Triple Crown Detox

Tweet It's one of those opinionated days after a couple days of racing detox....

- I stayed away from the interweb for a couple days and played my first round of golf this spring on Monday. Today daddy day care duties commenced for the next three days....which can mean only one thing...

- Monmouth Park on TVG tomorrow! (Well, only if the Space Kid is napping). I've been following this meet more closely than usual due to the Survival at the Shore contest (The Space Gal and I are still alive with live preservers - just jinxed myself I know).

- Was thinking how I can teach the Space Kid about takeout and figured if I buy him a package of M&M's then eat a quarter of them and give him the rest, I can tell him "sorry the takeout is 25%, but enjoy"

- Alan has a nice tribute to the Jockeys over at The Bug Boys. Since we're on the topic, I think that racing can thank C. Borel for the bump in ratings this weekend, I think the general public ate his act up and tuned in to see if he could pull off his own triple. For the third year in a row, we get a rider that's getting ripped in the press and the blogosphere (Gomez, Desormeaux, Borel). Whether the public beating is just or not, Calvin gave us and the masses plenty to talk about and hopefully it generated some interest in the sport and a few new fans along the way.

- It's been a few years since I've been up to Woodbine, so I'm looking forward to going up for the Queen's Plate (first leg of the Canadian triple crown) in a couple weeks. Wonder if I can make it in less than 2 hours?

- I miss eating Quisp in the morning. Not sure why I just wrote that.

- Formulating my Saratoga contest this year, looking to add a few new twists...stay tuned...it's only 49 days to opening day. Val at Foolish Pleasure is the defending champ and will be looking to defend her title. Speaking of opening day, I noticed gas is slowly creeping up to the $3/gallon, I'm sure it'll get there by the time I have to make my first cross-state trip...geez.

- It sure seemed like there were more than 52,000 on hand Saturday at Belmont Park, didn't it? And what's with the PA system? And the war zone that was the parking lot after the race? It made Rich Stadium's lots after a Bills game look like a home and garden show.

- The Saratoga Resident called me as the Manhattan went off, as ABC for the second year in a row didn't show the Grade I turf race, instead showing some personal interest story. Why can't they take the two minutes to show a quality race and get back to their features, doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?

- Kudos for the NTRA and ESPN for showing the undercard from noon to five. I have been a critic in this area in the past, giving credit where credit is due. Hopefully they didn't break the bank.

- I really enjoyed Gomez' last blog post on his view of his Belmont trip. He takes a couple shots at NY racing (very interesting) when commenting on his return to California for the next few weeks and discusses Garcia, JV and Calvin's rides on Saturday. It's a must read.