slick up

Fred wasn’t great about remembering to slick up his pits in the morning.

After the American missed a gate about 10 seconds into her first race in Beijing, another skier, Sarah Schleper, said: “It was so slick up top, she just lost her edge.”

“It was a little slick up there but I was able to get it and hold him off from there. I can’t believe it.”

I stop to remember another dancer from Orange who cared so much about his smooth moves that he carried a film canister full of wax around to slick up the wood beneath his feet.

The spectacle of 2-year-olds on the track, all slicked up before a race, is seductive.