I was very sad to hear that Nancy Dolman, the wife of comedian Martin Short died on the weekend. I had a couple of degrees of involvement with Nancy.

She was two years younger than me and we both attended York Mills C.I. As a teenager, she was a stunning young woman, often the subject of admiration among the young males in the school.

She became an actress and singer and in 1972, while in the production of Godspell, she met Short and they married in 1980.  My understanding is that it was a fruitful, loving and successful marriage until the end. She was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago.

In the mid 80s, I was employed at CITY-TV and somewhere along the line, I submitted a very mediocre film scrip to Moses Znaimer. But timing is everything, and, as I recall, Moses wanted to branch out and make movies, so he told me to rewrite my script. It was called Butterbump in the Eighth and was a half hour little story and Moses decided that CITY would produce it.

Marcia Martin, a CITY TV producer was in charge of the production. Her sister Andrea, the great comic actress was married to Bob Dolman, Nancy’s brother. Marcia decided from the start that Nancy would get the role of Audrey. I was friends with actor Jonathan Welsh and persuaded Andrea that he should have the lead role of Stewart.

The plot, what there was of it, concerned an inveterate cabdriver horseplayer, who meets a beautiful woman at the track, falls for her while pursuing a big ‘tip’ and right after he scores a big win, she rips him off for the proceeds.

The third lead role was that of a 12 year-old boy – a track rat – who perhaps latched on to the Jonathan Welsh character as a father figure.  We spent a lot of time casting for the right kid and I remember distinctly when Sean Roberge came in to read. He was so smooth and natural that I simply blurted out,

“You’re the one! You got the part.”

Shooting Butterbump in the Eight (the cabdriver gets a tip on Butterbump in the Eighth, get it?) was a great experience. Woodbine pretty well gave us carte blanche to shoot anywhere we wanted.  It is certainly not a terrific film by any measurement, but I am proud of the race sequences. Unlike Seabiscuit, we could not create races – we had to shoot the real ones and sew them together to suit our purposes.

There was one scene between Welsh and Dolman that was intriguing to film. Basically he seduces her with the idea that he has a big tip that is going to render a lot of cash. We shot it in a hotel room and it was the first and only time in my life in which I had to direct actors to kiss each other.  I think every guy in the room was jealous of Welsh that night. Nancy looked gorgeous.

We shot Butterbump in 1985. By then, Martin Short was very much a rising star. His work in the SCTV series was hilarious and brilliant. One day he showed up at Woodbine to watch us shoot a scene with his wife. He had the couple’s first child in a stroller and was perfectly content to play the abiding father on the sidelines, while mom got all the attention. One scene involved Stewart leaving the track after a losing day and handing off his racing form to someone coming in. I asked Martin if he would be the guy coming in.

Then I could brag that I directed Martin Short in my movie.

Marty was more than happy to do it. The problem was, each time he took the form, he had to do a piece of business, a pratfall, a head splat into a garbage can, whatever. He had us in stitches.

I’d like to say you can see this scene on YouTube or that the movie is available at Blockbuster, but I don’t even have a copy myself. Maybe Marcia Martin does. Someone ask her.

Nancy Dolman was terrific in a poorly written part. At no point do we really figure out what makes her tick and that was my fault as the writer.

There is a very weird sidebar to this. Sean Roberge, the gifted kid who played the 12 year-old went on to do some very fine work. Among his roles was an ongoing part as the sidekick in the revamped Tarzan series. Sadly, Roberge was killed in a car accident in 1996.

Welsh acted in a number of excellent Canadian series. He was the fastidious bureau manager in Adderly and played the gay story editor in the E.N.G. series. Jonathan died in 2005 and sadly, he passed with virtually no fanfare. I can’t even tell you what he died of.

So the three leads in a mediocre horse racing movie that I wrote and directed have all died.

There was a brief moment in my life that I was involved with Nancy Dolman. She was a beautiful woman, who at all times conducted herself with grace, skill and humour.

Like many others, I extend my sympathies to Martin Short and his children.

I haven’t contributed to my blog for awhile and that has a lot to do with the fact that I was in Saratoga from July 23 through Sunday August 1. This is an annual trip that I take with buddies Jim McKenny and Clint Nickerson. We’ve lost count, but this could have been the 15^th time since the early 90’s we’ve made the journey.

And we declared this one the best ever. In previous years, we had arrived on the Wednesday and stayed through Sunday, but when I learned that they had decided to push opening day back to the Friday, I proposed a ten-day trip which received unanimous approval.

To be honest, we didn’t make any money; in fact we left a healthy contribution to the New York Racing Association, but that’s hardly the point. We had glorious weather, saw some great racing, ate tons of food and even got a little golfing in.

