Ready to Rumble?

Tweet Tonight it's all about making sure all of the essentials are packed, so there's no time to waste in the morning. Fedora - check (not really). Ugly orange shirt - check. Cooler - check. Macanudo - check. Pens - check. Racing form - check. Space Gal's pink camera - check. Co-pilot - ummm....you're cancelling?? What?? Looks like I am flying solo down the great New York State Thruway tomorrow. Some unavoidable personal issues has my pal G-Money staying at home for the opening two days. At least his Abe Vigoda-like bladder won't hold up my commuting time (and secret new route) into the Springs. I'm officially calling it the Springs from this point on.

Looking forward to some blogger meet ups over the course of the day, as well as seeing many old friends from the greater Albany area. We have an interesting golf match set up with some industry folks (former and current) on Thursday morning at the lovely Ballston Spa CC, which should provide some good blog fodder for the weekend and then to the track for afternoon festivities at the top of the stretch.

The card is a tough one. I'm through the first five races and wow...there will be boxcar payoffs tomorrow, there is no doubt. Value hunting galore. The hunch bet exacta (courtesy: the Puma) is in the Schuylerville: Wild Without Wine w/That's How I Roll. And if you're the Saratoga Resident you toss in Hot Dixie Chick for good measure. Seriously, the James Marvin (Race 3) is a complete brainteaser. I'm currently hoping Pyro takes a lot of dumb money and that a longshot like Cassoulet (anytime you can get Leparoux at double digit odds...whoa) or the Sheikh's Honour Devil runs a big one and makes a big score. I think I am going to stick to straight win betting and rolling doubles tomorrow. We'll see if I can stick to the plan (unlikely).

I received a tweet directed at me by monmouthpark stating that Rachel Alexandra will be carrying 5 less pounds (117) against her nine rivals (notice the use of the word "rivals") in Sunday's $1.25M Haskell Invitational. Like she needs that kind of advantage. I wonder why it wasn't in the stakes conditions, guess they never figured a filly to enter this race....seems odd to me....but what do I know? (Don't answer that last question)

Kevin at Colin's Ghost has a super post up about opening day Saratoga 1919, make sure you check it out. Drop me an email if you'd like to say hello tomorrow or Thursday. And don't forget to get your Toga Party picks to me tonight! Looks like we'll have a full gate, as Val at Foolish Pleasure looks to defend her crown. Good luck and thanks for reading. Back in a couple of days with full reports from the Springs (kinda like the ring to that).

NYRA or NYRAIN?

Tweet The long range forecast for Wednesday (and Thursday) afternoon shows a 40% chance of rain for the Spa. After losing so many turf races to the Spring/Summer of Rain here in New York State, NYRA sure could use a break from the weather as racing moves north (I could say upstate - which some folks think is anything other than NYC) to Saratoga Race Course. With the extraordinary amount of races pulled off the turf (over 60 before the 4th of July per Steve Crist) during the Belmont spring meet, I decided to add a new twist to the Toga Party contest, adding number of turf races for the entire meet, as a play on the weather. Note: First 10 selections due by Tuesday midnight (so I can get the spreadsheet up before I leave Wednesday morning).


Contest News and Notes
- Will we have to bring back the gray skies/gray horse hypothesis for the opener? It worked last year as three gray/roan horses won on a rainy opening day in front of 18,127 rain-soaked patrons.

- Prognositicating the meet's leading jockey is tricky. Dominguez is rolling downstate, setting records and looks to get better mounts for this meet than last year. Maragh had a solid Belmont meet, a risky proposition though? Do you go with mainstays Prado or Johnny V? How about defending champ Alan Garcia, who should get some decent mounts? Julien Leparoux is a great turf rider, but will the weather hamper his win totals?

- How about the Travers attendance? Last year's was 40,723 without a Derby winner. It's a total crapshoot right now, not knowing if Rachel Alexandra will show up. We should have two of the triple crown race winners Mine That Bird and Summer Bird (God-willing) which should boost attendance also.

