As Father’s Day approaches once again we take time to remember and honor our dads as well as sneak in a little shy admission of “Hey dad you remember that time? Well you were right.” Everyone has those moments they wished they listened. I have one in particular going back to a Sunday in October of 2010 just a little over five years ago that I will never forget.

I was in my first semester of college and was to return home for Pacing Break, a time to escape campus and de-stress. On the Friday prior to our departure for break, newly made school friends and I discussed plans for the extended weekend. Some had short family vacations while others were visiting home friends at other colleges. It was my turn to share and I said I would be following my dad to old Meadowlands Racetrack to spend my time davening (in Judaism daven translates ‘to pray’ and is how my dad referred to my handicapping due to the fact I would study the form like a Jewish rabbinic student) and betting the horses. To say the least they were puzzled and didn’t understand. I knew then I had four years and many trips to the Allentown OTB to help them understand. Little did I know that weekend I would gain a new weapon to convert friends into avid horse fans.

Fast forward to that Sunday, October 3^rd 2010 and the 8^th race at Belmont Park. It was the Grade 3 Miss Grillo S. showcasing the top two year old fillies in the country going a distance on turf as well as a “Win and Your In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. My dad and I were in our typical spot surrounded by the same colorful characters that inhabited old Meadowlands simulcast area. Bleary eyed from two days of flashing between TV screens and forms, I was searching for a price horse that could beat the heavily bet favorite #11, something that I believed happened so often at Belmont going a mile and a sixteenth on the turf. When my fathers eyes finally fixed to the form he realized what he was looking at and jumped at me with excitement. “I’m telling you. I saw this filly break her maiden. She is a monster. I remember her mother and she was a freak on the grass,” he spit out at me. He continued to lay out the evidence as to why I should not bet against her but I shrugged off the words of wisdom and decided to go with my price.

As they made the final turn into the stretch of the Belmont turf the green cap of Phillips Racing Partnership atop the head of my dads favorite jockey, Jose Lezcano, swung out six wide and continued to bobble above the Jimmy Toner trained #11 grey blur (as Tom Durkin called her) who ate the grass like a lawnmower and on to win by 5 lengths over the field.

As my dad performed a song and dance routine similar to something from Fiddler on the Roof and jokingly waved the win ticket around in front of me. His laughter doubled when he saw that the turn of foot that filly possessed had sent my jaw to the floor. I remember turning to him speechless and could only start to join in on the laughter and song and dance. We both rejoiced for the $4.90 returned on his $2 win ticket as well as our new found obsessive love for the homebred of Darby Dan owner and 3^rd generation horseman John Phillips. That filly was none other than Winter Memories.

The love and obsession with the beautiful grey continued for another two years until her retirement in the summer of 2012. When she won it was an incredible day and on the few rare occasions she lost it was heartbreak. It was her races for four years I would show friends at school in hopes of getting them hooked on the game (and it worked!). They as well as I were amazed by her ability to overcome difficult trips only to bullet down the lane when given room and win in the most unlikely scenarios. I would call my dad after every one of her races to go back and forth on how brilliant she was and occasionally remind him how right he was that Sunday in October of 2010. Winter Memories is now a broodmare at Darby Dan and gave birth to her first foal a colt by Street Cry (Ire) a year ago. I along with my dad anxiously await her colt as well as her future offspring first steps on the track and will make sure I don’t ignore the strength of those family bloodlines again.

Interestingly enough Father’s Day is not the only day that has reminded me of this memory. In fact it was a Kenwood race earlier in the year that had the day streaming back. Our own special Titanium Jo had run in the 2014 edition of the Grade 3 Miss Grillo S. As I was standing at Belmont that day sweating in my suit I was dreaming of Jo winning the race when I realized if she won her name would be put up alongside a filly and a love of mine I had long before her. Four years prior my dad and I had watched Winter Memories win the Miss Grillo S. at Belmont on TV. Now we were at Belmont with our own filly and a shot to win the race. How is that for change in fortune? And it is all because of Kenwood Racing. Well Titanium Jo ran her heart out that day like she always does, was just not good enough, we still love her, and that’s just racing. However the race resulted in a new Winter Memories-esque filly born into thoroughbred stardom with her incredible turn of foot and eye popping win. That beautiful filly is named Lady Eli. I can only wonder if a son is out there who will forever have to tell his dad he was right about Lady Eli like I do with mine about Winter Memories.

Happy Father’s Day to all!