Making The Jim Dandy An Adventure

I had mentioned to my cousin Phil during a recent funeral that we should get together without a big box in the middle of the room. “I’ll throw a birthday party for myself in the summer,” he said in his Irish and Italian whisper. And of course he had to pick the day of the Jim Dandy to be born.  Well that’s alright. I thought because I was going to meet Brian Zipse at the Travers. I’ll catch it on TV, until plans changed. ZATT decided to come up for the Dandy on a four race swing ending with the Haskell in Jersey. I wanted to meet him, he has become an email friend over the last year, since I have been writing for Horse Racing Nation. But I had suggested it to my cousin Phil, so I just couldn’t blow blood off like that. You can’t snake out on kin folk, these are the folks that’ll have to bury me one day.

Then at 9:30 in the morning my sister calls. “Listen, that race doesn’t go off till 6 pm. The party at Phil’s ends at four, do you want to go up to Saratoga with me.” Hell, Yes! So this is cool, I’m going to meet Brian after all. I have already met Matt Shifman, with him showing me the ropes at all three New York race tracks. A fine man as well. It means a lot to me. Writing is something that I love to do and through that I have made some friends. Pretty cool, huh.

However, it was going to be chaotic to have this all work out. I had to travel thirty miles from my North Adams, Massachusetts home, south to a town called Austerlitz, New York to party with my cousins, nieces and nephews. And from there I had to drive another 30 miles into New York to get to Troy so I could park the old yellow truck at my sister’s home. I’m worried about going the distance with my truck. It’s a 2001 Ford time machine that was once an electric company truck so you can imagine the brightest yellow you have ever seen. Mission accomplished the truck made it to Troy.  

On the way up to Saratoga, I read the paper sitting of the passenger side of this flying blue Honda. I thought of how Saratoga is. That on any day, any race, any horse can come in. With that in mind, I looked over the field. I know Tonalist and Wicked Strong were the favorites, but it’s Saratoga and lightening could strike Kid Cruz, and at a half way decent price of 5-1, I was taking the bait. When we got there I told my sister see ya and set out to find Zipse and Siffman. I called Brian’s phone number which he gave me the only time I’ve ever talked to him and when he answered and he told me that he was at Finger Lakes and not at the Spa. He had me for a second (I never said I was bright) and we set up a place to meet.

We walked down the upper grandstand to section W to see some family members that came with me. Matt said it was 3/16 from the finish line, but we got to see Palace Dreams make her move as she slung herself around the turn to home as if she was a carnival ride in the tight little turn on Saratoga’s turf track.

It was time for the Dandy after that. I was not allowed into the paddock because I still had picnic shorts on. So it was there that I said goodbye to my online friends who were great to finally meet. I went and got a spot along the rail and I was able to talk to a starting assistant. His name was Kyle and he told me that he was going into the stall number 2. I ask this giant of a kid what it’s like in the starting gate? Is it scary? “Not for me, but maybe for you. It’s exciting, there’s a lot of bumping in there and yells and calls back in forth. It’s just my job man, I got to go.” It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in the world I would think.

I did what I said I was going to do and put my money across the board on Kid Cruz. Come on, its Saratoga. Crazier things have happened. As you already know that the race is named after one of the biggest upsets in Saratoga history with Jim Dandy beating Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers. That’s why they call it gambling. Kid Cruz broke out of the gate fast and took the lead into the first turn and lost it by the second. He slipped into second place and went into a fourth place funk. He finished third and paid nothing. It was however an adventure. First celebrating with family and meeting new friends after that, was worth the money that I lost on the race…Riders up!