Bird Bath

Tweet Well it looks like that bird poop was lucky after all and thank goodness as I was getting killed all day long at the Saratoga Race Course on Travers Day 2009. Not only did Summer Bird come through like his poppy, but a lucky break from the stewards gave Capt Candyman Can the King's Bishop in a DQ helping on to a solid Pick 3 and a winning day at the grand ole race course.

To boot I picked up 3 points in the Toga Party contest (standings updated) with the closest $2 tri payout guess thanks to the place by Hold Me Back. Hell yeah. The Saratoga Resident was beside himself as he had Vineyard Haven in the contest (and at the windows) and was beaten by his friends, the stewards, just a week ago.

We had a super weekend with the best accommodations (other than staying with the Saratoga Resident, of course) as I treated the Space Gal to the Batchellor Mansion B&B, which I highly recommend for those looking for a great place with character and charm to bring your own gal for a getaway weekend sometime. We arrived Friday after a modest 4:20 from Buffalo (more on this later) with a stop for some Starbucks and headed over to the track for a Hattie's chicken sandwich (can't go wrong) and a Roast beef Po' boy from One Caroline at Restaurant Row. For the first time in the five years I've been summering at the Spa I didn't watch one race live. We hunkered down in the Jim Dandy bar for the day and it was a revolving door of clients, blogging friends, friends and we made some new friends. It was great catching up with everyone and meeting some for the first time ever. We had a nice dinner at Tiznow (one of my favorite places) and headed to 9 Maple for a nightcap.

Saturday was a great day starting on the backstretch, to the Turf Terrace for a great day of racing, the back yard to see some of my fellow EC alums, and finally to the Lodge for a great dinner. It's amazing that the rain didn't dampen our spirits one bit, we were just out having a grand old time. Who wouldn't bet on Get Stormy on a rainy Travers Day?? Who would've predicted that three of the biggest races of the year (Kentucky Derby, the Haskell and the Travers) would all be run over sloppy tracks. Go figure.

Sunday, I ended up having a chance encounter at the Mobil on Broadway with Steve Crist as we were both heading out town in different directions with sub-4 hour trips on our minds. He actually mentioned our brief conversation on his Cristblog today....comedy gold. This stuff only happens to me....

P.S. I limped home in a 4:15....needing a much needed break (Dunkin' Donuts' Ice Coolata did the trick) at Junius Ponds....oh well, there's always next year.

Some pictures from the trip:

Naughty New Yorker ran a nice second in the Funny Cide Stakes (not my best work).

The jocks heading to their mounts...

Pletcher saddling Cowboy Cal before the Bernard Baruch (G2), where he finished second.

A very dapper Kiaran McLaughlin before the Baruch sizing up the competition on paper for Justenuffhumor.

Tell me Alan Garcia on Justenuffhumor isn't giving me the "you better bet my horse on top" look. We turned that positive vibe into a nice triple.

On Travers morning we met Dan Collins, managing partner of Bona Venture Stables at trainer Leah Gyarmati's barn and got to visit with It's the Big Cat. We had a nice visit after meeting him at the track on Friday and he was the perfect host during our visit to the backstretch.

And they're off on the sloppy track in the 6th on Travers Day! I liked Barcola (the #15) but it wasn't meant to be as The Roundhouse (#3) was the winner.

Saeed bin Suroor of Godolphin Racing putting the saddle cloths on the winner of the Victory Ride (G3) Sara Louise, the last horse to defeat Rachel Alexandra, in the paddock. The Sheikh had a huge day and was one DQ away from three graded wins.

Bird Poop

Tweet It's a sign. No, I'm not describing the picture to the left. I'm talking about the bird poop that landed on my left shoulder today during my afternoon walk with the Space Kid and my trusty dog, Tanner Jones. I remember reading somewhere (Simmons maybe?) that you'll come into good luck if a bird poops on you. I'm taking it to a different level as I don't know the specie of bird that did his thing on me. But it might mean....

Summer Bird is the word for the Travers. I liked the way he ran in the Haskell, changing tactics by staying close to the pace in order to stay up with whatshername. The mile and a quarter could be just the right distance for the other Bird to romp home and overtake Kensei and Quality Road in the stretch. With the weather being iffy...an attendance number in the low 40s wouldn't be out of the question.

The King's Bishop looks like a monster race. I'm hitching my wagon to Captain Candyman Can at 7 furlongs. Big Drama and Munnings both loom large, but I'm looking for the Captain to steal one here. How's that for expert analysis.

Looking forward to the Baruch tomorrow. Justenuffhumor and Cowboy Cal will duel. I think I played against Baruch College back in my college hoop days, think we whipped their arses too. Maybe tomorrow will be a lucky day after all...

Speaking of unlucky, my pal, Double-G, missed the Del Mar P6 ($17K) by one horse today who lost by a nose (in the third leg). Now that's a tough beat.

Have a great weekend and see ya at the Spa!

Transparent Tuesday

Tweet It's one of those shotgun days when I'm all over the park....

