Jess Not Jesse is one tough SOB. He doesn’t like to let anyone else pass him at the finish line. Yesterday, he took the lead in the stretch and appeared to be in trouble from a horse closing quickly on the inside (Ziptronic). However, he wouldn’t let that horse get by him. He came on to win his second in a row for us (and fourth in a row overall) by head and took us an a large crowd of well-wishers to the Winner’s Circle.

Hear the Footsteps is scheduled to run in tomorrow’s fifth race. Today, however, something spooked him while he was training. He dropped his rider, ran off and tried to unsuccessfully hurdle a fence, then ran onto the small training track before they caught up with him. What effect this will have on his condition tomorrow remains to be seen. Though he showed some superficial scrapes today, he looked fine in all other respects. So, we hope he’s fine tomorrow as well.

Now the Racing secretary says there will be a race for Awakino Cat on Monday. However, we’ve heard promises like this before only to be disappointed. We’ll know tomorrow.

It’s the Travers Stakes on Saturday, so the crowds are building. We attended the post position draw with our neighbor, trainer Ken McPeek. It was part of the show for Travers week. Tonight is the Travers Celebration to benefit the Permanent Disabled Jockey;s Fund and the backstretch workers through B.E.S.T. It’s dress-up time!

We have been very lucky at Saratoga. This is our sixth year running horses here and each year we’ve had at least one winner. In 2007 and this year, we’ve had two winners. Tomorrow, we go for one more. Go Footsie!

Best,

A.