Backstretch with Gordon-Friday

What a glorious Friday morning in Lexington as there isn’t a cloud in the sky, compared to yesterday afternoon’s monsoon that soaked The Red Mile midway through the card. If you are headed to the famed clay oval over the weekend, plan on great conditions as well as great race cards.

Before I get to today, I need to look back at last night’s Kentucky Hall of Fame ceremonies which saw the induction of the late David Johnston and Carter Duer. After John Cashman spoke about Mr. Johnston, and his family in attendance quickly went to the front of the Round Barn to have their picture taken, I thought this was going to be a breeze as I was sure it wouldn’t take Carter too long to offer his thanks.

After Dean Hoffman made his opening remarks about Carter, I figured Carter would take about five minutes but I—and probably everybody else in the room—was wrong as he spoke for something like 25 minutes. I haven’t known Carter that long but he has always been a man who spoke softly—and briefly—but carried a big stick in the state. But Carter’s speech was refreshing and enlightening, and everyone in attendance enjoyed it.

As I got to the track this morning I had to make a quick move as trackman Dan Coon, driving a smaller motorcycle, went flying by me in the parking lot going about 100 miles an hour. I’m not sure I ever saw Dan move quite that fast, but he went from the grandstand to Red Mile road in about the time you read this sentence.

Dean was back at the track this morning, standing in the winner’s circle snapping pictures. I walked across to say hello, and then I stopped in the main office to see Charlie Bowen, the track’s grand old master of sponsorships, and decided to ask him some questions that I thought I’d ask some horsemen that I came across such as if you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would that be (“Adm. Chester Nimitz, the supreme Naval Commander in the South Pacific during WWII”) and who would you want to trade places with tomorrow for one day (“Tiger Woods, just so I could see what it was like to hit a golf ball like that.”)

There were qualifiers this morning so a lot of the horsemen had begun to converge on the apron. The track looks amazing and that should mean some great times this afternoon. I stopped at Steve Elliott’s barn and we chatted about a few things, including the non-detention barn situation regarding Donato Hanover that you can read about on harnessracing.com this morning.

And speaking of Waterstone—I didn’t bring the subject up, you did—he raced pretty good yesterday afternoon even if it was hard to tell. It was just a case of bad timing as he was in the race that was headed for the start when the skies really opened up, which made it virtually impossible to see the horses in the far turn. I knew he had gotten away fourth and had a hunch he started to make a move in the final turn, and then I saw him pretty close to the leading Muscle Mass.

I then began to think, ‘He’s going to win this thing at 47-1 and I don’t have a dime on him.’ But Waterstone is like me as he just doesn’t want to grow up, and he showed a bit of youthfulness as he tried to take driver David Miller off the track and out the paddock gate. David did a good job in getting him straightened up to finish fourth, beaten just 2 ¼ lengths.

I saw track photographer Nigel Soult afterward and asked if he saw Waterstone starting to come at him, which he did. Nigel almost got run over by a wayward horse a few weeks ago (if you want to see the head-on video stop by Nigel’s booth and he’ll be happy to show it to you), so he says he now keeps one eye on the track, and that when he saw the horse coming at him this time around, he went far, far back on the track, even if it meant standing in deeper mud.

And oh yes, I happened to walk by trainer Jimmy Takter afterward and he smacked me in the arm with his rolled-up racing program and told me he was pleased with the race despite the stretch antics and that he still believes Waterstone will be a winner.

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