Flatter: Nothing says America’s day like a trip to the racetrack
Happy birthday, America. You look a little rough around the edges, but all in all, not bad for 249. Better than I do at 66.
To observe this auspicious occasion without turning your cake into a cauldron, how about a celebration trip to the track?
By my count there will be 25 courses around the country where races may be watched and heard and smelled and bet on and enjoyed this long weekend.
Flatter Pod: A visit to Fairmount + Spa handicapping.
Saratoga is an obvious choice for anyone within a few hours’ drive of that slice of old-time heaven. Weather forecasts may be as wrong as the nearest handicapper, but here is hoping it is as sunny as promised at the Spa, and the Grade 1s on the turf go forward as planned. I cannot wait to see Nitrogen go Saturday in the Belmont Oaks. I feel like we have a filly on the verge of something really special this second half of the year. This top-level victory can be her springboard.
In case Saratoga is little more than a blip on the map destined to stay on the bucket list for another year, that leaves a couple dozen other possibilities to check out this weekend.
The Indiana Derby (G3) at Horseshoe Indianapolis is a perfectly good candidate for a road trip Saturday afternoon. The same goes for the Cornhusker Handicap (G3) at Prairie Meadows on Saturday night. The heartland is what the Fourth of July weekend is all about.
If it is the Southland that beckons in California, the Great Lady M (G2) at Los Alamitos has Kopion raring to go for her fourth straight graded-stakes win. She might be another champion in waiting. Ah, Katella Avenue in the summer.
Stakes racing does not have to be the real lure this weekend. This is a time when families should be passing along the great rituals like learning to read a form, place a bet and sip a beer. Delinquency be damned. I was ready for it. I just don’t know if my mom was when I tried to teach her.
These rites of passage were supposed for my dad and me more than 50 years ago. That was before our family trip to whatever Northern California racetrack was canceled for alleged inter-sibling misbehavior. As the years went by it became clear that the real reason for the red flag was a lack of money to pay for that vacation. Either that or my parents knew before I did how bad a handicapper I was.
It is humbling to think I may be as close to the end of the road now as I was to the beginning back when our station wagon sat idle in the garage instead of in the parking lot near a clubhouse turn. It was in that spirit that I set out during my vacation last month to visit a couple seldom-seen friends four hours away in St. Louis. Along the way I made a day trip to Fairmount Park.
On a steamy Tuesday, they ran eight races between 1:30 and 5 p.m. local time, and there had to be 2,000 to 3,000 people there. Did I mention it was a Tuesday? And it was unbearably hot.
There is a nice bar that serves as a refuge near the eighth pole, and a bustling, temporary casino that looks permanent with its 271 machines while the real permanent one is on the drawing board, and a lot of air-conditioned areas to step in from the schvitzfest. The joint is 100 years old this year, and the new owners from Accel are tricking out the place almost as quickly as they run races. I would say there is no grass growing beneath their feet. Then again, they want to build a turf course there in the next few years.
I have more about Fairmount on my podcast right now and a story coming early next week. In case there is any question, no, it was not a sponsored visit or anything like that. I just had a bur in my saddle that made me want to take a road trip. Call it a busman’s holiday with horses.
With a little more geographic correctness and a lot more youth, I could see myself drifting off to one of my countless former haunts this weekend. Like Texas. Saturday marks the start of the eight-day meet at the Gillespie County Fair Grounds in Fredericksburg. I think I had some good barbecue in that town when I was living about 90 miles away in Austin.
They have 191 horses entered Saturday and Sunday in 20 races worth a total of $229,100 in purses. There are quarter horses, mostly, with a few Thoroughbred races and one for Arabians. There is even a goat-roping sideshow competition scheduled for Saturday.
It costs all of $10 to get in, $5 for the kids, to sit in the old grandstand, have some hot dogs and a little action on the ponies. To paraphrase the late Harry Caray, you can’t beat fun at the old racetrack.
If not Gillespie or Fairmount or Saratoga, maybe it’s Monmouth or Ellis or Gulfstream or Canterbury or Delaware or Retama. Pick a park. Any park.
It is not just about getting out of the house for some fresh air. One by one we might just plant a seed or two to pass along these joys to new fans. Who knows? Maybe we can prop up this old game for at least one more generation.
Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.