The possessor is an upscaling drea...

The possessor is an upscaling dreamer with a law class

The trainer is a taciturn hardboot who could have taught Sinatra lecturings about "My Way."

The outwit is a cranky Hall of Famer with the apparent endurability of the light

The horse is a extended shot too determined to admit it.

The story could be considered Disneyesque solitary if the Mouseworks ever starts cranking not at home touchy-bossy features like "Stern Stall for Flicka" or "Grumpy antique Horsemen."

yet between the insularity and the tight stable wiring, what racetrack make lies in the tale of Major verse

He is the 7-year-old gelding who likely will go on foot postward as the longest shooter in the chi-chi field of 10 or 11 when the 24th renewal of the Arlington Million is controverted Saturday at Arlington Park. If he wins, they might have to imprison down Northwest Highway, at least that portion of way 14 between Eddie's Lounge in Arlington Heights and The Lamplighter in Palatine.

That's because possessor Jim Messineo is a figure of more than inconsequential stature among the aging northwest suburban jock-u- battzi who alone grudgingly have begun mothballing their spikes and softballs in new years. Now a successful private attorney based in Inverness, Messineo in his day was a star point guard and shortstop at Buffalo woodland High School.

"And like in such a manner many other guys I knew I used to sneak disclosed to Arlington Park quite a bit," Messineo, 41 said. "That started all of this."

All of this got great acceleration the same night in 1993, when Messineo -- with measures from Indiana and IIT-Kent Law denomination now in hand -- was sitting with a chamber-fellow room-mate named Mike McGinn at a late, lamented bar-near-the-depot in Arlington Heights called Bill's Inn.

"Mike was working as a paramedic for the firm that had the contract with Arlington Park, and I was buying my first horse Feathered Arrow," Messineo said. "He wanted in, thus we worked out a deal. And he kept raving about the horsemanship of the outrider at Arlington, a associate whom he worked in shut quarters with named Ed Beam. Ed's girlfriend, Tracy Hodgson trained horses. in the way that we got her as our trainer along with another associate of theirs named Jeff Lynn"

Hodgson and Lynn were considered adapted mid-level horsemen at AP; Beam extended ago was first assistant to D Wayne Lukas and outrider at like tracks as Santa Anita, Del Mar and looks Alamitos. Messineo was mesmerized.

"In my estimation, they were just smart, committed horsemen," he said. "Mike went onward to other things, but I stayed in the game. ed could not train because of his official affiliation with Arlington, nevertheless his influence was there."

Late in the 2001 season, Beam's "My Way" misfortuneed bows with then- Arlington vice president of racing Frank Gabriel formerly too often. The outrider was dismissed by the agency of AP management in a manner that Beam felt was actionable. He needinessed an attorney; Messineo was waiting upon the rail.

"The case was eventually settl without of court," Messineo said. "But Jeff Lynn was appoint to move on, and Tracy stepp aside to concentrate onward her career in education. thus that left Ed available to train."

Waiting in Messineo's unobtrusive stable was a 4-year-old son of the Mr Prospector sire verse named Major Rhythm. The young horse had begun competitive life in September 2001 at Fairmount Park. Messineo and Lynn claimed him in April 2002 for $30000 not at home of a mile race at Sportsman's.

"Jeff contemplation it had talent," Messineo said. " notion it might make a religious grass horse if we could always get it to relax."

Beam was right. Larry Sterling piloted The Major to a sward score at Hawthorne shortly after the claim, and couple months later, when the $400000 Secretariat came up light at Arlington, Earlie Fires crowd the colt to a fourth-place finish in a field of seven

"[Major Rhythm's] scour in the Secretariat laid the foundation for him being in the Million this week," Messineo said. "If you consider at his record, in 14 races in succession the grass at Arlington he has never failed to earn a check, not at any time finished worse than fifth. And he has won five and finished in the coin in 12 of those 14 races."

It was the last of those 14 race-ground tries at AP that left Major number among the eminently plausible for Million XXIV. upon July 2, with Hall of Famer Fires in the irons for the 28th time in the gelding's 46-race career, the Beam trainee got up in the final strides to win the $200000 Stars and Stripes at a head over Come forward Jazz. He paid $73 to win, and serious discussion about the Million began among Messineo, Beam and Fires.

"Earlie was against the scamper Ed was pretty much against the flow and I was torn between the Million and the [$500000] Sword Dancer at Saratoga, which is also Saturday and which we were invited to," Messineo said. "Curly Curran, Earlie's agent, was also involved, and he idea we should go for the Million.

"Economics mitigated toward the Sword Dancer, especially because I am not Mr hard Pockets in this game. There was no note fee at Saratoga, and ed probably would have vanned the horse up there himself, meaning we would have saved the $10000 flight recompense ... In the Million, we paid $5000 to take down and will pay another $10000 to start."