Monmouth Survival at the Shore update: 19th heading into Sunday's three races (269 contestants remain out of the original 4,226) and will obtain second life preserver by making it through today. Still a ways out, although the leader lost a life preserver yesterday, he/she will obtain a new one today. Still too early to be taking huge shots, but with two preservers in hand, we're getting closer.

OK...now that it's possible that we'll have a wet track, we'll have to get at the handicapping earlier than normal....

NYRA Theme Song....

Toga Opener: Pyromania

Tweet It's only fitting that the Saratoga Resident's 2007 Derby pick (lock) Pyro is showing up for opening day to take on eight others in the James Marvin Stakes (Race 3). I have to say that's got me pretty juiced and a racing revival is in my veins. Other notable starters for next Wednesday after perusing the entries are Ninth Client (Race 4), Bklyn Backstretch fave Saratoga Russell (Race 8) and another Toga Rez-ism That's How I Roll (Race 9 - G3 Schuylerville Stakes).

We're primed for an early morning romp down the thruway (construction between exits 39 and 40 as well as Timmy Ho's coffee could doom any efforts at a 3:59) on Wednesday morning, a little blogger meetup at Siro's post race, downtown Wednesday evening - Grey Gelding for dinner at the bar, rounded out by an early morning tee time at Ballston Spa CC and top of the stretch track day Thursday has it looking like a nice trip (sweet run-on sentence, eh?). The races carded all look like pretty full fields and a tremendous day of racing (let's hope the weather cooperates) is on tap.

Remember to email me (or leave in the comments) your Toga Party II contest picks, I've been receiving them from as far away as Germany, so don't be left out! Jim Dandy selections are due Friday night by midnight.

If you read my post on Bona Venture Stables, looks like there is some good news regarding It's the Big Cat (named after NBA great and Bona grad Bob Lanier) who is pointing towards a turf sprint at the Spa early in the meet. Keep an eye out for this one.

I've survived another day at Monmouth's Survival at the Shore with a place in the first race today and started the day in 21st place ($796.50, 40/129, 31%)...holy moly. Trying to hang on and crack the front page.....

Toga Party - Part Deux

Tweet My alma mater didn't have fraternities or sororities, so some of the boys decided to start their own "unofficial" frat house called TKB. They had the letters made up and placed on their "off campus" house as well as t-shirts etc etc. TKB = Tap a Keg of Beer (and mammoth toga parties). Since I was the Anheuser-Busch rep for the college (best college job EVER) I was a popular fellah with the boys from TKB to say the least, as I was key to the K portion of their fraternity.

Anyways, we're a week away from Saratoga's opening day, and we had some fun last year with my made for blog contest with no prizes that we're gonna bring it back and spiff it up a bit. I've broken it down to 5 meet questions, 5 race or raceday specific questions and 5 winners of major stake races. Instead of having to guess who's running in the Travers in July, you can make your selection for the races no later than the Friday before the race. I will have the spreadsheet up and running on the right margin before I leave for opening day. Remember there's no Price is Right rules in effect (you can go over - it's closest to the correct number). Either email me: budmanbflo[at]hotmail.com your selections for the first 10 items and the tiebreaker or leave them in the comment section. So here goes (open to all, we don't discriminate here in Space Land):

Meet questions
1) Leading Trainer
2) # of Wins - Leading Trainer
3) Leading Jockey (wins)
4) # of Wins - Leading Jockey
5) Total turf races for entire meet

Race/Raceday questions
6) Opening day attendance
7) Travers day attendance
8) Wins by #8 horse on 8/8/09
9) $2 Trifecta payout on the Travers
10) $2 Exacta payout on the Woodward

Race Winners
11) Jim Dandy winner
12) Whitney winner
13) Alabama winner
14) Travers winner
15) King's Bishop winner

Tie-breaker
XX) Which jockey will top the jockey earnings for the meet?

Grand Prize (I lied): Graveyard of Champions book by Bill Heller

Defending Champ: Foolish Pleasure

Good luck and I hope you play along....

