Storm Bird (2005)

One of the greatest thoroughbred races of 2004 almost was run underwater. During last year’s Travers Stakes in Saratoga Springs an enormous summer thunderstorm struck. Growing darker and more massive by the minute, the storm clouds turned day into night. Only the low-angle yellow lamps at the finish line illuminated the eerily darkened track. It had begun to rain earlier, but as jockey Edgar Prado rode the Belmont Stakes winner, Birdstone, across the finish line, the skies opened up. To say that it poured rain does not begin to describe the deluge and winds that followed. You couldn’t see ten feet. It was not a race that anyone who darted through the rain will soon forget. And so, my 20th Anniversary poster: Storm Bird. A word of thanks — and admiration — for my long-time friend and colleague, Skip Dickstein. Skip is the photographer who took the unforgettable image of the 2004 Travers finish on which this year’s poster art is based. In the nearly 20 years I have worked with Skip, I ha