SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Win the first race on the first day. That's how to start the season. Chad Brown did it last year. The horse hasn't won since. Thankfully, the trainer has. More often than not, that's the way it goes. Trainer Linda Rice gets the opener this afternoon, her 5-year-old Good Prospect rolling to a definitive victory for owner Sigmund Marguiles. It's the second win in a row for the New York-bred gelding. Jockey Alan Garcia tucks the whip in and cruises on home. "Get it out of the way," Rice says. "Last year the first one came a little later in the meet and I was getting a little frustrated." If only every one could come this easy. Next race, not so much. The one horse drops his rider. The 10 gets bumped. It's a photo finish. The David Donk trainee ekes out the score under Johnny Velazquez, but the jock on the 10 claims foul. It doesn't stick. First time back for local owners Michael and Lyn Shanley since his run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf last October, Freedom Rings gets the win. He had it coming. So it goes. Gold Trippi takes the James Marvin, running by Pyro in a late move. The equine ambulance springs into use for the 5th, when the Del Carroll-trained Alexandros is vanned off. There's a loose horse in the paddock (quickly apprehended by an apt handler), multiple fractious runners in the gate, and a birthday victory for trainer Bill Mott in the fifth, Gerald Crawford's Come from Behind. We hit the halfway point with a cool breeze blowing in, gentle showers, the promise of more rain to come. We read our programs and consider our picks, wince when our runners finish off the board, cheer as they hit. Races six and seven are a Dutrow double -- Rick sending out IEAH Stables' Optimer under Robby Albarado, Tony saddling Samuel Bayard's Westover Wildcat under Ramon Dominguez. In the eighth, West Point Stables' partners jump and jostle and shout and scream Saratoga Russell into the winner's circle. He last raced at Monmouth Park. The partners voted to send him here. The decision paid off. Hot Dixie Chick takes the Schuylerville, tidy $100,000 purse for six furlongs run in 1:10.18. The 2-year-old filly is owned by Barbara Banke, wife of Stonestreet Stables owner Jess Jackson. It's her own operation, Grace Stables, about 10 or 12 fillies bred by Stonestreet or purchased at auction. Someone asks her if this daughter of Dixie Union is the best horse in her stable. "She is today," she replies with a smile. A steady rain is falling as the nightcap comes around. They're off the turf. Rodman gallops home an easy winner for Michael Hushion, Edgar Prado. He likes the slop. Us? Not so much. Here's hoping the rain wraps up by tomorrow, when we'll do it all over again. We'll check in from the backside then, this afternoon giving us plenty of inspiration for future items. Here's the best thing about Saratoga … if you let them, the stories come to you.