the dust, that’s all.  Riverdee’s Lemonade Thursday finished third, ran OK, got a little tired but was no match for Repeat Repeat and Animal Kingston at Middleburg Saturday. Gibralfaro learned how to handle the Alfred … Read more

If the wind shifts the right way and the announcer senses a photo finish, we can hear the call from our front porch. The Middleburg Spring Races and its fall counterpart, the Virginia Fall Races, at Glenwood Park serve as our local venue, our corner pub. A couple of miles by car and shorter by … Read more

Fighting a development down the street. Middleburg Preserve. Isn’t it ironic. A housing development named for exactly what it’s destroying.  Here’s an excerpt from my 2 1/2-minute speech, er, plea, to the Board of Supervisors last week.  We want an emergency zoning change in St. Louis, this is simply to right a wrong, to follow the 2019 … Read more

An editor once told me, stop apologizing for not writing and write. Well, here’s a quick apology, sorry, I’ve been absent lately and I’ll get writing. Brutal weekend.  We made the agonizing decision to put down Teddy Sunday night. An old soul, part of our family, a stoic, singular character who lived his best life … Read more

Life on a horse farm. Life and death on a horse farm. That’s the way it feels every day, just trying to keep horses, goat and cats alive. Annie takes the brunt of it, making the decisions, all the decisions. The feed chart, the blanket plan, the turn-out routine…so many decisions. Most work. Some matter.  … Read more

Monday morning brought the brutal news that amateur jockey Lorna Brooke had died from a fall at Taunton.  But for the grace of God go I… A 36-year-old mainstay in the amateur ranks, Brooke drove the box, groomed the horse, rode the horse, cooled the horse out, drove the horse home and poulticed the horse, … Read more

Chris Gracie pulled his tack off Include It after finishing second in the maiden timber at Piedmont in April. “You know, Sean, he’s got gears,” Gracie said after riding the 6-year-old Maryland-bred for trainer Todd Wyatt and Riverdee. A maiden on the flat track for Fitzhugh and Mike Trombetta, a maiden in training flat races … Read more