Flashbacks

Tweet I'm out of it lately when it comes to racing. I've had only one focus with respect to racing but I'll get to that later in the post. I've been under the weather still...summer colds sure do suck. I can't seem to get my bearings and have been treading water over the past two weeks with respect to life in general. Maybe it's just a summer lull, but nothing has really got me juiced about racing and everyone seems to be whining about everything from suspensions to slots. I guess I'm just not that into you anymore, racing. Yet, I can't quit you. Give me that spark, that little something...

I have been having flashbacks though, probably due to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing which eerily followed the death of the man who announced it to us live, the iconic Walter Cronkite. As a boy growing up, you remember things, like being in 3rd grade and the AV guy (Captain Video) rolls in the big black & whites so we could watch the lunar landing in class. Captain Kangaroo seems to be popping up in my flashbacks too. Maybe due to the resemblance to Cronkite. Scary huh?

But it's less than 10 days to opening day at Saratoga and I'm going to make a full out attempt at the 3:59 (look for some updated road rules next week) as G-Money and I will be descending on the Saratoga Resident's residence (say that 5x fast) for Wednesday and Thursday's racing and a revenge golf match with the Puma. I am working on a Saratoga contest (similar to last year) with some new quirks and items - this year I won't make you pick the Travers winner in July!

Ok, so here's my racing obsession. I've stopped gambling until opening day, taking a break and just focusing on handicapping contests until then. It's paid off so far as I sit in 26th place in the Survival at the Shore at Monmouth with one life preserver in tact. The contest started with over 4,300 entrants and we're down to 312. Survive through July 29th and another life preserver can be had. I'm still a bit away from the top 3 spots, but the top 10 is in sniffing distance. I'm going to keep up my current strategy and just try to outlast the others without trying to go big, that can wait until mid to late August. Approximately 60 players fell off on Saturday when it was a tough day for chalk, wherein I still had a 2nd and a 3rd, so my capping has been pretty solid. Fingers crossed.

Put the Lime in the Coconut

Tweet When you put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better.


Rachel's going to the beach and at least for now, for the first time since the 1996 Travers, we'll have two of the three Triple Crown race winners in the same race (where Preakness winner Louis Quatorze and Belmont Stakes winner Editor’s Note met). If we can get the New Mexicans into the picture we'd have the Grand Slam of Racing in our midst. Not since 1982 (!) have all three triple crown race winners clashed. The 1982 Travers featured Derby winner Gato Del Sol, Preakness winner Aloma’s Ruler, and Belmont Stakes winner Conquistador Cielo at the Spa. Looking at the condition book it doesn't appear that Rachel Alexandra will get a weight break like she did in the Preakness where she carried 121 lbs. to the colts' 126 lbs. The Condition Book reads as follows for the $1M Haskell Invitational:

Weight : 122 lbs. Non-winners of a triple crown race allowed 2 lbs; Non-winners of a Grade I at a mile or over in 2009 allowed 4 lbs. A bonus of $25,000 per race will be given to both the owner and trainer of any horse that has won a leg of the Triple Crown and starts in the Haskell.


So things are little more fair this time around and Summer Bird's trainer Tim Ice has already laid down some smack saying, "Good horses should meet. If we beat her, then Summer Bird is the best three year old." Rock on, Ice Man...let's get this party started.


Anyways, we got ourselves a horse race, and let's hope Munnings and Big Drama continue to point at this one, as it will make the race even more intriguing. Drama had an awful start to the Preakness, but still finished strong and can only be getting better as he matures. I hope he doesn't decide to pass on this one.


Still hoping she gives the Travers a shot so I get to see her....


I'll take my coconut with lime please...


Here's the 1982 Travers featuring all three triple crown winners all to be outdone by a longshot Canuck named Runaway Groom (courtesy cf1970)...

Rockin' a New Site

Tweet While the Space Gal and I will join my handicapping pal, Double-G and Mrs. Double-G, to rock out with Kid Rock tonight at Darien Lake (Lynryd Skynryd on the undercard) you all need to rock on over to the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance new groovin' website.

Not only does it feature your favorite TBA blogs (hope this is one of them), but you can grab 123 horsefolk on Twitter, read 132 racing blogs of all kinds - even some alumni(!), 38 horse racing feeds (both national and international), not to mention some super cool video and free past performances for certain trainers and partnerships. You can also donate to your favorite thoroughbred charity (and stow away a little karma for the big race).

