Do you believe in omens? To quote a famous television line: “I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little stitious.” My son Nicholas, also known as “Ace”, and I took a road trip to Scioto Downs to watch my Aunt Lilly race in the Next Generation Stakes, and the trip was eventful, to say the least. Ace and I often playfully look for omens and extrapolate how that will affect how the rest of our day plays out. For example, on the way to a Buffalo Bills game (we are season ticket holders and diehard Bills Mafia), we pull up to the border and pick a lane. When all the other lanes move fast and ours is stalled, one of us will blurt out: “I knew we were going to lose today”. Conversely, if we luckily pick the fastest lane, we figure that’s an omen we are going to win. It’s all playful banter, but on Saturday, July 6, on our way to Ohio, there was an event entirely caused by us that could have gone bad but didn’t and I immediately took it as an omen that the race was going to go well that night. As we progressed through Ohio, I asked Ace to find a Chick-Fil-A close to the thruway where we could stop to eat, and we also needed to fuel up as our range was getting low. He found a spot around Akron, and we enjoyed our lunch and got back on the road. After driving for a few minutes I glanced down at the gauges to check my speed and saw the fuel light was still on and the “range” down to 10 miles. “OH MY GOD! We forgot to gas up!” I blurted. Seeing an exit coming up fast I veered off and directed Ace to find the closest gas station. How close is it!?! I asked, now panicked. “Five miles,” he replied. I hope like hell this gauge is accurate, I thought. We proceeded to the gas station and of course hit every red light. I coasted down hills hoping to save as much gas as I could. The range marker quickly changed to five miles. Of course it did. “How close are we?” I asked as my blood pressure rose. “Three miles,” Ace quietly replied, then added: “You won’t believe where we are headed to.” Okay, I’ll bite, I thought. “Where?” He told me we were going to Chagrin Boulevard, which I without fail made a stupid joke about every time we passed on previous road trips. “How many times have I used the stupid line ‘much to my chagrin,’” I asked rhetorically. That’s it, we are for sure not making it, I thought. Alas, the gauge was right, and we rolled into the gas station without running out of fuel. Now, about that omen. In my mind as I was panicking, I still managed to conjure the thought that if we run out of gas the race would go badly. Which of course is ridiculous, but hey, I already told you, I’m a little stitious. We arrive at Scioto and check into the Hampton Inn, meeting part of The Stable’s Ohio crew in the lobby – stalwart Kirby McGinnis with some upbeat caretakers. The next omen would soon follow. We check in without incident and get assigned room 427. As we ride the elevator, I blurt out: “I should have asked for a room near the elevator” -- not because I am lazy, it just seems that virtually every time we stay in a hotel, we are in the room furthest from the elevator and it was starting to get annoying. The elevator door opens, we walk out, turn right, and there’s room 427. The closest one to the elevator. A good sign? Maybe. One of the highlights of our trips is exploring new food options. But this time, Ace remembered that the one previous time we came to Scioto Downs, we ate at Brew Brothers and ordered the Burnt Ends appetizer and loved it. So, we did so again, and remembered why. That dish is tremendous. It should be ordered as a main course then a side added. Half of the serving wasn’t enough. As much as we enjoyed our meal, we didn’t drive 440 miles from Toronto to eat burnt ends. There were bigger fish to fry (and hopefully no more ends to burn). I owned a piece of a filly through The Stable.ca that was going to be one of the favorites in a $150,000 (U.S.) race. Aunt Lilly is an Uncle Peter filly that The Stable.ca shelled out $65,000 for at the Ohio Select sale. She came into this race off a nice 1:58 4/5 maiden win in the opening leg of a Pop Up series at The Meadows. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. But I was also extremely excited. We walked into the facility and the first thing that I noticed was the size of the crowd. The Scioto grandstand is intimate and seemingly the perfect size because there were very few empty seats. One reason I really enjoy going to any track in Ohio is that they are almost always well populated. Ohioans love harness racing and there was a great atmosphere on this night. Ace and I sat in the Three Diamonds room for the first few races, invited as owners by Scioto Downs. When we walked in, we immediately were greeted by Jay Wolf and Frank Fraas, who would soon be starting the Facebook Live broadcast of the stakes races, presented by the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association.  