“We got the Golden Ticket,” Steve de’Lemos, who owns the aptly named Live In The Dream with his wife, Jolene, said here on Monday, as he looked beyond the palm trees in the Santa Anita infield towards the San Gabriel mountains that loom over the track. “I feel like Charlie Bucket at the Wonka Factory and we’re going to sample every bit of candy that Santa Anita has got to offer. Look at it. It’s just incredible.”
It is a typical response to a first experience of Santa Anita, a racecourse which has few, if any, equals in terms of its setting and has been leaving people wide-eyed for nearly a century. The de’Lemos’s, though, are anything but typical racehorse owners, and the story of their journey to the Breeders’ Cup meeting here on Saturday – completed in economy class on Saturday – is a welcome reminder that even at this most glamourous of events, there is always a chance for a Charlie Bucket to beat the odds.
