Today I saw a video on Facebook of a jockey who did a voiceover from a race he had ridden in, to share what he was thinking during the running of the race. It was an interesting immersive insight into those moments and it reminded me how all-encompassing the love of racing can be for me.

Having moved away from Kentucky, where that’s not as much a part of my life as it once was, I can tend to forget. Maybe a bit of me is needing a little distance for what I don’t get to experience as directly anymore. 

With the past few years leading to a lot of change in my life to adapt to, for that one pure moment of essentially riding along with the jockey and it just being about him and the rapport between the horse, it reminded me of what is at the essence of why I love racing.

This seems like an especially appropriate day to have seen that video as I reflected on the life of Afleet Alex and what he meant so many people.

I saw a quote a while back that a racehorse is one of the few that can simultaneously take thousands of people along for a ride at the same time. These horses definitely have an enduring presence upon anyone that they reached in any way.

Afleet Alex’s story and career are well-known and well-covered. What I want to focus on here are my own memories of him as a personal tribute.

Two of my most enduring memories of time with him are one day when I went to several farms having open houses and a day in the summer of 2022.

I don’t remember the year of the first one, but it was most likely in January of whatever year.  The unexpected part was that many of the grooms at the open houses were willing to give me a little more personal time with some of the stallions, unprompted.

Afleet Alex’s groom opened his stall door during that visit to Gainesway and let me come in the stall with him. When a friend accompanying me took a photo of me in the stall with Afleet Alex, he had good timing to open his mouth in a yawn so wide it looked like a laugh. That is a very amusing photo. It looks like I told him a good joke!  

My most recent visit with Afleet Alex was at the end of June 2022.

By then, I knew that I was likely moving out of Kentucky that year and I wanted to make certain to see him one more time.

I thought the odds of me returning to Gainesway for a visit after that were probably slim or would happen so sporadically that with him being an older stallion, it would be hard to say he would still be there on that as of yet unknown future visit.

So I lingered near him and took some video and a photo, just soaking in who he is.

I did write about that visit on my blog and how the person doing the tour commented what a good natured horse he is and it was always evident.

Even though that visit was not quite in July, it was a beautiful summer day with a lot of flowers in bloom and I found the peace time in nature and with horses often brings me.

When I left the farm, I was remembering a line from a Paul Simon song about “sweet July, and we drove the Montauk Highway.” 

Even though I was not anywhere near the Montauk Highway, the sweet July part and driving through areas where farms are brought that lyric to mind.

I’m glad that Afleet Alex had a life well-lived and that I was lucky to have many times to visit him over the years.

He will indeed be an enduring presence in the memories of many people who love racing and spent time with him.