The Riverdee Newsletter. Sunday, July 6, 2026.
“First thing.”
On the racetrack, there is nothing left to say.
My alarm goes off at 5. I’m up in a flash, race-day-urgency flash, skipping the coffee, and at the barn in minutes.
Rocket One greets me like I’m late. Erin Butler rakes woodchips from the front of Rocket’s stall. She tells me Dunkin’ Donuts was closed this morning. Slackers. Well, it was 4 in the morning. I offer to get her coffee and hit the Morning Line Kitchen for a large black and a cup of tea. Eight dollars later, Butler has her coffee. I place it in the built-in wall box of the once-proud receiving barn. Oh, if these walls could talk.
Butler slides a ring bit into Rocket’s mouth, tightens the girth a hole and Tom Garner takes the reins and walks a turn of the barn.
Away we go, past Linda Rice frenetic barn, across Nelson Avenue, through the trees, to the Morning Line Kitchen gap of the main track. Push-button, Rocket walks a few steps, trots on cue and they fade in the distance.
Once around the main track. That’s the 7-year-old gelding’s race-day routine, an easy tour, a circumference, to blow air through his lungs and stretch his muscles. Garner, a retired jump jockey turned trainer, hopped aboard to help paddle the boat. Steeplechasing is a team sport.
There are a few moments in life when I think about being a horse trainer. Of course, when horses are winning but more in the quiet moments of morning work. Standing near the outside rail at Saratoga, watching a $600,000 son of Into Mischief strut through his paces with hours to go before a Grade 1. Yeah, those moments. The only thing better would be a trusty lead pony to share the miles with him.
Rocket and Garner ease to a walk and we head home.
“Nice horse,” Garner says. “Nice horse.”
Back at the barn, as usual at Saratoga, morning talk focuses on night antics. Like a check list, a census. “Henry Street for a beer and the special,” I offer. “Ben and Jerry’s and in bed by 9 o’clock,” Garner, a new father of one and a trainer of many, says. How the mighty have fallen.
I hold Rocket as Butler gives him a soapy bath, spraying the sand from his hoof walls. Rocket stares across the wooden fence. I wonder what he sees.
It’s 6:27, my work is done here.
Back at The Special office, men with picnic blankets walk down East Avenue, trying to make the 7 o’clock deadline. Find the spot (where will the sun be by afternoon?), claim the table, lay the blanket down, secure it with clips, rocks or anything you can find (I’ve used bundles of newspapers). Then head home for breakfast, a nap, another look at the form. Come back at noon. Saratoga race day.
A shirtless man, beating the heat, runs toward Lake Avenue. A motley pair of dogs and a man on his phone walk the other way. A set of Bill Mott’s horses, trains on tracks, gallop past the quarter pole of the Oklahoma track. The sun bursts through tree branches and slices through blinds in a quiet office. No deadlines today. Just post time.
Rocket One seeks his first Grade 1 stakes win in the opener. The inaugural running of the Leo O’Brien Stakes. Named after the accomplished jump jockey and flat trainer who reached across the lines of flat racing and steeplechasing, the $150,000 stakes attracted eight entries. Decades earlier, O’Brien would have entered Sports Reporter or watched one of his graduates – Hokan, Soaringoverseattle, Master McGrath, Rainlough – run in the 2 3/8-furlong test. Surely, he would cheer on Rocket One. One of his graduates, in a way.
Editor’s Note: Rocket One ran hard, tried hard and just missed by a length, finishing second in his second consecutive Grade 1 stakes start at Saratoga.
• Riverdee added two more winners at Colonial Downs last week, improving our American steeplechase stats to 11 wins from 35 starts for $609,100. If you’re keeping score, we won the 2025 title with 13 wins from 54 starts for $516,800.
Fulmineo loped on the lead, jumped accurately and turned back all challengers in the opener for Freddie Procter and Julie Gomena. The 5-year-old sat close in his debut at Foxfield, finishing second and showing promise. We took him back in his second start at the Iroquois, he pulled too hard, resented it and tailed off. Back to the drawing board. I texted Procter a few days before the race.
“Watch replays of Fulmineo. He seemed to bowl along happily at Foxfield. We probably took too much hold of him at Nashville, just fought Jamie the whole way and resented it. He was wired before race, so hoping he’s happier and kinder Monday. I’d put my hands down and try to get him to enjoy it. If he’s in front, that’s cool. If someone goes, that’s fine. Old flat horse with mileage so don’t think we’re going to change him. Plenty of ability, I’d use flat form to our advantage.”
Tic-tac-toe.
“I was handed a freebie, ‘take it if they’ll give it to us.’ It took a lot for them to get to me. I didn’t think I had gone that quick,” Procter said. “He did that pretty easy in the end. He was getting a bit lonely halfway up the straight, when he saw the other horse out of the corner of his eye, he went on again. He was lovely.”
We’ll aim at the allowance hurdle at Colonial Downs Aug. 13.
Shares available in the promising newcomer.
Renfro’s Reception improved from a sixth in his debut over hurdles at Radnor to win a starter maiden claimer for Jack Fisher and Jamie Bargary. The son of Street Sense tracked the leaders, jumped accurately, bulled his way into the scrum around the final turn and skipped clear to win by 5 lengths. Purchased for $23,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton December digital sale, the 4-year-old could continue to improve.
“There will be a lot of surprised people at home. He does nothing in the mornings, you’re always pushing, you’re on the buckle end all the time,” Bargary said. “To be fair at Radnor, I never let go of his head and I was hoping he would improve from it. He obviously did. Today, every time I asked, he picked up. Jumped well, traveled well. Around the last bend, I was stuck in the pocket, and he loved that. Once I pulled him out, he was there for me.”
• Looking ahead, V Inspired runs in the fifth race, a Virginia-restricted waiver claimer, at Colonial Downs July 11. We’ve entered Win Street twice at Colonial Downs and the race hasn’t gone. We entered him again this morning. A few remaining shares in him. Cyber Ninja points for the Jonathan Kiser at Saratoga July 16. Serifos, Vintage Year and Tuddenham Green could run at Colonial July 23. Undefeated juvenile Adonius is aiming at the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood July 29. We decided to wait with King Al (shares available) and point for the Mickey Walsh Stakes at Saratoga Aug. 12.
• We are shopping the Tattersalls July Horses in Training Sale July 7-9 and the Fasig-Tipton Horses in Training Sale July 14. Let us know if you want to get involved.
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