Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — Just another glorious Friday morning in the Bluegrass and perfect conditions for today’s first of six cards of great stakes racing at The Red Mile.

It’s actually a glorious day for another reason as Murray Brown let me know that he will be making the long drive to Lexington today and it will take him all day. Which means he won’t be on Facebook all day! Hope he doesn’t get FB withdrawal and double up on us tomorrow.

Back to yesterday for a moment. I had lunch at Jalapeno’s, which is pretty much across the street from The Red Mile, with Dave Brower, Gabe Prewitt, Nick Salvi and Joanna Ricci, who handled the track’s twitter presence last year but has now gone on to bigger and better things as an administrative assistant for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. I have to add though that the five of us were joined by several bees that insisted on tasting our beverages and food.

I wanted to keep it simple last night with racing starting today so I went and met Dave at my go-to hangout in town, Banner’s, to watch the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Jacksonville Jaguars football game. If you’re looking for great wings, Banner’s is the place and Dave can now confirm that. Thanks to owner Ryan “Guff” McGuffin for coming over and buying us a round. A great game too, as a last-second field goal led to a 24-21 Bengals victory.

Sam Bowie and Gordon Waterstone this morning at The Red Mile. Andrew Cohen photo.

When I arrived at The Red Mile this morning shortly after 8, also getting out of his car was Sam Bowie, star basketball player for the University of Kentucky and then in the NBA.

Sam waited up for me so we walked up to the Deck of Dreams together, and Sam was very complimentary to the first two editions of this year’s Backstretch With Gordon columns. Sam now lives most of the year in Florida but he and his wife still maintain a home in Lexington. Sam is usually at the track every morning, but today is a bit different as the last of four qualifiers scheduled for 11 a.m. was a three-horse field that included his sensational 3-year-old filly pacer, Hot Mess Express, this year’s Messenger winner American Courage, and last year’s Little Brown Jug champ Captain Barbossa. How about that for a three-horse field?

And in a photo finish, it was Captain Barbossa edging Hot Mess Express in 1:49.1.

Andrew Cohen, who has horses with Linda Toscano, made it to town yesterday and he came up to Sam and I to say hello, and I asked Andy to take a photo of Sam and I. Andy said we should go find some hilly ground so that I could stand a bit higher so our height discrepancy wouldn’t show so much. Kind of tough to do when I’m just 5 foot 8 and Sam is a seven-footer.

Nick Salvi came by and said, “Happy opening day boys!” and then handed me a program for this afternoon’s card. Post time today and every day is 1 p.m., and the first race this afternoon is the Schare Adams Memorial. It’s been a tough year for Kentucky harness racing as we lost Schare, Anne Doolin and Kevin Thomas, as well as Hall of Famer Ron Gurfein. The first race Saturday afternoon is the Anne Doolin Memorial. I doublechecked with Art Zubrod and he told me that memorials for Ronnie and Kevin will be held next Saturday afternoon (Oct. 9).

Standing under the Tree of Knowledge were Jimmy Takter, Robert Lindstrom and Jorgen Jahre. Gordon Waterstone photo.

I started to head into the backstretch when I looked over and saw an outstanding group of horsepeople standing under the Tree of Knowledge including Jimmy Takter, Nancy Takter, Jan Johnson, Robert Lindstrom and Jorgen Jahre. Nancy walked away and Jan came over and shook my hand and said hello. I then snapped a photo of what I consider a lot of knowledge under the Tree of Knowledge with Jimmy, Robert and Jorgen.

Another friend from Sweden, photographer Adam Strom, is also in town and he was standing against the fence so I went over and chatted with him a few minutes as we watched many, many horses go by. It’s a very busy morning on the track, probably because of the qualifiers that were set for 11 a.m.

I then finally got underway and I immediately saw Greg White of the Rick Zeron Stable, who was on his way to the track and he said hello. As he always does, Tony Alagna came by and I asked if he was considering supplementing his 3-year-old trotter Ahundreddollarbill — who won the Canadian Trotting Classic on Sept. 18 at Woodbine Mohawk Park — to the Oct. 10 Kentucky Futurity. Ahundreddollarbill is in a Bluegrass division this Sunday, but it’ll cost $75,000 to supplement to the third jewel of trotting’s Triple Crown. Tony told me that he is definitely considering it.

Dewayne Minor was sitting at his barn so I walked over to see my fellow Detroit native and we consoled each other about the Detroit Lions, especially about the team’s sad loss last Sunday when Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens hit that 66-yard field goal that hit the crossbar and doinked over.

