[Suffolk Shippers]

Just a very somber and upsetting story all around. It's alot like hearing a close friend or loved one has contracted cancer in some form. You just don't expect it, or think it couldn't happen to that person (or yourself). It's a parallel reminder of how fragile life is for both man and animal.

I know plenty of people liked to knock Lost in the Fog for the horses he beat and more or less laid to claim that his winning streak was a figment of comical opposition. That may be somewhat true, but I suggest you ask a true fan of the game if they care who the opponents were that LITF set down. I ask you to look in the eyes of a person who saw LITF as an inspiration and say he was a product of poor opposition. They will tell you they saw a small, gutsy horse who defied logisitics and did most things pundits saw as not feasible for him.

This is a horse you could stand up and cheer for solely on the basis that he represented a lot of what we feel inside ourselves. People telling us we cant do something or that we arent cut out to be in a certain place, basically saying "no you cant". LITF showed that a little guy CAN do just about anything and can defy critics, defy odds and in the process make a believer in many.

Sadly, it looks like that run will come to a close some time soon. LITF shouldn't be measured by the wins he tallied or the money he earned, but for being a shining star and inspiration to the people who think there is not much hope and showing them that even when everyone says "no you can't" there is still a chance to say "yes I can".

That's the beauty of a game like horse racing, those stars can be born everyday and when you least expect it, there is an unknown NY bred gelding crossing the wire first in front of a royally bred animal, a $50,000 claimer winning Grade 1's, an old man car salesman and his wife riding a horse that almost died in the gate to within an eyelash of the Triple Crown, a bonified star cut down in his prime by uncontrollable circumstances who fights night and day to see the sun rise the next morning, and a small statured Cal based colt who runs so fast you sometimes might have missed a quarter mile if you blinked...I hope nobody blinked so long to have missed LITF...because this game needs more like him.