WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Long in the tooth

For me, Saturday was about the passage of time, and about time standing still.

They had a special race at Santa Anita, the first ever of its kind. For one seven-furlong ride, the jockeys got in the Wayback Machine and set it to 20 years ago.

In this “Legends” race, the fourth of the day, Hall of Fame riders Angel Cordero, 65, Sandy Hawley, 59, Chris McCarron, 53, Julie Krone, 45, Pat Day, 55, Jacinto Vasquez, 64, Gary Stevens, 45, and Jerry Bailey, 45, came out of retirement to ride again. And it wasn’t just an exhibition canter; it was a betting race that counted in the riders’ records.

I was present with a small group of racing fans, graciously hosted by Laguna’s Friends of the Library president Martha Lydick. We all remembered these jockeys from our various trips to the races over the years, and we cheered along with the crowd when they were introduced before the race.

I bet on Chris McCarron, an old favorite, but Sandy Hawley had the best horse (Tribal Chief), and as I watched him beat the others, and me, wire-to-wire, just the way he often did back in the day, the memory of old torn betting slips came flooding back. It was quite nostalgic.

What really impressed us railbirds, of course, was that these riders were competing on major-league horses at an age when most of us are heading over the hill.

It made an especially strong impression on me, because I’d been feeling just about finished with life a few hours before.

My day began with an emergency visit to the dentist. I’d had to arrange it the night before, after breaking a front tooth while flossing — an old man’s mishap, I felt.

While repairing the damage, my dentist — a saint, by the way, for coming to his office on a Saturday morning — had suggested that I might not need much anesthetic, because the nerves in our teeth recede as we age. He said he had 85-year-old patients who could have this kind of work done painlessly.

At the time I’d thought, “Oh, fine, I’m edging up on the senior seniors.”

But as I watched the fourth race at Santa Anita, I felt better, and not just because my tooth was fixed.

Here was Sandy Hawley, the same age as me, winning wire-to-wire, just like the old days. And here was I, holding a ticket on somebody else’s horse, just like the old days. For that minute and 21 seconds, we hadn’t aged a bit.

And I realized also, for the first time, that I have something to look forward to as I approach my own finish line.

If I can make it to 85, I can get painless drilling on my nerveless teeth.

Bring on that broken incisor in 2034.

SHERWOOD KIRALY is a Laguna Beach resident. He has written four novels, three of which were critically acclaimed. His novel, “Diminished Capacity,” is now available in bookstores, and the film version will soon be out on DVD.