Lexington, KY — It’s a wet, dark and gloomy Sunday morning in Lexington, a stark contrast to last night when the city went crazy when UK upset 10th-ranked Florida 20-13. It is the first time UK beat Florida at home at Commonwealth Stadium/Kroger Field since 1986. The fans stormed the field and then stormed the streets as it was bedlam. And I can tell you that from a first-person experience as it was a wild ride home from dinner.

But I’ll get back to that later.

It was a great Saturday afternoon of racing at The Red Mile, which kicked off with the Anne Doolin Memorial. The race was won by the Tony Alagna-trained, Andy McCarthy-driven Isntitalovelyday and there was a nice gathering in the winner’s circle of several of Anne’s longtime friends. Thanks to Moira Fanning for getting this all done. The group included Suzanne Starbuck and Lynne Myers, my former co-workers at The Red Mile, and Boss Kathy. So it was a nice reunion. Also there was William Coplen, the former longtime GM at The Red Mile, who told me it’d been about 12 years since he was last at the track. It was great catching up with William, who is now sporting the Kit Carson look with his long — and I mean long — red hair under his cowboy hat.

We all went to the dining room for lunch afterward and while I sitting at my window seat, owners Brad Grant and Steve Heimbecher, who had just arrived from Ontario, walked by. They saw me and we waved at each other, and then in race three the Grant-co-owned Nautical Hanover sprung a 46-1 upset in a $110,000 Bluegrass division with Todd McCarthy driving for trainer Tony Alagna. Brad came back up to the dining room where he was welcomed with some applause and I walked over to congratulate him. Brad told me that he thought Nautical Hanover was in the fourth race and didn’t realize it was race three until he heard Gabe Prewitt announce the horse’s name early in the race.

Steve asked me about the headstones that are in the last turn of the infield and after a quick google search I was able to tell him that it is Banker Barker, Miss Bertha Dillon, Lee Worthy and Benelwyn who are buried there.

I confirmed with Cindy Solverson that the gentleman I met the night before at Le Deauvile was indeed her brother. And he was also having lunch in the dining room. So Cindy re-introduced me to her brother, Pat McDonald, who was joined by Mike Patton, Pat Riordan, Ron Yarcuzer (I hope I have all the names right as I can’t read my writing, and they are all former Chicago police officers).

Oliver Williams leads Raised By Lindy and driver Yannick Gingras (wearing Lindy Farms colors) to the winner’s circle after the 2-year-old filly trotter’s 1:52.1 win in a $77,400 Bluegrass division. Chris Tully photo.

I remarked at lunch to Boss Kathy that I was going to get the story of the very large guy who has served as winner’s circle attendant at The Red Mile this year, so when we finished I walked down to talk to him. His name is Oliver Williams and the 31-year-old is from Mississippi, now residing in Brandon. Oliver told me that he bought a horse — the 2-year-old filly pacer Faithful Kenzie — to race at The Red Mile, and that’s how he landed in Lexington.

“I initially bought a horse to try and race here, but she’s probably going to need more training,” Oliver told me. “I started meeting people and they asked if I could help at The Red Mile. Faithful Kenzie didn’t get a chance to race and since we got a late start on things we’ll just try and have a better year next year.”

In addition to harness racing, Oliver told me he is a personal trainer back home in Brandon. I asked if he played any sports. I had heard he wrestled, but he told me he played football.

“I played defensive end for a number of years,” Oliver said. “I went to a junior college straight out of high school and played there a few years and ended up finishing up at Mississippi College.”

As for handling every winning horse at The Red Mile, Oliver told me, “I really enjoy this and appreciate the opportunity. And I enjoy the horses a little bit more than I did playing football.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t note the 1:50.4 win by Team Miller’s Date Night in a $78,400 Bluegrass division, missing the world record for 2-year-old filly trotters set by Mission Brief by just one-fifth of a second. But to be honest, I think we’d be waking up with a new world record of around 1:50 flat as the Todd McCarthy-driven Delilah Hanover appeared well on her way to victory when she made a break in the stretch.

On one of my apron walks I saw twins Greg Wright Jr. and Greg White, and I learned they are confusing Lexington. Greg Wright told me he ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom Friday night and when he went to pick it up, there was no pizza. You see, by a remarkable coincidence, Greg White also ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom. Greg Wright ended up getting his pizza. Whew!

It was late in the card when I suddenly had a panic attack when I looked at my phone and the safari icon had disappeared. I was sitting with Mark Loewe in a grandstand box but he didn’t know what happened, and then I saw Trish Hammond and Winnie Nemeth standing along the wall. I walked over and yelled “HELP!” but at first they too were stumped. But Winnie’s young daughter, Aviana, came to the rescue when she took my phone, tapped a few things, and voila! Safari was back. And Aviana told me what I need to do if it ever happens again.