I walked past Jan and Jorgen and Jorgen came over and shook my hand and asked how I liked my new job at the USTA. I was a bit surprised as he lives in Sweden so I wasn’t sure of his awareness of something as trivial as my new gig, so I told him I was most appreciative of him asking. He said of course, he keeps up with everything.

I popped in Joe Holloway’s barn to say hello to him and caretaker Diane Lewis. I’m looking forward to Holloway’s Perfect Sting and Ohio star Charlie May’s match-up in a Bluegrass division on Sunday. Linda Toscano is in the barn next door so I went over there to say hello and Andrew Cohen was there so we talked a few more minutes. We talked first about today and tomorrow’s beautiful 80-degree days and hopefully a Sunday where the rain holds off, but also about the gloomy forecast for next week that calls for rain — sometimes heavy on Monday and Tuesday — which would impact things out at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale at Fasig-Tipton and racing.

I headed back up and saw Brian Brown furiously sweeping his barn. I waited until the dust settled to come into the barn to talk to Brian, who celebrated a birthday earlier this week. Speaking of birthday’s, Happy Belated Birthday to Jimmy Takter and Happy Birthday today to Anvil and Lace Farm’s Doug Yontz and Red Mile regular driver Tyler Shehan.

Brown’s undefeated 2-year-old Downbytheseaside colt Gulf Shores is in to go in a Bluegrass division Saturday afternoon. There are three divisions, with an ownership issue causing the splits to be redrawn. Gulf Shores will now start from post seven in the first $110,000 division (race three) with Ronnie Wrenn Jr. driving. Six-for-six in his career, Gulf Shores recently won the Ohio Sires Stakes championship and the Ohio Breeders Championship.

If Gulf Shores is upset, it might be the Ron Burke-trained Loukes Perry that is the culprit. Loukes Perry starts from post three with driver Yannick Gingras, coming off a 5-1/4 length, 1:53.2 win in his career debut in a Sept. 15 overnight at The Meadows. Loukes Perry was scheduled to then race last Thursday at Harrah’s Philadelphia, but that card was canceled. That doesn’t show on the program lines, but that explains the gap between races.

I saw Ronnie and he told me how good he believes the son of Sweet Lou could be. Even better than his full brother, Lou’s Pearlman, who just won the Little Brown Jug last week.

“To be honest with you, I think he’s better. I think he’s our best colt,” Ronnie told me. “We’ll see, because he has to prove it, but that first mile was frightening. It was a complete shutdown under wraps. His brother (Lou’s Pearlman) was always perfectly behaved, but this colt has had some mental issues. But now he’s figured it out and he’s perfect too.”

As for the missed start at Harrah’s Philly, Ronnie told me, “Yeah, we really needed that start. But we trained him real big here on Sunday. We brought him down here and trained him a big mile on Sunday. It’s rare that I have one that is under raced at this point, so it’s a nice feeling. He’ll race both weeks here and then on to the Breeders Crown and Governor’s Cup.”

I don’t want to not mention the second $110,000 Bluegrass division on Saturday (race nine) as that eight-horse field includes champion Pebble Beach, who sizzled over The Red Mile surface last time out in the $250,000 Kentucky Championship Series final in 1:48.4. Noel Daley trains the son of Downbytheseaside, who will start from post three with driver Todd McCarthy.

I started to head out but I found myself once again at the Deck of Dreams, where Nick Salvi was huddled with Myron Bell and Steve and Rick Head. PJ Fraley, who works in the Burke barn, maneuvered his horse over toward me so he could say hello. I then finally made my way to the car to head back to the home office to write this column.

On gorgeous days it’s great to take a route that takes me through the UK campus, but today I had a big scare when I turned right on Limestone off of Virginia. I saw a guy and a bicycle on the ground and a car sideways, which made it obvious that the car had hit the bicyclist. The collision had to have just happened as there was only one car ahead of me, and he stopped while the bicyclist gathered himself and his bent bike. But he looked OK, and the driver of the car was talking to him, so it looked like all was well.

There are two gas stations side by side on that route home and it’s interesting that one is $2.95 and the other $3.03. That pretty much tells the tale of prices right now in the area, although I did note yesterday that I had seen a pair of $2.89s.

Don’t forget, racing Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. Monday night is the Round Barn fundraiser party, with tickets available at Fennells, which is adjacent to The Red Mile and the famed Round Barn, also known as The Stable of Memories.

The Lexington Selected Yearling Sale gets underway Tuesday night at Fasig-Tipton (post time 7 p.m. with cocktail reception starting at 5 p.m.), with the Wednesday session getting started at 3 p.m. following a cocktail hour in the Kentucky Room at 2 p.m. Thursday’s sale also starts at 3 p.m., with Friday and Saturday back to a nighttime post of 7 p.m.