West Side Story

Tweet He was my colt in the Juvie, but had a rough trip from the 12 hole and finished a decent 6th only 3 lengths behind Midshipman and 3/4 lengths behind 4th place finisher Terrain. So I am stickin' with my boy, West Side Bernie (surely the kiss of death), in the Jackpot tomorrow night. It's scheduled to go off around 10:17 EST as race 8 as I previewed on Tuesday. I'm not sure what has me jazzed up about this race, but I can't wait to check it out. Maybe it's that the Derby trail is starting to kick up or maybe it's that not too much exciting is going on right now, but I am super charged about a couple of my early Derby horses going head to head down yonder. There's some real speed in here (Trinity Magic scares the hell outta me) that could set this one up nicely to kick off the weekend for Bernie (nyuk nyuk). I also think Big Drama is going to be in the picture, with Eibar taking a ride down south to join the boys down in the bayou for this one on Big Drama. We could use another Big horse on the Derby trail, couldn't we, especially one named Drama!

Skipadate tries dirt for the first time in five starts, he has an impressive placing behind Bittel Road in a non-graded stake at the Spa in August and trainer Mark Casse must think this is a good spot for him after a dismal 11th place finish in the BC Juvie Turf race at Oak Tree.

So based on what I think will be a decent pace scenario I'm going with the following in a trifecta box (predicted order of finish below):

1- West Side Bernie
2- Big Drama
3 - Terrain

For free PP's for the race, check out the TBA homepage and click on the link under the Stakes PP's heading.

Top Chef update (Timeout from racing, those not interested, thanks for reading)

I'm not a big TV watcher and limit my reality TV to a show or two, but Top Chef has totally hooked me. Of course, we also gamble on it. We have a little five contestant Top Chef pool going with the Space Gal, the Saratoga Resident, yours truly and a couple fellow EC alums living in Toga and after 3 weeks we are all alive with our selected competitors. With the top pick I selected "Island" Gene (the Flyin' Hawaiian) who has been pretty much flyin under the radar. Fellow alum and defending champ A-Ron selected the Euro Fabio who looks to be the toughest competitor with a strong showing through 3 weeks (nice duck entree last night). The Space Gal in the third slot selected the other Euro, Stefan, who should crash and burn based on having the biggest head (ego) in the contest, although his huevos rancheros last night looked awesome in the quickfire challenge. Fellow alum Rusty went off the board with Hosea, who has started some romantic shiznit with Leah, which is never good in reality TV -land (see Tim in The Apprentice where the chick was his downfall - lost focus). Finally with the final draft selection the Toga Rez went with Jeffrey, a slick chef who has been in the bottom three and top three in consecutive weeks. He has leadership qualities, but has time management issues which should be his downfall. The Euros are strong, but their opinions and egos will ultimately get in the way. I'm with my namesake all the way......stay tuned. One interesting thing, last week's throwout made s'mores and lost, geez if you were one of fifteen top chefs in the country would you make s'mores on national tv??