Cup of COFFEE
It’s Always Been Miles To Go Down the Road in that Chevy Cavalier, the Honda Civic, the road felt like a path to greatness. The car, a By Sean Clancy vehicle for your success. The trip, a bowling lane of life. Each mile, a building block to 00,748. something big. I noticed it on the odometer As I drove into Colonial Downs, trainer somewhere between Colonial Downs Mike Stidham and assistant Hilary Pridham and Middleburg on July 12. A second were driving out, a win, a second, a third place finish and a 12th in the books, driving and a sixth in the books. They were heading home, through a storm, miles on the car, time up the road, a trip or two to Saratoga on the on the clock. horizon, they watched Princess Grace win the Where and when my Subaru Outback Dr. James Penny from the road, a win always flipped over the magic number of 100,000 was shortens the ride. somewhere lost at a somewhere mile marker As I was leaving Colonial, jockey Trevor between a somewhere racetrack after another McCarthy and valet Richie Ramkhelawan somewhere card. wedged a tack bag into the trunk of I used to stop and take a moment when McCarthy’s Honda Accord as he headed these moments came and went. In a Chevy north, trying to scale the chasm from New Cavalier, purchased with purse money from Sean Clancy Kent to New York. Riverdee (the horse) in 1988. And in a Honda “See you at Saratoga, kid.” Civic, purchased with cash from Saratoga winners in 1994. “I’m on my way, ” he said with a smile. I had crashed the Cavalier, on a wet mile on a wet highway Literally and figuratively. His enthusiasm for Saratoga palpable, from Atlantic City to Saratoga, trying to get back to Hall of a Mid-Atlantic track rat trying to make it big, the miles up the Fame trainer P.G. Johnson’s for first set that summer. I made it road feel like stones across the stream. for first set, the car didn’t. On one of the phone calls on one of the legs of the most The Honda Civic rolled past 100,000 on the way to Saratoga a few summers later and was ticking past 199,000 when I recent road trip, Dad asked me if I was still excited for Saratoga. crashed it into the back of a ChemLawn Truck on a slick road I hemmed and hawed, started and stopped, like a son does when (notice a trend) near my home in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, he’s talking to his dad about things that matter, things shared. “It’s nothing like it was but, yeah, I’m excited. I don’t know the airbags hitting me like the Saratoga turf had done a few times before. The guy in the ChemLawn truck gave me a ride if excited is the right word. I guess I’m looking forward to it. I love the place. It’s different. It’s long. Two months. Forty racing home. A Honda Accord didn’t get close to the milestone, I hated days. It’s hot. The sport is top heavy, there aren’t the stories that car, traded it in just to get if off the books. A silver Subaru there were 20 years ago. It’s pressure. Annie has to take up Outback passed the precipice on the way from Keeneland to the slack at home. No Sunday help. There’s a tree branch in the Maryland Hunt Cup, my nephew Ryan and I stopping at the front field. The garden’s a mess. Miles is growing up. You a lookout for a picture and a pop. My nephew Jack wound know, there are costs now. It’s just different. It’s changed.” I could see Dad nodding his head. My 87-year-old father up with that car, a few more miles registered and recorded. It retired at the beach thinking about all his journeys to Saratoga didn’t get to 200,000. And now, another car, another partner, and Suffolk, Rockingham and Rolling Rock, Pimlico and Penn, has hit the mark, well, has rolled past the mark without notice. Charles Town and Charleston. Horses and hotels, entries and Like a birthday without a cake. exits, road tolls and life tolls – all his miles on all his cars. The miles, the years, pile on, tick on as we embark on I’ll see you on the road. another Saratoga. Life changes. An apprentice jockey, a wanna-be journalist, First published in The Saratoga Special. www.thisishorseracing.com.
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Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2022
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