Hello All!

I'm getting ready to return to the Spa in anticipation of a big weekend
of racing culminating in the mid-summer derby, The Travers Stakes.

Of course, we are looking forward to seeing the mid-summer form of the
Derby winner, Orb. Shug has not only given him some well deserved down
time, but spared no expense and treated him to the ultimate horse spa.
Pools, treadmills, hyperbaric treatment...you just try to get yourself a
hyperbaric treatment.

Go ahead. I dare you.

First, go find a chamber. Then, when you do, ask how much it will cost.
Then after they pick you up off of the floor, ask your insurance company
if they will approve it. Just try it. I know people who have genuinely
needed these treatments, some as a precursor to maybe living an almost
normal life... and spent months and in one case over a year in the court
system trying to get the court to force the insurance company to
fulfill their responsibility.

You'll die trying.

But Shug has treated his deserving Derby champion to the very best and
has noted growth and maturity as well. And seeing as how I loved him in
the Derby, I'm curious to see how much I love him off the layoff, as I
expect he will be a bit off the favoritism in the race.

You think 4-1? With Palace Malice and Verrazano getting much of the
attention, it is possible. And it is hard to separate rooting for Shug
from the cold and calculating handicapper's spirit that needs to prevail
in the face of such a good-guy with such a good-horse.

I assure you I'll be lying awake in my hotel room staring at the
ceiling, as if the answers were hidden in that cheap texture paint they
use.

But this is Saratoga, and the only thing cheap IS the paint. Not the hotel. Not the food.

Not the payoff...if you get it right.

So sharpen your pencils...good luck and good 'capping!

- Slew