So bookmark our new site and let us know what you think.

We're in our fourth year of existence and continue to rock...so check us out.

A Blog About Nothing

Tweet Remember those classic Seinfeld shows when Jerry and George were trying to sell the network on a show about nothing. Well that's all I have these days, nothing. I had a roller coaster week, where I was sailing on Lake Erie, bed-ridden with the stomach flu for two days and then playing golf in the Appalachian mountains on Saturday morning with a dude who tells me on the first tee that he's a former college golfer, hey no pressure...


First off, sailing is much tougher than it looks. The owner of the sailing vessel I was fortunate to be on let me tack for a good half hour (Dennis Connor I'm not) and with the lake being fairly rough and traveling at around 7 knots (I have no idea what that means) it was hard to keep a straight course. It was a beautiful night on the lake and the views of the Buffalo skyline were pretty magnificent. It did make me wonder what ever happened to the America's Cup I remember watching as a young boy. Talk about a sport that fell off the map....


The former college golfer ended up being a great guy and easy to play with, currently in politics with an Atlanta branch of a major public affairs firm. The topic of my hobby didn't come up until the back nine, and the token "Did you have Mine that Bird?" question surfaced...but he had been to Dover Downs being a Delawarian (is that right?) and an attendee at an annual Derby party in Indiana, so he was cool with horse racing. Anyways, we had a great time and actually played pretty well on a course best suited for a mountain goat.


About the only racing time I got in was a couple races between golf and the reception (Space Gal was in the wedding and the Space Kid was with the in-laws, so I had some nothing time on my hands). I watched the Long Branch from Monmouth (nice win by Atomic Rain) and the Man 0' War from Belmont (Gio Baby Gio- that would make a nice blog title), but my focus was primarily on my latest obsession, the Survival at the Shore. Amazingly, I have cracked the top 40, sitting in 4oth after a solid weekend, one life preserver in tact. 412 players remain out of the 4,300 or so original entrants. Just trying to hang in there one day at a time (how cliche-ish, I know).


Unfortunately, I didn't get home in time today from Central PA to sneak over to the border oval for the Prince of Wales, so the game plan was to watch the race replay on twinspires TV to see who won the second leg of the Canadian triple crown. I was hoping for the filly, Milwaukee Appeal, and based on the race call at the wire, I was already titling this post "Foto Filly." To everyone's surprise, including Niagara Falls native jockey Corey Fraser, Gallant ($33.40), a longshot won the photo. A tremendous stretch drive and finish. I'm looking forward to reading some of our TBA blog posts tomorrow for those who were fortunate enough to attend.


A bad gate break for closer Keino West, doomed him early. Named after Kip Keino, the great former distance runner from Kenya, Keino West finished fourth, seven lengths behind the winner. I hadn't heard that name in a long time, my childhood friend (now an established writer/editor for Syracuse University Magazine) used to pretend we were in the Olympics (I was Jim Ryun and he was KK) and we would circle the neighborhood backyards racing against each other, using picnic benches as hurdles. Ok, I'm finished about nothing, go back to your regularly scheduled reading activities.....and....


Thanks for stopping by.

Ideas & Gadgets

Tweet I was sad to hear of the deaths of Papi Chullo and Big City Man at other blog sites around the interweb and noticed that Papi's had occurred almost two months ago. So my thinking here is that there should be a horse obituary website listing race horses when they pass away. Maybe some sort of registry maintained by a central authority (whoops I forgot there isn't one). Anyways good business idea for someone: "horseobits.com"?

The squirrels continue to be at work and I was also thinking it would be cool to have a wager calculator gadget that could calculate exotic wagers and also track your bets while at the track. I tend to keep a manual tally (when not using my ADW). So I did a little digging and couldn't exactly find a gadget, but did find several software downloads for a mobile PDA device for exotic wager calculators. Very cool and on the to-do list. I'd still like a handheld gadget to track on-track results.....

