Jack Fisher called at 6:55 Tuesday night. You don’t want trainers calling at 6:55 at night. Any night, especially the night before a Grade 1 stakes in Saratoga.
“Rosie’s going into labor.”
Not what I had on the bingo card.
Rosie Watters, wife of jockey Graham Watters and soon-to-be mother, was on her way to the hospital with their first child. With Graham. Our jockey for today.
I began the search, a Rolodesk of back-up jockeys fluttering through my mind. Concussed. Broken hand. In Ireland. In Rhode Island delivering pizzas. An apprentice who needs stewards’ approval. A veteran well past his prime. A retired jockey volunteering to come out of retirement.
We heard it was a false alarm, the Rolodesk slowing but still spinning, and they were heading home. Then we heard it wasn’t. Graham called.
“Her water broke…”
Well, unbreak it was my first thought. As an owner, an owner of a favorite in a Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga. My second thought, as a father of one, was very different.
“Be there for her. Your life will never be the same. Cherish every second, every minute. We’ll be fine.”
Watters didn’t need convincing. The 33-year-old jockey won two stakes two weeks after breaking his nose, jaw, finger and arm but he wasn’t missing this.
“Thanks. I’m never going to get to ride that horse.”
Watters, first-call jockey to Jack Fisher, has never ridden Awakened. He wound up on other maidens early, other stakes horses later, got rained off in the Steinman last year, scratched from the Commonwealth Cup this spring. Today was going to be his first time. And then her water broke.
After exhausting all options, I contemplated getting the tack out myself, we have one possibility as far as a back-up jockey and that hinges on a hot foot. The horse is in the tub. The jockey is in the wings. Some game we play. A thousand variables at a thousand decibels and a baby on the way.
I’ll let you know if we’re running.
And now an update. Josie Watters was born early Wednesday morning. I didn’t dare ask if Graham was coming to Saratoga.
I began this newsletter, way back before a baby was on the way, in a very different way. It went something like this…
Welcome back. Welcome back to the Riverdee Newsletter. Welcome back to Saratoga. And welcome back to Awakened. The chestnut gelding makes his 2025 debut in the Grade 1 Beverly Steinman at Saratoga Race Course this afternoon. Post time is 12:40.
Owned by Riverdee Stable and Ten Strike Racing, the son of Curlin attracted morning-line favoritism at 2-1 in the field of seven. Awakened finished fifth in last year’s Steinman before missing the rest of the season. This year, he returned with a flat prep at Middleburg Spring Races and was set to run in the Grade 1 Commonwealth Cup at Virginia Gold Cup but was scratched due to concerns over the ground. We skipped that and aimed here.
Trained by 15-time champion Jack Fisher and ridden by three-time champion Graham Watters, Awakened returns to a venue where he won the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard in 2023.
Read about Awakened winning the Sheppard in The Saratoga Special, August 26, 2023. Pages 56 and 62. https://thisishorseracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/08-26-23.pdf
And now another update, Maryland Hunt Cup winning jockey Conor Tierney will ride Awakened.