As I was leaving I saw Joanna Ricci, The Red Mile’s former Twitter person who know works for the Racing Commission. She also catch-paddocks, and picked one up on Saturday from trainer Noel Daley with his Bluegrass 2-year-old filly trotter Danznqueen Hanover. Danznqueen Hanover finished second and Joanna told me that it keeps her record unblemished as she now has three wins and two seconds in five catch-paddocks. If you play hunches, Joanna told me she’s paddocking Beautiful Game in race 10 on Sunday (a Bluegrass division for 3-year-old filly trotters) for trainer Nifty Norman.

Scheduled for 12:20 p.m. today before the start of the card that begins at 1 p.m. is the Dash For Cash, although I believe that with the sloppy conditions the format of the race that matches up Nancy Takter/Dexter Dunn, Yannick Gingras/Sarah Svanstedt, Julie Miller/David Miller, and Makenna Pinske/Andy McCarthy may change. And while we have today’s Dash For Cash, yesterday we had Dash For Dayton.

With several stakes on last night’s card at Hollywood Dayton, which is somewhere around a two or two-and-a-half hour drive north on I-75 from Lexington, several drivers and trainers had to hustle to get there. Yannick Gingras won the last race at The Red Mile and as he was coming back to the winner’s circle I remarked that if Dave Brower asked for an interview he best go on past, and Yannick said he knew as he had to get going.

Trish Hammond had told me that she and her father, Leonard, were accompanying Tim Tetrick on the trip, so I asked if she could get me some travel updates. Trish did a great job, first texting me that they were making great time. I texted back that they hadn’t crossed the rickety old bridge into Cincinnati that could provide problems, but then a short bit later Trish texted that they made it through with no problems. A few minutes after 7 she again texted that they arrived, in plenty of time before Tim’s first drive. I told her they should have stopped for dinner along the way, and then she sent me back an emoji that I’ll have to ask today what it means. Trish — and everybody who made the trip — is probably tired this morning — the last text I received from her was at 2:32 a.m. when they got back to Lexington.

And congratulations Tim on your winning drive — setting a new track record of 1:48.2 behind Lyons Sentinel — currently the sport’s top-ranked horse in the weekly Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll, in the Dayton Distaff Derby.

I said I’d talk about last night’s harrowing ride home from dinner, so here goes: Joe Holloway had invited myself, Nick Salvi, Dave Brower and Dr. Karl Nagle to Jeff Ruby’s, and we moved our first 5:30 reservation to 8 so that nobody rushed. I knew it’d be a good time after the Holloway-trained Early Action won a Bluegrass division in 1:49.4, and it was. Joe was planning to buy, but he told us things became better for him as after he told Marty Granoff–who co-owns Early Action–of his plans, Marty said that he’d pick up the tab. “It was already good for you, but now better for me,” Joe said. After a short wait at the bar area, we were seated in the back room. I had watched the first half of the UK game at home and then figured I’d check my phone for updates. But then a young lady who manages there came back by us and suddenly a big screen came down along the wall with the game on. So we were able to watch the big upset, which led to big cheers in the restaurant when the clock ran out.

Trying to get home was tough as there were people everywhere on the streets. Thankfully, I did not have to go toward State Street as on the news this morning I saw the tons of people celebrating, jumping on roofs and setting couches on fire. There was one video of a pretty big blaze going. Thankfully, I heard this morning that there were no arrests made.
No matter which way you went there were people milling around and heavy traffic. I called Dave Brower to see if he was making progress and he told me he actually went all the way back to Versailles Road to swing back the other way to his hotel on Nicholasville Road. Nick walked back to the place he was staying, I bet that was a fun trip, unless he made a stop on his way. And I haven’t heard yet from Joe or Karl, hopefully they made it back safely. Now that UK is 5-0 and will likely be ranked in the top 20, hold on as next Saturday could be even more daunting if they beat LSU at home. I checked this morning and game time for UK-LSU is set for 7:30 p.m. so it could be another rowdy night in the Bluegrass if they go to 6-0.

There is some great racing on tap Sunday afternoon, too bad the weather has let us down. And it’s supposed to rain over the next few days, with high temperatures in the low 70s.

And it looks like it will be a late night again for many as I promised Nancy Takter that I would be at McCarthy’s Pub at 117 S. Upper Street at 10 p.m. when she and Julie Miller will be “celebrity bartenders” until midnight. Hopefully there is a big turnout as all tips received by Nancy and Julie will be donated to the Standardbred Transition Alliance.

I received an email from Bob Darrow telling me I could always check gas prices on an app, but it’s more fun driving around town these two weeks price shopping. And nothing has changed, with prices still ranking $2.95-$3.03, with that one station at $2.77 at New Circle and Broadway.