Dreams and necessity intersect fleetingly. And when we get lucky to catch a moment, it will have already passed because light moves fast. When we look to the sky, a glimmering galaxy just now appearing for us may have burnt away already. Now - as the distance of time functions - is only, always, then. So when we meet our dreams, we are lucky. This year we again got to watch several transformational horses compete. Confederate - despite his end-of-season loss - spurred wonder from his agility and heart and Tactical Approach evolved into a homestretch freight train. But just as they reach a point to become the pure potential within the imagination, they are gone - off to stud duty, where their prospective fierceness on the racetrack is instead optimally priced into their breeding fee. A long list of names precedes just these two from this year - Bulldog Hanover, Tall Dark Stranger, Muscle Hill, Somebeachsomewhere, etc. They go fast like a sun that’s been shot, to quote a song by The Strokes. On occasion we have been lucky to see stars not duck immediately into the breeding shed. In the last decade we saw Captaintreacherous try as a 4-year-old off resounding seasons as a freshman and sophomore. Although he didn’t find the same success as an older horse, he at least tried. We then got lucky with Always B Miki, who possibly wouldn’t have had an older campaign on account of a pair of pastern fractures, the first caught because of precaution and the other caught immediately. And not only did we see him meet his potential as an older horse, we saw him do so at the constant challenge of a similar freak of heart in Wiggle It Jiggleit. Glimmers we get from these stars staying on the track shine so bright because the entirety of racing is built on disappointment. We are losers so often and winners so rarely that perhaps it makes nursing the blows easier. And for a while we had room to wonder over the summer how Confederate or Tactical Approach could build off their effortless speed as a more built and developed 4-year-olds. The moments existed for us to dream. Imagine that the totality of a star horse’s career was not for banking immediate breeding returns, if instead they had the opportunity to spar until they had nothing left to offer on the track. Horses like Tall Dark Stranger, Pebble Beach and Perfect Sting in competition with Bulldog Hanover and then Bythemissal, and all of them coming back with Confederate in the battling rotation. And on the trotting side, King Of The North being a part of the fight with Alrajah One IT, It’s Academic and company, and then putting Tactical Approach into the mix of an otherwise up-for-grabs division. But the money is not in racing them, racing them is for dreams. The money is in their stallion duty, so the moment speculation intrigue maximizes, a racehorse will stop while he’s hot and we’re left with divisions which become vacuums or just singularly dominated, as the aged ranks have been for the last few years. If we’ve really gotten lucky anywhere, we have with the mares. Trotting mares from the last 10 years have flourished from the likes of Atlanta and Manchego and then later Ramona Hill trying her hand. Then mares like Bella Bellini and then Jiggy Jog S this year flexing special muscle over her peers. But eventually even motherhood calls and their moment on the track comes to an end. More often now, our time watching greats be great diminishes. We have few opportunities to see great horses keep racing because the risk of failure is too costly. Every start becomes a gamble, yet horses like Confederate can overcome staples to the leg and pace one of the best miles of the year in the Tattersalls Pace. And surely his loss in the FanDuel won’t dampen his potential; his stud fee is still $20,000. At this point, we have to just say we’re lucky to get any chance to see these horses. Quicker and quicker each year, we are graced by a burst of talent that in some way gets ripped from our imaginations, whether by injury or intention, or whatever reason. And though stars don’t make racing fans, they can make racing interesting, and a plethora of stars makes for competitive racing. That competition is what makes racing fans. Simply good racing. But this all is just a dream, impeded some by just the nature of luck and circumstance and mostly by decisions we make to protect tomorrow. We’re left to reminisce on what has come and cautiously tread toward a future we feel a need to preserve, but all that leaves us away from now. These moments quicken and become more difficult to grasp as time accelerates and the world leaves us behind, but that makes it even more paramount to try and make now as rich as possible. Now is when I wish to dream.