by Gordon Waterstone

I received a text at 5:45 Friday morning from Chris Tully, reminding me that bagels would be the breakfast of choice at The Red Mile and to get there early. A few minutes later, Nick Salvi texted the same. Emily Ratcliff and Gabe Prewitt also sent texts. When Red Mile president Joe Costa sent me the same text, I figured I better get out of bed and get to the track before the bagels were gone.

After hunting for a few minutes for my cat Willow, who I haven’t seen in a full day as she must be mad at me for leaving her alone so much these past few days, I jumped in the car to make my trip to The Red Mile. I popped in a Garth Brooks CD to make the journey even more pleasurable.

Chris and Nick happened to be by the breakfast table when I arrived around 8:30 and applauded. Finally! Finally! Yes, finally! I saw bagels.

Thank you to my Backstretch With Gordon sponsors, Steve and Cindy Stewart’s Hunterton Farm/Hunterton Sales Agency for also sponsoring the breakfast. In addition to the bagels, fruit, coffee and water were available. I grabbed a bagel, schmeared it nicely with cream cheese, and took a seat at a picnic table. I soon realized that I really didn’t need to wander the backstretch to see people as everybody was coming to me in search of the food.

Charlie Norris came by and said hello, and then Jonas Czernyson arrived and thanked Chris for the nice breakfast spread. Chris told Jonas that it was my persistence to have the bagels that the job got done. I guess it’s nice to know I contributed something to the Grand Circuit meet at The Red Mile.

If I listed everybody, I saw at the Hunterton breakfast spread Friday morning I’d go way past my word count for the column. It would probably be easier if I listed those who I didn’t see.

I was actually surprised I was so hungry Friday morning after yet another restaurant dinner Thursday night. Plans were to meet Joe Holloway and Judy Wilson at the Merrick Inn, the five-star restaurant that is located on the grounds of where I reside. When I walked in by the outside patio — which I consider the best in Lexington — I heard somebody yell my name. I turned and saw Amy Hollar, and then saw her better half — her much, much better half — Buck with her.

Amy said she and Buck were waiting on a large group that included Brian and Jennifer Brown. My talk with Amy was mainly about the 2025 Dan Patch Awards dinner on Feb. 23 at Rosen Centre in Orlando and how excited she is to be once again joining in on all the fun.

I felt like a third wheel with Joe and Judy as the two of them go back to their diaper days in Delaware, so I had to listen to decades and decades of reminiscing between the two of them. Still, it was a really nice night with two very good friends.

Now back to Friday morning. I saw PJ Fraley and he asked me to be sure and wish his better half, Jessica Watson, a very Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday Jessica!

I also need to send out good wishes to Justin Irvine on a safe trip back to Northfield Park for Friday night’s races. Justin had a winner at the Coshocton Fair on Wednesday afternoon, drove three more winners that night at Northfield, and then was at The Red Mile Thursday morning. Justin told me he jumped into his car when the races were over Wednesday night and arrived in Lexington around 4 a.m. I don’t think anyone could have been happier to see him than his No. 1, Jessica Otten.

I saw Noel Daley so I went over and asked if he had any scoops for me, to which he replied that he didn’t. I looked over and saw Ernie Hendry in the Team Miller barn and went over to exchange Hi-5s on the Tigers sweeping the Astros to advance to the ALDS.

If you are coming out to the races this weekend, don’t forget your sunglasses, hat and sunscreen. We will see nothing but temperatures in the low 80s and nary a cloud.

If you can’t make it out for Sunday’s Kentucky Futurity Day card you are in luck as the races will be televised as part of Fox Sports’ America’s Day At The Races. The afternoon-long show will run from 12:30-3 p.m. on FS1 before shifting to FS2 from 3-5:30 p.m. Anchoring the coverage from The Red Mile will be Jessica Otten.

