Action-Packed Saturday

Tweet Well it's been 21 years since I've been to the Final Four, when I watched in horror as my beloved Orangemen were squashed by "The Shot" by Indiana's Keith Smart over Howard Triche (who I battled against in the sectionals in high school in Central New York) to propel Bob Knight's Hoosiers to the national championship. I remember turning to my father with 27 seconds left sitting in the 16th row behind the SU bench where I eternally jinxed them (well, until 2003) with the token "I think they are going to win this thing!" comment, when Derrick Coleman clanged his free throw. Well we all know what happened next….and while walking out of the Superdome in New Orleans, I remember lamenting how hard it is to get this far, and then to come up short. On to 2008, it should be a terrific Final Four with four tops seeds advancing, which lines up a terrific TV day with the preps to follow.

Predictions: Memphis over UCLA, UNC over Kansas

Keeneland Opening Day

I kept one eye on TVG all day yesterday (where I went 0 for 4 in the Keeneland contest – king of office pool losers) for Keeneland’s opener. Lot of nice priced horses came home and there were two DQ’s (take notice NY), as the Lexington stewards appeared to make the right call in both cases. Today’s card features the Ashland Stakes (G1) (TVG, 5:15) pitting PROUD SPELL against COUNTRY STAR. Proud Spell is coming off her most impressive win, on LA Derby Day at the Fair Grounds, beating juvenile filly champ Indian Blessing. Bobby Frankel trained Country Star comes off two grade one wins, but is unraced since December. It should be a great matchup…stay tuned. Waiting until Sunday morning to analyze futures pool #3 as some horses may not have the graded stakes earnings necessary to even qualify for 03MAY CD.