It is the morning of the Whitney. Three heavyweights to fight it out this afternoon: Knicks Go, Maxfield and Swiss Skydiver.
Eric Saull, who is up with Kenny McPeek’s string, spilt the beans about Skydiver - and King Fury in another Grade 1 on the card, the Saratoga Derby Turf invitational. Or did he? Can I trust him, or is he a double agent, feeding me misinformation? It’s a tough call with Saull, who I knew when I was assistant with McPeek and Saull walked hots. He is a big fan of Swiss Skydiver.
My son, Jack Gilligan, who is a jockey, and I wandered around the barns again in the morning. We spoke with Sean Clancy, of the Saratoga Special, for a while, everyone greeted Jack. Christophe Clement said to please keep him in mind if he ever moves on from race riding.
I wanted to show Jack the horse path on the Oklahoma training track. I have told him before he could scatter my ashes there. He asked if next Tuesday worked.
I loved walking up and down the pathway with the horses in the misty dawn, the air cool on my skin, surrounded both sides by giant firs and pines. it is a timeless place.
It was a timeless place anyway. Now the horse walk is gone, or at least half gone. They widened the track and cut down the row of trees nearest the outside rail. A travesty in my opinion. Now I suppose my ashes will just blow straight onto the track and be ploughed into it at first break. A bit disappointing, to me at least.
It was only a question of time, but that Saturday afternoon Steve Asmussen did it. He became the winningmost Thoroughbred racehorse trainer in North American history. Maybe world history.
For a trainer, Asmussen is relatively young still. He may leave a record truly untouchable. He was young when he started. He has his father and brother helping him. The whole family seem involved, so it was good to see him at the track with his family, receiving congratulations.
I didn’t want to put a damper on the day, but since I am around Asmussen’s age and my son is around his son’s age, the uncomfortable question left hanging in the air is: What the hell had I been doing as a trainer all those years, achieving so little when he has achieved so much.
“Asmussen has trained more than 30,000 losers, son. Your dad barely lost 500 races in his whole career. And anyway, I have a mind to start again, who knows …” He knows.
We were in the paddock later. We spoke briefly with Christophe Clement again. He asked me what I was up to now. I told him I was open to offers. He just smiled.
Maxfield must be one of the most handsome colts in the nation. He is a knockout - big, dark, imposing. I love seeing the good ones in the paddock. Maybe the good dirt horses are the most handsome of all Thoroughbreds.
Angular, powerful, brooding Maxfield walked by using his powerful stride, his neck arched, his eyes shining and liquid. The gray Knicks Go is smaller, less imposing, at the walk at least. But he can run. Big is impressive, but it is all about power-to-weight ratio, who has the best heart and lungs relative to their size.
Swiss Skydiver, the Preakness-winning filly, a powerful chestnut, is a little washed out today, a bit fresh, her campaign has had interruptions this year, after a busy 2020. She thrived on a busy campaign last year. Maybe she is a little too fresh today, whatever she does today, she should come on for the race. (In the event, she finished fourth of the five starters behind 4½-length winner Knicks Go. Maxfield was second.)
After the races, everyone headed over to Fasig-Tipton. The sales company right across the street from the track was throwing a party and everyone was invited. Food and drink and live music laid on for anyone who wished to attend.
Mark Casse’s emotional speech
The previous day, the Hall of Fame Awards presentations took place in the Fasig Tipton Pavilion. I strolled down and was there for Mark Casse’s acceptance speech (he was a 2020 inductee but there was no ceremony at the time so this was a joint 2020/21 event). His speech was funny and moving, and he was by turn laughing and crying. His owners have become his friends, and Casse seems like a fun and loyal one.
One of his owners recounted his first dealings with Casse. The owner had made a list of a bunch of fillies at the sales he was interested in. Casse took the list, looked at it, crumpled it up and threw it away. And he bought him two colts for $5,000 each.
A while later, the owner received a 7.30am call from Casse. Early morning calls from trainers are often bad-news calls. The owner answered warily.
This time Casse said those two colts had been going well and in fact someone had just offered them $60,000 for the pair. “Well maybe we should think about taking it?” The owner ventured cautiously.
“Oh, we did take it,” said Casse. “I was just calling to ask you where you want the check sent.”
Casse said he first visited the Hall of Fame with his father, also a trainer, in 1972 at the age of 11. He said he told his dad then that he would be in the Hall Of Fame one day. He cried when he recounted that his father replied, “Yes Mark, you will.”