It’s the grass racing at Saratoga that really stands out. At some point, we simply lost track of the heart-pounding finishes. Every final hundred yards seemed to feature half a dozen surging horses heads with anyone of them having a chance to win. Usually there are four or five turf races a day at Saratoga. In previous years, we have attended when it rained all week, and most of the grass races were canceled and run with depleted fields on the dirt. It was wonderful to have the perfect sunny warmth all week and none of the races were affected.

On Wednesday, July 28, they ran the $150,000 Lake George Stakes for three year-old fillies at a mile and a sixteenth on the inner turf. Lots of Canadian content as trainer Roger Attfield sent out Perfect Shirl and No Explaining, Mark Casse entered Exclusive Love, and Brian Lynch had Bay To Bay. This one had a typical finish as 9-1 shot Perfect Shirl and rider John Velasquez  roared from mid-field in the stretch to win by about three quarters a length. In second was Exclusive Love who went off at 57-1, but had a lovely trip, sitting third most of the way for jockey Shaun Bridgmohan. Attfield’s second horse, No Explaining was third, creating an all-Woodbine tri that was worth $6,100 . Casse had a brilliant comment after the race.

“I had to come all the way to Saratoga to get beat by Roger Attfield,” he cracked. “I can do that at Woodbine any day of the week.”

We saw a lot of amazing stuff in a ten day span that went by in a blink of the eye. I kept wondering of Lindsay Lohan’s fourteen day stint in prison went as quickly. I guess not. On Saturday, July 24, jockey Javier Castellano made history when he became the first rider ever to win five straight races at Saratoga. He captured the second on 5-2 shot Yawkey Way, came right back in the third on the favourite (43.60) Cody Samora, scored the fourth race with Desert Key ($8.80), had the crowd buzzing with his fourth straight on 3-2 shot Fiddler’s Chaparito in the fifth and saved his best for last when he scored in the sixth with 12-1 longshot, Stand Proud. Not only did Stand Proud have minimal form, but he staggered out of the gate and was last of nine after a quarter mile. But Castellano was patient, got his horse in stride and was making up ground in the stretch. Not doing this with style points however, as the Daily racing Form chart says he “veered in several paths  in upper stretch.”  Late in the lane, though, Stand Proud was straight as an arrow and got the lead in the final stride to win by a neck.   Some jockeys have won 5 races on a single card at Saratoga, but Castellano is the only guy to win five straight. And a unique circumstance at Saratoga made this even cooler. The jockeys walk back to their quarters right through the crowd and when Castellano made his way back to the jocks room, he received a huge roar from the masses and extended applause.

At Woodbine, for comparison, the jockeys weight in after a race under the track and then disappear in a tunnel that takes them back to their room. There is little opportunity for the fans to interact with the riders.

There have been a couple of good moments for Woodbine based jockeys at this Saratoga meet. Eurico Rosa da Silva, the leading rider at Woodbine, came to the Spa and rode Biofuel to a nifty second place finish in the American Coaching Club Stakes on July 24. This was a mile and an eighth on the dirt for three year-old fillies and the winner, Devil May Care was just too much, galloping home by four lengths. But Biofuel, the Sovereign Award winner as the best two year-old filly in Canada, ran strongly in the stretch to get the second money. Want to know just how great a race this was for the fillies? Devil May Care’s time for the nine furlongs was 1:49.42. On Sunday, August 1, Looking At Lucky got rave reviews for his awesome win in the $Million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth. Looking At Lucky buried a very strong field, winning by four lengths and leaving Kentucky Derby winning Super Saver back in fourth. Looking At Lucky was timed in 1:42.83 for the mile and an eighth. In other words, based on the times, the filly devil May Care would have hit the wire two lengths ahead of Looking At Lucky.

And yesterday, Chantal Sutherland rode Audre Cappuccitti’s speedy Essence Hit Man in the Amsterdam Stake. Sutherland took Essence Hit Man right to the top as soon as the gates opened, but she was stalked down the backstretch by the 3-5 favourite Discreetly Mine, ridden by John Velasquez. Essence Hit Man set some torrid fractions…21.45, 44.07 and 1:07.76 for six furlongs. That worked out well for Discreetly Mine who wore down Essence Hit Man in mid-stretch and just kept on to the wire, winning by almost 9 lengths. Essence Hit Man’s speed was too much for the others and he held on for second…good for $30,000, a tenth of which goes to Sutherland and you could lure me to the Spa for $3000 a day.

Just an example of the sensational racing we saw during the fastest ten days of our lives. Back to the grind now. Only 356 days until I leave for next year’s trip to Saratoga.