AND suddenly it’s September.

A few early leaves with a hint of orange blow across the ground. A train of horse vans begin to rumble down Union Avenue, heading south.

The summer help has dropped their paper routes, their restaurant stations, and headed back to school. Saratoga – a friend, a foe – comes to a close.

The closest thing we have to a festival – supersized with 40 racing days – has delivered yet again. Nothing like it was, but still better than the rest, Saratoga provided two months of stellar racing and summer fun.

John Velazquez won his 1,000th race at the venerable track this summer. Long since inducted into the Hall of Fame, the most definitive jockey I’ve ever known continues to bang out winners with resoluteness.

“Every win counts in Saratoga,” Velaquez said. He’s made them all count.

Any day now, Irad Ortiz Jr. will clinch the riding title. Young and gifted, his brilliant rides can still be overshadowed by his reckless ones. He’ll earn his second Saratoga title, with a win in the Whitney as the highlight.

Well on his way to winning the Grade 1 stakes on Life Is Good that day, he drifted over on stablemate Happy Saver. A bit of tarnish on the silver.

As for the best performance in the saddle, Joel Rosario rode with his typical empathetic and ethereal manner, winning more graded stakes at the meet than any jockey, including the Grade 1 Travers aboard Epicenter. Rosario is a gift to watch.

Chad Brown leads Todd Pletcher in the trainer’s race. Six wins up with four and a half cards to go, Brown should nail down his fifth title.

It wasn’t all winner’s circle photos for Brown as he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of criminal obstruction of breathing earlier in the meet.

The 43-year-old is accused of pushing a female exercise rider, who he had previously been involved with, down the stairs and choking her. For all the beauty at Saratoga, there sometimes is a beast.

Scorched

Life Is Good scorched the Whitney to lead all older horses. Epicenter swept the Jim Dandy and Travers, catapulting to the top of the three-year-old division.

Nest dominated two Grade 1 stakes for three-year-old fillies to lead that division. Jackie’s Warrior became the first horse to win a Grade 1 stakes three years in a row at Saratoga.

A few two-year-olds wowed us, but we know too well that a performance in August is a long way away from a career.

As for me, I was gone for two and a half weeks, dead centre in the meet. My wife called on Whitney morning. She never calls on Whitney morning.

“Our barn’s on fire…”

It was the worst four words I’ve ever heard her say in our 32-year odyssey. Annie, my son Miles and a friend named Misael got four horses, a one-horned goat and a barn cat out alive. Heroes. The barn is gone.

An old friend, built in the late 1800s, renovated by an ambitious couple of horse crazy newlyweds 12 or so years ago, lies in a heap of rubble, still smoldering, still reminding us of the fragility of life.

I ride the ricochet of being grateful that no one died and the raw reality of loss.

The only solace is the kindness of friends, of acquaintances, of strangers who have made the road ever so slightly easier.

I’ll head home in a few days. A different man to a different home.