On Oct. 1, I asked far too many people to pick the winner of the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. I was sick at the time and looked forward to weeks of productivity after my health improved. A Paddy’s Picks guest article felt like light work.
I remained extremely ill for another four days in October and didn’t fully recover for another week. Shortly after I returned to class, my most important source for a big assignment at Columbia canceled on me, forcing me to ditch a month’s worth of research and start over one week before my deadline. To be candid, at around the same time, I fell back into a bit of a slump in terms of mental health, something I can be candid about with my dear readers without fully addressing on this horse racing website. While that was going on, the Mets lost to the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card and I had to put on a brave face after Game 3 while a room full of anti-Met fans berated me without fully understanding the rules of baseball.