Fraas, a fellow Buffalo Bills season ticket holder, greeted us with a robust “GO BILLS”, which to Bills fans is the equivalent of saying hello. We decided to go down to the rail to watch the “Battle of the Bigmouths” partway through the card, featuring Gabe Prewitt vs. Pete Aiello in a match race rematch for charity. Aiello won the first one of these events, but he was up against it with Prewitt drawing the rail and, apparently, a faster racehorse. Alas, Prewitt went right down the road, crushing in 2:07 in a jog cart, final quarter in an impressive 30-flat. He showboated nearing the wire which pleased the large crowd. We stayed at the rail to watch Aunt Lilly warm up and thought she looked sharp and ready. Soon, it would be time to race, and we went down to the rail again. As the horses lined up behind the gate, I could feel my heart starting to beat faster and harder. This was a $150,000 race, and one could say that I “only” owned four percent of the filly. I can tell you there is nothing like winning a race no matter how much you own, and I had never been in a race this big with a good horse before. She was the 7-5 favorite at the off. Being that the tote board blocked our view of the start (and most of the third quarter), I had to rely on Scioto’s very good announcer Barry Vicroy for information on the start. He indicated Rose’s Destiny was heading to the front. But that filly broke, then interfered with the rail filly Wild Child Annie, who then broke, and some confusion ensued which led to the trailing fillies to take up to get around the breakers. Avoiding this trouble were only two of them, our Aunt Lilly, who left hard from post six, and R Maggie, who blasted from post three. They headed to the quarter racing 1-2 several lengths ahead of the rest of the field. Aunt Lilly cut a 29-flat opening quarter and seemed to be taking a breather when she passed in front of us. As the field disappeared behind the tote board heading to the half, I blurted out: “give me one minute!” “They move to the half, it’s Aunt Lilly with the lead, the half is up in just a minute,” Vicroy obliged. I felt confident at this point. When Aunt Lilly reappeared in my view heading to the three-quarter pole, it seemed obvious that only the pocket-sitter R Maggie had a chance to chase her down. That filly started to gap then broke before the last turn, and Aunt Lilly sprinted clear of the rest of the field, turning for home with a seemingly insurmountable lead. She powered down the stretch, kicking home in 28 3/5, a decisive 4 1/2-length winner of the Next Generation Stakes. I would like to report that I acted “like I’d been there before”, but I absolutely didn’t. I imagine that every single person in that track heard me. But, hey, it’s a racetrack, not a library, right? When Ace went to order the win picture from Brad Conrad, the talented photographer understated: “he was excited, wasn’t he?” referring to my post-race antics. When I watched the replay, I was thankful that in what could be the biggest race I will ever have a starter in, we really got all the racing luck. First, the filly I was most scared of that had an exceptional warm-up, trainer Ron Burke’s Rose Run Allison, missed the gate by about three lengths then lost more ground avoiding the breakers heading to the first turn. The way she finished, passing horses to finish third while trotting the fastest final quarter, indicated she was surely one of the best fillies in the race. Being able to take a breather to the half because the field was strung out helped. But when you think you have the best horse, heading immediately to the front allows you to stay out of trouble and make your own luck. You still have to seal the deal, and Aunt Lilly was more than up to the task. When we went to watch Aunt Lilly qualify at Northfield Park, I told her caretaker Calli Kotkowski that I win-tip over and above what shows up on my monthly bill. True to my word, I handed Kotkoski a $25 win ticket on Aunt Lilly. The only other bet I made on the filly was a souvenir $2 win ticket which I will get laminated and add to the framed win pic. After all, I was cashing a $2,700 owner’s share if she won, and that’s U.S. dollars. That is about half-a-billion when converted to Canuck bucks. I didn’t need to bet. We joined the large gathering for the win picture. Instead of saying cheese, I blurted: “I love you A Mac,” and could see a grin appear on winning driver Anthony MacDonald’s face. We asked Kirby McGinnis how to get to the barn to see the filly and he helpfully sent us a screenshot of a map with The Stable’s barn pinpointed. We watched a couple more races in the Three Diamonds room to allow for the test barn time to pass. I was approached by Jason Roth, Director of Racing at Scioto Downs. “Congratulations, and thank you very much for coming tonight,” he said as he shook my hand. There is another reason why I love going to Ohio for the harness races. I seem to always get treated well no matter which track I am at. “How does he know who I am,” I asked Ace, incredulously. “Come on dad, everyone knows who you are,” he replied. I’m not sure how true that is, but Roth’s visit was genuinely appreciated. We pulled into the stable area about 90 minutes after our race ended, and made it over there just in time before the horses were loaded onto the trailer for the two-and-a-half-hour trip back to home base at Northfield Park. I remarked to Kotkowski how beautifully shiny the filly looked. Then we shot some pictures, had a nice chat with trainer Jason McGinnis, and made our way back to our hotel. Of course, we stopped in Buffalo for celebratory wings and Beef On Weck sandwiches on our way back to Toronto on Sunday. We pulled into our favorite wing spot, Bar Bill Tavern and found cars circling the lot and zero available parking spots. Bar Bill is that good – especially their Cajun Honey Butter BBQ flavor. Was this another bad omen? Not really. I knew that Duff’s famous wings was down the street, so we headed there. We found out that their Beef On Weck sandwich is better than Bar Bill’s. The wings are good, but no one touches Bar Bill’s wings for me. They are elite. As we dug into our wings – I separated the flats for myself and gave Ace the drums – I thought, did all the good omens on this road trip mean something? Consider how much racing luck we had going for $150K and how perfectly the race played out. I can’t say for sure that they didn’t and I’m certainly not complaining about good mojo.