Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem for Sept. 29, 2025

Jason discusses being away from racing for his vacation and disconnecting from the game for a bit. 

A good Monday morning to you all! Writing once again from my home in Clearwater, Florida, where summer is still very much in season. I had that taste of chilly mornings and crisp fall weather while in Montreal and in New England, so it’s been a bit of a shock to the system to come back to 88 and humid. But it could always be worse.  

One of my normal objectives for my annual couple of weeks off from the podcast is to take those weeks off of horse racing and off of Twitter. I was successful on one of those goals as I managed to stay off the social media app. I did, however, stop by Meadowlands for a night of turf racing and then to Parx for their Pennsylvania Derby (G1) card. I also had a few texts from people during this last week asking me if I’d heard about Paco Lopez and about Mychel Sanchez becoming an outrider. 

It’s amazing how easy it is to miss out on the comings and goings of our game when you’re not tied into the social media world or the racing press. For 50 weeks of the year, I feel like I hardly miss out on any racing news or feuds or fights or controversies. So to just be blissfully unaware for a few weeks is always nice. And having just cracked open Twitter again for the first time in a couple weeks, I’m already yearning for that bliss. I know my life is better without that app, but I also know I’m not fully leaving anytime soon. It’s addicting in an awful and sometimes entertaining sort of way. There are, however, many great people and smart people to learn from there, so I don’t want to diminish the good sides of that particular app.  

I feel like it always takes me a good week or two to feel back into the step of the world of horse racing, and I suppose with Santa Anita in full swing and Keeneland opening up this week, it’s right back to it. This is such a fun time of year as we build up to the Breeders’ Cup, and in my opinion, it’s the best time of year for two-year-old races as we finally see them stretching out to two turns and more interesting distances than the super-short sprints of the spring. 

Overall though, it’s just good to be back writing and talking here on TwinSpires’ platforms. While some quiet time and separation is nice, getting to communicate about horse racing is not only fun and fulfilling, but it’s very therapeutic for me. I never take for granted getting to do these jobs and talk about this game we love and all of its little intricacies, craziness, and thrills. It's a true pleasure. If my show or these columns ever put a smile on your face, even just for a moment, then I feel like I did my job. We’re coming up on the 10-year anniversary of the podcast, and that’s truly crazy to think about. What a blessing.  

Thank you for reading, and have a great week!