Many moons ago, I would read with interest from faraway the recaps of Uncle Bill's backyard happenings. Having never been to Saratoga, it sounded too good to be true when FrankD would write up the happenings from a Saturday in upstate NY.

Fast forward to yesterday. It is not the same; still, all of us felt that certain magic blowing through the trees shading us next to the paddock. FrankD, that poster from long ago, now a close friend welcomed me to Saratoga on Thursday with information on a horse that "could not lose" on yesterday's card. And, his old pal jimbo66, who also used to post here, was in town for the Jim Dandy weekend with his NJ friend Jim. FrankD had others stop by to hang out during the day as did our group. 3 tables on the Paddock Rail in the Picnic area was the place to be.

But there was No richiebee. No Uncle Bill. It is not the same. But the magic was there. On a $10 total ticket Jimbo66's pal Jim hit the early pick 5 singling the first 3 legs. Meanwhile to start the day, my group of 7 from St. Louis, Baltimore, and Kentucky was worn out from the previous 16 plus hours of me ranting about two things: Bet Pletcher ALL Day Saturday after what I saw in the Amsterdamn and Bet Twinkle Town after watching his work from Churchill that was WOW!! FrankD and Jimbo were busting each other's chops all day, lots of laughs, lots of handicapping arguments, and on and on. We had all varieties of fruit rolling that would have made richiebee proud as that was always one of his pleasures in the backyard. And I saw pastrami sandwiches and fatty burgers getting destroyed by several folks at our 3 tables that would have made Uncle Bill salivate and beg for one of his own.