Who are we to break with tradition? Tom Law will make his annual rite of summer by appearing on Winning Ponies. It’s opening week of the long-awaited race meet at historic Saratoga! No team does a better job at creating the feel of a day under the ancient elms than Tom and the Clancy brothers – Joe and Sean. And no publication intimately tells stories about the people, their horses, the day’s racing amid the atmosphere of Saratoga than the “Saratoga Special.” Joining us immediately after the opening day of racing, Tom will discuss the on-going production and coverage planned for the meet. Known to make a wager on the speed of a steed, he will join John to look at the fields for the Grade 3 Forbidden Apple; Grade 3 Sanford and Grade 1 Diana Stakes featuring the undefeated Bleeker Street. Ron Flatter will be joining us to recall he life of the legendary broadcaster, gambler and horseplayer Hank “The Hammer” Goldberg I remembered in his special, pop-up episode of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod. Guests include former ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne, producers Steve Nagler and Kris Kugler and TV director Bob Fishman. Hank Goldberg was a bombastic and witty sports talk radio and television personality in Miami who became nationally known for handicapping horse races and N.F.L. games on ESPN, died on the 4th of July his 82nd birthday, at his home in Las Vegas. As a former resident of Las Vegas himself, Flatter has more than four decades of sports journalism experience spanning four networks on two continents, longtime national broadcaster and writer Ron Flatter came to Horse Racing Nation in 2020, and is now the managing editor with his move to Louisville in the spring of 2021. With horse racing part of his duties at nearly every stop of his career, Flatter has covered nearly every Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup since 2007, missing only the 2020 races because of the pandemic. He has also covered multiple runnings of the Pegasus World Cup, the Arlington Million and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in addition to assignments at the Dubai World Cup, British Champion Stakes and the Melbourne Cup.