And so the end is here, it’s been a long — long — long summer of some crazy racing.  And we get to say goodbye to  few different aspects of horse racing.  First we get to say goodbye to Tom Durkin.  Goodbye Tom, you’ve made horse racing a great — living — emotional experience.   I will miss your great calls, just the way I miss the great calls of Jack Lamarre (I hope I spelled his name correctly).  Growing up in New York OTB and hearing calls, without being able to see races made me a very good horse player and made horse racing a deeply felt experience for me.   I learned to imagine racing, not see racing.  And by turning on my imagination in the experience of horse racing it also made me a very good player.

My best advise is — when you get a good race caller such as Micheal Wrona (I hope I am spelling his name correctly), close your eyes and listen to the race, here what he is saying and a lightbulb in your brain will turn on…  YOu can always look at a replay later on…

WE get to say goodbye to synthetics at Del Mar.  I wonder if others out there see what I see all the time is horses that don’t have good balance in the middle of the track.   It can’t be a good thing if a horse doesn’t feel stable when he’s asked to run hard…  It seems — inconsistent… and the results sort of prove the point…   I am delighted to see horse racing return to organic dirt surfaces….

Goodbye to Pomona, hello to Los Alamitos.  for the first time in September I will be doing a So Cal track befoer the last week in September when Santa Anita begins…

There are 21 more excellent races to handicap tomorrow, that makes 67 over this weekend. Whew….