The games never stop but excuse us as we take some time away this morning to say a fond farewell to one of our own. Today, the Happy Handicapper will be buried.

Bob Summers, our venerable horse racing writer who passed away suddenly early Sunday, is an iconic media figure in his sport and there are tributes to him flowing all over the Internet.

You can read items from Winningponies.com, the Thoroughbred Times, Bloodhorse.com and Standardbred Canada. I found an hysterical blog post from Mike MacAdam of the Schenectady Gazette about a 90-degree day with Bob at waterless Belmont Park in 2008.

Don Glynn of the Niagara Gazette, Summers' first paper, even suggested Summers' beloved Fort Erie Race Track name a future stakes race in his honor.

Let's all second that motion.

"He represented the paper and Buffalo in a great way," said Bob Curran Jr., son of the legendary News columnist and the vice president of corporate communications for The Jockey Club registry for thoroughbreds. "He was very well-liked by national horse racing media. Everyone is mourning the loss personally and professionally."

Summers would write about himself in the third person, discussing the betscapades of "The H.H." He traveled for many years, in real life and print, with a St. Bonaventure classmate known as "The Exacta Kid" riding in the car dubbed the Betmobile. They'd go to Triple Crown races and then see how many tracks they could hit on the drive home.

The Kid died in 2004 at age 60 and The H.H. eulogized him wonderfully. Turns out the Kid's name was Bob Engelhardt and he was the older brother of longtime Bona sports information director Jim Engelhardt.

"We used to call them the Two Bobs. They were the Two Bobs going out and having a great time," Jim Engelhardt said from Arlington, Va., where he now works in corporate communications. "The fun he was having came through in his articles. He had a passion for those selections and they lived for the racing.

"It was a modern-day version of the Odd Couple, except they were both like Jack Klugman."

I made a few trips to Fort Erie over the years with my late father-in-law and often ran into Bob by the rail. The conversations were usually interrupted because a line of people looking for a tip would follow Bob along as if he were a Pied Piper of Prediction.

"Bob was always on the teleconferences for the Triple Crown and Breeders Cup," said Joan Lawrence, senior communications manager for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. "Inevitably his question would lead to handicapping. He was trying to get a feel of whether he should place a bet so his readers will know. They will miss him."

Curran's final meeting with Summers was last month at Saratoga, perhaps the H.H.'s favorite track. Lawrence laughed as she told stories of Summers' weekly votes to her for top 3-year-olds. They always came with a quip attached.

News copy editor Budd Bailey was Summers' dinner companion during their nights on the sports desk and wrote a moving post about him on his personal blog (buddbailey.blogspot.com).

"Bob once told me that life was too short to miss one of the Triple Crown races, so he started making sure he went to every one starting in 1978," Bailey wrote. "It's a comforting thought that he'll be watching those races now from a great seat looking down on the track. For us, still in the grandstand, we'll miss his gentle wit, good nature, and company."

Racing fans around Western New York surely agree. There was no place and show when it came to Bob Summers. Hats off and a raise of the binoculars to The H.H. His years with the sport he loved were nothing but a win.

mharrington@buffnews.comnull