The mist fell in soft sheets from a black hole of a sky, and the atmosphere was more befitting the Scottish Highlands than the San Gabriel foothills. It was 5:45 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, the morning of Flightline’s penultimate workout at Santa Anita Park. I had arrived extra-early, to insure a good vantage point at the rail bordering the ¼-mile chute, the area where the horses enter the racetrack from the barns.