The List - By Evan Hammonds

Last weekend’s Wall Street Journal (Oct. 28-29) featured an article “101 Things to Do Before You Die (At Age 101),” that includes such items as No. 1: “Drive cross-country. Any country,” and No. 76: “Accept that there is nothing you can do about the traffic.”
In that bent, we’ve thought this through and have come up with a few “Things to Do in Racing Before You Die:”

• Go to a Breeders’ Cup.
  
  
• Watch a breeding session at one of Kentucky’s top stallion operations.
  
  
• Watch a race from the rickety perch of Pimlico’s press box.
  
  
• Go racing at Kentucky Downs.
  
  
• “Work” a yearling sale.
  
  
• Walk the backstretch of Belmont Park.
  
  
• Enjoy a sunrise at Clocker’s Corner at Santa Anita.
  
  
• Enjoy the nachos on the apron at Sunland Park in New Mexico.
  
  
• Foal watch at a farm in January or February.
  
  
• Watch the races from a box at Saratoga.
  
  
• Visit Calumet Farm’s graveyard.
  
  
• Visit a winner’s circle.
  
  
• Spend a morning at the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.
  
  
• Hang out with the college kids on a Saturday at Keeneland.
  
  
• Go to the infield on Preakness Stakes day at Pimlico.
  
  
• Drive the length of Old Frankfort Pike near Lexington.
  
  
• Hang out on the rail by the Oyster Bar at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
  
  
• Bid on a horse at auction.
  
  
• Book a Horse Country tour.
  
  
• Watch the Derby and Oaks horses gallop Derby week at Churchill Downs.
  
  
• Walk around the Humphrey S. Finney sale pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
  
  
• Hang out on the third floor clubhouse at Belmont Park.
  
  
• Go the beach in the morning and the races at Del Mar in the afternoon.
  
  
• Walk under the trees in Delaware Park’s paddock.
  
  
• Talk your way into the paddock before a big stakes race.
  
  
• Muck a stall.
  
  
• Read Joe Palmer’s This Was Racing.
  
  
• Go to the races at a county fair—preferably the Coconino County Fair in Flagstaff, Ariz.
  
  
• Sip a Mint Julep on Derby weekend.
  
  
• Book a mare.
  
  
• Step up to the $50 window.
  
  
• Read a copy of BloodHorse cover to cover.