To tell you the truth, I think I was a horse in a previous life.

Now my horse-wagering chapter appears in the 20th Century past. Loved Saratoga in the 1980s & 90s.

Sure I liked the betting, but the best part was riding the bicycle around the backstretch, the stables, the Oklahoma Track, around 6-7 a.m. when there’d be dozens and dozens of big, frisky, young, four-legged, tail-wagging thoroughbreds going through their workouts under their exercise riders, jockeys and trainers.

Now, in the post-9/11 Age, as they say, some things have changed. We’re more security conscious. Never know when the next band of Muslim terrorists will launch a suicide mission to blow up a prime American target, right?

That’s why I can’t ride my bike around the backstretch at Saratoga anymore. I could be a terrorist. The security guards started stopping me a few years ago.

Anyway, I want to go on record before the big bad Belmont Stakes today. I like the filly, i.e. the only girl in the race: Rags to Riches. And that’s where I’m placing my bet – Rags to Riches to win.

I don’t know, maybe it’s a Hillary Clinton thing?

Post-time is 6:33 p.m. and it’s live on ABC.

***UPDATE***
7 p.m.
 What a horse race and the filly won!

First filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 1905.

Repeat: First filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 19-fucking-05!

Yours truly picked the winner [above], but unfortunately had no money on her over at NY’s OTB.

Hey, who cares?

For the times, they are a changin’.

First filly to win the Belmont since 1905…since 1905…since 1905.

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Peter Freyne, 1949-2009, wrote the weekly political column "Inside Track," which originated in the Vanguard Press in the mid 1980s; he brought it to Seven Days in 1995. He retired it shortly before his death in January, 2009. We all miss him.