DISCOVERING AN OLD PASSION IN THE BUCKET

FINDING THOSE WINNING PARLAYS AT  THE  SARATOGA  MEET

Television has finally done an enormous service to racing fans.   On cable FOX  SPORTS is showing daily live from Saratoga the  running of the races  in the  Summer Meet that culminates with the Travers in late August.

What a different  experience than those usually provided  when the major networks condescend to show and  trivialize the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont and the Preakness,
The comments from the three touts who were sitting and discussing each horse and each  race and then picking their favorite were a revelation of knowledge and love of the sport.

The program included features I have never seen before. One I liked was  called JOCK TALK and it would feature one of the jockeys that were riding in the race.  They were brief but often revealing and allowed the  viewer to get a sense of what racing looks like from the Jockey's perspective. 

 One of my father's saying was that Jockey's win races.  And I like the respect that was shown to the jockeys.  Also the show looked at the Backside of the track and the lives of all the people who work in and around the stables and horses and make the sport possible.

 One of the great aspects of going to the Meeting at Keeneland is that  if  you go early, you can go to the Backside of the track and have the breakfast that is being served to the workers that day.  I loved doing that and do not know if it is available at Saratoga.  But again it makes the  race goer more aware of  what goes on to make the racing spectacle possible.

There was also some attention paid to the providing of child care at Saratoga for the track workers.  This is so important because  there is a  large transient group that goes from meeting to meeting just as the horses and jockeys do.  But their families go with them.  It seems to me that it is a great innovation  for Saratoga to pay attention to the child care needs of the  worker.

My favorite jockey--- years ago when I moved to Cincinnati  in 1984 where there are several nearby tracks in Kentucky -- was the great Pat Day.  I looked online to see what news  he has made recently  knowing that  he has retired. Sure enough-- he has continued to  bless the sport he loves by starting a  chaplaincy and a chapel at Churchill Downs in Louisville. So again a sense of the spiritual needs of the people that  work or go to the track.

SO--no it is not my father's track--it  is better, and I am glad to see the news of those brilliant super athletes--horses and jockeys that carry the colors to victory.

THANKS Again to SARATOGA and also to FOX SPORTS

Once when someone asked my father what he did, I recall his quick answer that made my mother laugh out loud--
I FOLLOW THE HORSES.

After he left us, late at night when I was missing him and trying to fall asleep, I would picture him walking down some country road behind a  line of horses.