Add this bit of trivia to the Meadowlake and Ogygian history. I was working in Chicago that summer, it was the year that Arlington burned down. My living quarters were two miles from Arlington and the week I was scheduled to go to Chicago for the remainder of the summer the track burned down.

All racing was then moved to Hawthorne which is completely on the other side of town. Between Rush Street hangovers and the track I didn't have a whole lot else going on that summer. Anyway got to the track for the first race one Saturday and watched a 12-1 morning line horse who was bet down to 5-2, win by TWENTY THREE LENGTHS.

His name Meadowlake.

Flew home a couple of years ago with Juvenal Diaz who rode Meadowlake that day. I asked him how they were able to pull that kind of price off with a horse that fast. He told me Bert Sonnier the trainer never gave the horse a name until the week before the race, and they got his gate card in the dark hours of the morning.

Diaz also told me that the first time he got on this horse he told Bert this horse can absolutely FLY. He swears the horse was as fast Secretariat. They actually wanted to go to Saratoga and run him in the Grade I Hopeful as a FIRST TIME STARTER but were afraid the owner throw a fit if it didn't work out. So they stayed in Chicago and made a nice little score on him that day.

Makes you really want to bet those two year old races today doesn't it.