Posting has been a little light lately with the holiday weekend and I was set back with a virus on Monday and have been under the weather the past few days. This weekend is no different as the Space Clan is embarking to central PA for a wedding, some golf and in-laws time. Unfortunately I'll be missing the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie on Sunday as my re-entry into Western NY is not scheduled until later Sunday.

Good news on the MTH Survival at the Shore front, I've quietly snuck into the top 100 (81st going into today) and through the first two races I've accumulated a show (Delaware Slew $2.20) and a win ($41.40 with 11-1 Moment Sensor -woo hoo!) which should creep me up even further. Fingers crossed as the meet still has a ways to go. Funny, how my handicapping is good when I'm playing in a FREE contest....

Space Chat: Bona Venture Stables

Tweet As someone who has followed St. Bonaventure basketball through the years, and with a younger brother who is an alum, I was happy to receive an email several months ago from the managing partner of Bona Venture Stables, Dan Collins, saying he enjoyed my blog. If you know anyone who attended Bonas, you'll know they are passionate about their school and their sports teams. The Reilly Center is a place that Jim Boeheim has vowed never to visit again. Anyways, after some correspondence I convinced him to do a little interweb chat with me once I heard the story of how he started his racing stable. How small a world is it, I actually know two of his investors, one played Little League ball with me in North Syracuse and the other is a current business client and friend of mine. Who knew? So here's our little space chat for your reading pleasure.

SpaceMan: How and when did Bona Venture Stables get its start?
BVS: Bona Venture Stables started in 2003 with a small group of St. Bonaventure University friends getting together and deciding to get into the horse business. So, we each pooled a few thousand dollars and we bought a horse. We were familiar with a small stable trainer Pete Wasiluk, so he helped us purchase the filly at an Ocala winter 2 year-old sale. I can’t recall what her original name was but none of us liked it. So my daughter came up with Princessinwaiting and we changed the name. We had a horse, a trainer and we headed to the races!

Bona Venture Stables is different that some of the major racing partnerships. We were started with a bunch of guys who all went to St. Bonaventure University. Hence the name Bona Venture Stables. Today we have about 40 individuals (not everyone is a Bonaventure graduate) involved in our horses. As in all the partnerships, each horse is syndicated as a separate legal limited liability company (LLC). So some owners are owners of one horse or several horses.

What makes us different is we don’t mark up the horses to guarantee the business makes a profit. In fact, our first objective isn’t about the business making money. The idea is for the individual horse owners to make money through their investment. If you can’t make money, then we at least want to be sure you had fun and enjoyed the experience of horse racing ownership. This isn’t my full-time job. It is a passion, a dream to have fun with horse racing.

We offer shares at the actual price of the horse purchase, a small monthly maintenance fee to cover miscellaneous costs, and the monthly training, veterinarian, etc. costs. We all are on a first name basis and we often get together at the track to watch the horse run. We try to make the racing game affordable for everyone. Most of our shares (5-10%) are in the range of an initial investment of $5,000 to $15,000. This gives an owner a share in the horse and it covers all monthly costs through a full year. So write a check for the initial investment and you don’t have another cost for at least 12 months.

On occasion we’ve put a package together for St. Bonaventure University graduates or friends of the university who want to be involved. In this case we commit 10% of the horse winnings to the Bonaventure Athletic Fund and we usually name the horse around a university theme. We have had horses named Saint Bonaventure, Bonaventure Dreams, Merton’s Heart and our newest - It’s the Big Cat. It’s the Big Cat is named after the university’s greatest basketball star and NBA all-star Bob Lanier. He was known as The Big Cat when he played basketball for SBU and later the Detroit Pistons.

It’s the Big Cat will race at Saratoga this summer. He is a 2 year-old NY bred.

SpaceMan: Do you remember your first win and can you describe your emotions and what it meant to BVS?
BVS: Sure. Bona Venture Stables has always had several types of horse ownerships. We have LLC partnerships with a group of owners. We also have a few horses that are 50/50 partnerships, usually one or two owners and me. And there are a few just owned by my family. As partners we had Princessinwaiting but my family’s first horse was Striking Flames. We bought this horse at the 2002 fall Keeneland sale. She ran for the first time in the summer of 2003 and broke her maiden at Delaware Park. My daughter Claire, her friend Meryl Dann and I were present for Bona Venture Stables’ first win!

