Well its finally arrived. Tomorrow is “High Octane Saturday”. For my money it is the biggest day in racing. Some will chuckle and make a compelling case for Derby Day, the Travers, the Breeders Cup or even the Dubai World Cup (Yuck) but the import of the 3 and 3/8’s miles about to be run cannot be overstated. All the springtime prepping comes down to showing ability in these races and taking the performance “jump” from them to the next level. There’s no time for backing off now. There’s no time to regroup and change course. Add to the significance the graded stakes earnings requirement and the stage is set for three bang up races. The clues that emerge from these races are added to the clues from the Santa Anita and Illinois Derbies and more recently the Lexington and with them a horseplayer can make his case:

“Eurosilver from mid pack with Castellano.” (Of course that won’t happen this year, but you know what I’m saying.)

I don’t think there’s a bigger day in racing.

Of course, some will be too slow to have much of an impact
And they will be entered to run along near the rear
Though some will say they shouldn’t
But in the blurring half-light of the coliseums
All existence fades to a being with the figures
And histories
And the sound of the tension in the crowd
And a four-prong method
And the hope that the horse will rise
Eventually, all things merge into one; and a horse runs through it.
The horse has lineage with the world’s great stallions
And runs over tracks from the basement of time
At some of the tracks are timeless apparitions
Enveloping the tracks are words
And some of the words are theirs

“He ain’t gonna get there!!!”

I am haunted by furlongs.

My apologies to Norman Maclean

lol

CtC



Post Edited (04-09-04 12:49)