Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem March 26, 2026

A good Thursday morning to you all! Last night was Opening Night for Major League Baseball, and today is the more traditional Opening Day, and it got me thinking about Opening Days in general. Just the two words conjure up thoughts of anticipation, hope, and the knowledge that we have many exciting things ahead. As someone who works in racing, I often associate Opening Days with a bit of apprehension and expected chaos. It seems that little things never run smoothly on the first day. And all Opening Days have their own unique feel and sense of anticipation. 

Opening Days like Saratoga and Keeneland, I feel like people count down to. In the middle of a snowy winter I”ll see posts from people like “we’re just 150 days from Saratoga opening day.” People plan their vacations around those. For a lot of tracks, Opening Day (or night) is usually just the first day of many for a long meet. There’s certainly some built-up anticipation and demand, but it’s not an event. 

I was trying to think back to some of my favorite Opening Days I’ve been to as a worker and a fan, and a couple from Emerald Downs jumped right to the head of the list. Opening Day at Emerald Downs in 2004 was my first day of working in horse racing. I was a turf writer and media assistant there, and the previous few weeks I’d been walking the barn area with a great writer named Dennis Box who had been introducing me to everyone and digging up stories about the season. The card got going, and there was nothing too exciting outside of the normal racing. Then a gray blur named Willie The Cat went out and set a world record for 5 1/2 furlongs, and our night shifted into overdrive. We had to type out a new press release and help all the newspaper guys with quotes, and it got crazy right away. Willie The Cat won a couple of other stakes races after that, but that night was something so special. Opening Day 2005 was memorable just cause me and a friend made a big score, haha. 

Monmouth Park's 2019 Opening Day was special for me as well. I hadn’t done any announcing from March 2015 until November 2018 due to my struggles with anxiety. So when I got the Monmouth fill-in gig in 2019, I was so nervous leading up to Opening Day. I remember having a thought as they walked to the gate, my legs shaking frantically, “Why am I doing this to myself? I don’t have to be here.” But luckily, I couldn’t run out, so I called the race, and it gradually got easier each race. I still remember Hawkish rallying between horses to get up and win the Cliff Hanger Stakes as the feature. 

Colonial Downs’ Opening Day in 2019 was memorable as well, because it was the first year of racing since the track had shuttered in 2013. The first race had a full field of 12 going long on turf and ended up being a mad scramble down the stretch. I remember afterwards thinking, “Well, that could have gone badly.” It was a good preview of what was to come at Colonial, as full field turf races and wild finishes happen pretty frequently. 

Opening Days are such a fun part of any sport. When the Mariners take the field on Thursday, it will be the first of 162 games and seven months of excitement. I try to watch as many games as I can, but with them being out west, it’s hard to stay up until 1 a.m. ET on most games. Baseball stadiums, like racetracks, are such great places to visit and experience. Hoping to get to a couple of stadiums for the first time this year, and always looking to get to another racetrack. I think I’m at 74 racetracks visited and 12 current MLB stadiums (also visited four tracks that no longer exist). It’s fun to “collect” tracks and ballparks. 

Happy Opening Day, everyone!