This was really very exciting. Standing in the winners circle and knowing that we had a runner. It was great! My daughter was smiling from ear to ear. After all Striking Flames was named after her soccer team – The Flames and her position on the field – striker.

SpaceMan: What is the biggest win to date for the Stable?
BVS: This is hard to say. We haven’t won a stakes race yet but our most successful horse, Undeniable Queen ran third in the NATC Futurity back in 2004 when the race was being held at Delaware Park. As the small field of 8 turned for home we thought we had a winner but our young jockey, actually a kid riding at Philadelphia Park, was really schooled by NY jockey Aaron Gryder. Unfortunately we went a bit wide on the turn and Gryder slid along the rail and pushed us further out. We lost ground and just missed 2nd. Gryder’s horse won by about 10 lengths that day.

Undeniable Queen had the most potential of any of our horses. She finished in the money in 5 of 6 races as a 2 year-old but early in her 3 year-old season she took a bad step in her only turf races and wrenched her ankle. She was never the same after that.

SpaceMan: How many horses do you currently have in training? Any broodmares or just race horses?
BVS: Bona Venture Stables has three horses currently in training in New York. A 4 year-old, Prince Dubai; a 3 year-old, Pink Freud; and our newest 2 year-old, It’s the Big Cat. We have one at Finger Lakes named Doctor Problum and we are down to only 1 horse at Delaware Park this summer – Song of Alydar. We started the season with 7 at Delaware but injuries and a rash of claiming has depleted our racing team at the moment. We also have a NY bred 2 year-old by Desert Warrior, Cowboyonthewarpath. He is at a Florida training farm. We plan to have him ready to race as a 3 year-old next winter at Tampa Bay Downs. If he is competitive we’ll shift to Belmont and Saratoga for the spring and summer meet with him.

We had two broodmares but we just retired one and the other died from colic while carrying a foal. That was very sad. She was a favorite of the team. We do have two yearlings on the farm- an absolutely gorgeous athletic-looking NY bred colt by Hook and Ladder and a Florida bred by Wekiva Springs. Both of these yearlings are from mares that once raced for Bona Venture Stables.

We do plan to have another mare or two become broodmares for us. We want to specialize in NY breds and race on the NYRA circuit as much as possible.

We haven’t made definite plans yet, but our early plan is to put several partnerships together this fall and early winter with the intent on purchasing 2 or 3 high-value NY breds at the winter sales for racing in the spring of 2010.

SpaceMan: What trainers does your stable utilize and what do you look for in a trainer?
BVS: At the moment we engage 3 trainers. Pete Wasiluk has been with us since the beginning. He trains at Tampa Bay Downs in the winter and Delaware Park in the summer. We also use Leah Gyarmati for our NY breds on the NYRA circuit. Leah is permanently stabled at Belmont Park and shifts a part of her stable to Saratoga in the summer. We also use Jeremiah Englehart at Finger Lakes Race Track.

We are a small stable and many of our investors/owners like to be very involved in the horses. So we look for trainers who are also hands-on and who don’t mind dealing with large ownership groups and answering basic questions about racing, horse training and so forth. For example, Leah works many of her own horses in the morning. Pete’s operation is family based. He rubs down the horses and can be found in the stalls at all hours. His wife is the stable pony rider. Jeremiah is a young, upcoming training at Finger Lakes who also is very involved in each horse.

Additionally we look for a trainer who has a relatively concentrated stable. We like being on a first name basis with the trainer and assistant trainer. We want to know that they are very familiar with our horses and know each horse well. We don’t want to be a number lost in a large stable.

SpaceMan: Who is the current superstar(s) of the stable right now and what’s next for him/her?
BVS: We don’t really have a superstar at the moment. But we are very excited about our newest 2 year-old, It’s the Big Cat. He is a big, strong colt by Kitten’s Joy. He is bred for the turf and he’s turned a few heads in his early training at Belmont Park. He seems to glide over the turf course in training. We originally planned to debut him in July at Belmont but it is now likely we’ll save his first race until the Saratoga meet.