My first assignment Friday afternoon at The Red Mile was to head to the Stable of Memories. I can now reveal that I had a choice of second jobs between being a greeter at Wal-Mart or at the historic Stable of Memories. I chose the latter so I checked in first with Kitty Sautter shortly before noon and took my seat at the second-floor entrance of the exhibit that honors Kentucky breeders as well as the new display of trophies and memorabilia from Brittany Farms.

There was a nice flow of people who came through, including Randy and Cheri Schuatte from Napoleon, OH. Randy said hello to me on the way in, and then on the way out introduced himself. Randy told me he once worked long ago for Ivan Sugg and that he’s enjoyed reading my stories over the years. Thanks greatly for your kind words Randy.

Kitty relieved me of my duties at 2 p.m. so I made my way over to the track for the races. I only missed the first two events as the first race had a slight delay when the starting gate malfunctioned. It’s a good thing the back-up car was filled with gas and ready to go.

In addition to the replacement starting car, also in place was a new Jumbo screen as the first one incurred the wrath of Helene last weekend.

I looked around and found fellow Michiganders Lee and Denna Sattelberg and Patty Wright Robinson. As I was speaking to them at their inside table, Don Niccum joined us. A little bit later I saw Mike Micallef in the grandstand. I think for me the best thing about these two weeks of racing is getting the chance to see all the Michigan people who I’m so indebted to in my career.

The sixth race was the Bob McIntosh Memorial, with the $81,600 International Stallion Stake going to Looksgoodinloulou, who tied the world record for 2-year-old filly pacers with a 1:48.3 effort. The Sweet Lou filly is a homebred of Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi and was driven by Yannick Gingras for trainer Ron Burke.

A large group gathered in the winner’s circle to honor Bob. Front and center was Bob’s brother Doug, who was wearing a Detroit Tigers cap. Doug told me he wore the cap special for Bob, who was a huge Tigers fan. I apologized to Doug and told him I should have thought the same and wore my Tigers cap instead of my new Red Mile one.

I also saw in the winner’s circle Art McIlmurray, one of my closest friends from my Michigan days. Jeff James had come down from the judges’ booth to join in and I made sure to not miss the opportunity to take a photo. There’s a lot of wins in that photo, but obviously I didn’t contribute any.

I walked down the apron by the trackside boxes and saw Wendy Ross (with dog Stella), Jenn Bongiorno (with dog Marty Byrd) and Tina Duer (dogless). Marty Byrd came up to say hello but he was more interested in smelling my pants, which I’m sure carries the scent of my cat Willow.

I continued on my way and saw Amy Hollar and Vicki Gingras huddled together. Amy told me again how excited she is to be once again attending the Dan Patch Awards dinner next February in Orlando. Vicki told me again how disappointed she is at not being able to attend as she will be accompanying her husband, Yannick, to Australia to compete in a driving championship that same weekend.

I was finally able to plop myself down in a box with Nick Salvi and Bill Bigler, the latter of whom told me to not tell anybody he’s here. Not sure if Billy’s in the witness protection program or Tony, the security chief for Weaver Bruscemi, is looking for him, but OK, I won’t mention he’s in Lexington.

I received a nice text from Julie Sorrell, the track’s former mutuels manager who left The Red Mile a couple of years ago. Julie, who is now married and goes by Julie Gregg Sorrell Jones, said to tell everybody she misses them. We miss you too Julie.

After watching Memento Mori set a new world record for 2-year-old geldings of 1:51.4 in an $80,000 International Stallion division for driver Scott Zeron, trainer Eric Patalan and owners Thestable Memento Mori and Hutchison Harness, I started to make my way to the car to get home to write this column. But when my sponsors Steve and Cindy Stewart came walking my way, of course I stopped to talk. I asked Steve to sum up Hunterton Sale Agency’s cumulative sale numbers and he simply said, “solid.”

One more column to go for you on Sunday morning and it looks like gas prices continue to stay steady. As I noted in the last column, prices are now into the low $2.70s.