Baby It's Cold Outside

We ARE racing tonight. A variation on "Neither snow nor rain nor (wind chill) nor gloom of the top of the final turn stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," applies to our horsemen. Temps tonight will drop into the low teens or high single digits by the time we finish the card around 11:15 PM and wind chills will drop into the -10 range at times, with gusts of wind at 35-45 mph. I regularly call our horsemen wimps for not parading until right before post time in these conditions, or for not coming back to the winners circle, but I am kidding. Sort of.

So what if they have UnderArmour, GoreTex and all kinds of other cold-weather gear? All I know is I would have killed for that kind of gear when I won my first race as a trainer back in February of 1979. It was 4 degrees and the wind chill, well who knew? I was wearing four sweatshirts-one hooded, under my colors and looked like Bib, the Michelin Man (in other words much as I do today). I wore knit gloves and then leather work gloves over them, so thick that I was not even sure I had the lines in my hands when warming up my horses. Long johns--the waffle material cotton ones- not heat conserving compression gear, under a pair of sweats, under my whites jeans and then white rain pants over those. If I had fallen down, I would have been like Ralphie's little brother Randy in A Christmas Story, unable to get up without an assist.

We came out at ten minutes to post and stayed out. In fact, Presiding Judge Billy George threatened a few drivers with fines if they did not parade their horses. Keep in mind, most trainers drove their own horses back then...there were very few catch drivers, but I did not have my license yet, so I paraded Plaza Jester and then when the horses turned to the gate, driver Keith Harran jumped on. He, along with several others were told the practice would stop, or they would be fined, to which Artie Bier said, "$25 for ten extra minutes in the paddock? I can afford that." But he knew better than to say it to Judge George's face.

So, to our horsemen, I salute you. You are a tough group and while I may kid about short post parades and wimpy behavior, I am glad that I am a hobby horseman and do not HAVE to be out there in weather like this. Weather will not stay you from your appointed rounds.
Even the three cancellations (a record in the modern era) we had in 2008 were not weather related--but utility related. And that is a tribute to our horsemen.