Thanks Dan for spending the time to get to know ya! You can follow Bona Venture Stables on Twitter or check in at their website for more info.

Holiday Blather

Tweet Some say he was the worst Derby favorite in recent memory in 2006. The former Illinois Derby winner is entered in tomorrow's Wadsworth Memorial Handicap down the thruway in Canandaigua at Finger Lakes Race Track. Sweetnorthernsaint, becomes the second Derby entrant in the last three years to run at the track located in wine country in western New York, was made the 5-2 morning line favorite in tomorrow's $65K race. Funny Cide ran his career finale there on the 4th of July in 2007. It's still a track that I haven't been to yet, literally less than 75 miles away, but it's in the works for later this summer.

Another local bit of good news (for those who haven't obtained their passports or enhanced licenses and are devoid of an ADW account) for western New Yorkers is that the WROTB will start handling bets on Fort Erie, just in time for the prestigious Prince of Wales Stakes set for next weekend. I was in the Ridge Lea location yesterday to enter a weekly free contest on the Belmont card (picked 3 of 8 winners, 2 seconds killed me, didn't qualify) that they move around the different branches around the metro Buffalo area. Lockport Transit location's contest next Wednesday is on the radar where I'll be accompanied by my handicapping pal G squared.

Speaking of contests, still hanging in the Monmouth Survival at the Shore, currently sitting in 140th with $501.60, with 495 active players remaining. I wasn't aware of the grant of an additional life preserver, until reading it at Red Rock or Bust, so that was a bonus as I was flying naked. The contest is a brilliant marketing tool, as I have downloaded the PP's daily, I am starting to know the jockey colony and I make a daily play on a track that I normally wouldn't play in favor of the NYRA tracks.

Off to see the much ballyhooed movie, The Hangover....

Big Idea 2.0 (Giant Dork Version)

Tweet So my embattled post on the World Series of Horse Racing generated some good conversation (and some bad conversation - first registered F-bomb comment - holla) and being the giant dork that I am, agreed that there were some obvious flaws in my post, but hey I'm just a dreamer....so here are some follow up thoughts on some of the concerns and comments:

1) Maybe Christmas Day would be better....2 months after the Breeders Cup....remember folks I was just saying it was a made-for-TV exhibition to promote racing to the mainstream. (JB had a thought, that the big BC race should be moved to T'giving or Xmas...not bad). This would satisfy a lot of commenters worried about running back in 3-4 weeks. In between the two big NBA games on ABC/ESPN instead of Thanksgiving Day halftime??

2) Rename it the Grand Slam of Racing. The three classic winners and the BC Classic winner get auto-invites...real grand slam, fill the other 10 slots based on standings....hmmm....takes care of the ugly American shot by calling it "World Series" and keep it to ourselves (sticking tongue out). Or if to be politically correct invite the Canadian, Japanese, and British TC champs and really make it an international spectacle. (Apologies in advance if I missed your country and you have a triple crown). Ironically I labeled my word document Grand Slam, but used World Series because of the golf reference, but I digress.

3) Big Purse - wretch some of the dough out of the NTRA or Jockey Club coffers (waiting for those 2008 Form 990's to be filed, with bated breath...especially the salary and investments info!) and who wouldn't want to sell some advertising for the Big Event - the King of Beers for the Sport of Kings....has a nice ring to it...OK....I promise I'll let it go...but sometimes you have to dream....

More dorkdom. This is how my wacky mind thinks sometimes. Was thinking about Calvin Borel and his agent based on recent developments. Calvin Borel's initals are CB. Started thinking about CB's and what the hell happened to them and if truck drivers still use them. Started thinking that the CB radio was the twitter of the 70s ("the CB allowed people to get to know one another in a quasi-anonymous manner"). Looked up CB's on Wiki, saw that the 11 year sunspot cycle has affected them. Read that there was an overabundance "of users jamming onto frequencies during the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s, channels often were intolerably noisy and communication became difficult." Looked up 11 year sunspot cycle. Decided I was definitely in dork territory. Must be the squirrels again. Decided to stick to horse racing.

Have a great holiday weekend, will be checking in from all points Western and Central New York.