So Higgins remains a racetracker — a different kind of one — and her summer here at the Spa is more than just a working vacation.

Talking to Smith, remembered one racetracker, “was like talking to a post.”

“I had no money, just a station wagon and a dog, a little Jack Russell,” said Snyder, a 56-year-old racetracker who has spent decades dealing with horses racing on the sport’s lowest rungs.