- Wondering whatever happened to Morganna the Kissing Bandit? Couldn't you see her invade the winner's circle and lay one on the Toddster for some cheap press?

- Return trip #3 to the Springs is set for Friday morning. We'll have the Space Gal on board so a record setting performance is highly unlikely. I pulled a 4:02 two weeks ago when a last minute detour around track traffic down West Ave. spelled doom for a sub 4 hour trip. I'm convinced you need the perfect storm to get 'er done.

- The Saratoga Resident made a surprise visit to see his godson the Space Kid (not really as he had business in the B-Lo), and spent the night in the Space Station (sorry about the bunk beds). He has been a long time critic of my wanting the stewards to explain rulings and disqualifications. Saturday, I received an email after the final race wherein the 31-1 longshot A Word to the Wise was taken down to 4th by said stewards, thus wrecking his potential big tri (31-1 over 5-1 over 2-1). The email I received immediately following was as such: "Changed my mind: Stewards should explain their rulings." I knew he'd eventually see it my way.

- The Toga Party contest is heating up. The jockey race has been a see-saw tilt between Dominguez (Colin's Ghost, SaratogaSpa and I) and Garcia (4 contestants), with A-Garcia with the lead by 2 going into week #5. Linda Rice (nobody picked her) leads Pletcher (5 contestants) by two wins in the trainer race. Four more valuable points are up for grabs on Saturday via the Travers winner, Travers attendance, Travers trifecta and King's Bishop winner. Last weekend's point grabbers were BV and the SpaceBro accurately prognosticating Careless Jewel's win in the Alabama. Congrats.

- I had one of those handicapping moments on Sunday. One that you read about in the handicapping books. Except that I didn't cash a life-changing ticket. But I feel pretty good about seeing it. Problem is, it appears that I wasn't the only one. Silver City Dreams (10-1 ML) was running in a 5 1/2 furlong $44K MdnSpWt in the finale at SAR. Her running line in her lone start was as follows:

PP: 1; ST: 7; 1C: 7 (31 lengths); 2c: 7 (23 lengths); Str: 7 (15 lengths); Fin: 4 (8 1/4 lengths)

The comment line read: Broke in air; willingly. I was thinking, man this filly made up 23 lengths in her 5 1/2f debut, she could be totally dismissed. Unfortunately there were a bunch of scratches and she sunk down to 9-2. With Tzeonn Chang (who?) aboard she "finished well to best the others" coming across the wire just behind the winner, Shot Gun Gal. Put that one in the watch list folks for next go-round.

- With two weeks to go in the Monmouth Survival at the Shore contest I sit in 30th place of the 149 remaining contestants (4,288 entries). I am devoid of any life preservers, but it's go big or go home time. I sit $120 out of 3rd place and $178 out of the top spot. My strategy is to make one safe play and two bomb plays a day until I drown. At this point, finishing out of the top three means nothing and I'm happy that I've survived this long.

- Obviously NY Stables (see Mother Russia post) had another winner yesterday as I was alerted by an excited email in my inbox from one of the owners. The Hook and Ladder filly Hook Me Up (another Linda Rice win) beat nine colts in the 6th race (off the turf) at Saratoga. Look for ONY's Canadian Ballet in the entries this weekend.

- Bona Venture Stables is hoping It's the Big Cat rebounds in his second race, hopefully on the turf in a route on Sunday. Watch the entries for that one.

- How ridiculously good is the field for the King's Bishop on Saturday?

- The Bills are 30-1 in Vegas to win the Super Bowl. I think I'll stick with racing.

- Hope to see you at the Spa on Friday!

RUI: Does It Happen?

Tweet I'm no expert on this subject, but I tried to delve around to find out what kind of protection horseplayers (and the horses) have against jockeys riding under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol or with a major hangover (wherin a blood alcohol level is still registering) on raceday. I had some trouble finding out whether or not there is any random drug or alcohol testing performed, but again it looks like each jurisdiction is different (shocker, why would there be uniform rules or regulations, that's just silly), but it does appear in most states that the testing does take place. I find it odd that you rarely hear of any positives being reported. There is a famous 1986 court case on the topic, Shoemaker v. Handel, wherein the US Court of Appeals found in favor of the NJ Racing Commission and upheld a previous decision allowing drug and alcohol testing in that state. Maryland also appears to have a random, suspicionless testing program.

The judge in the Shoemaker case cited the following:

“Public confidence forms the foundation for the success of an industry based on wagering. If participants in horse racing are under the influence of, or addicted to, illegal drugs, or are more amenable to involvement in corrupt practices in exchange for access to drugs, the public perception of the integrity of horse racing – its very life-blood – would quickly dissipate. The loss of integrity would result in a severe and drastic downward spiral effect: The public would wager less money, result in smaller purses to be earned by the horsemen; smaller purses would result in owners’ and trainers’ racing their horses elsewhere for greater financial reward; fewer horses would result in small fields, which are less attractive to the wagering public; as a result, less money would be wagered; less money wagered would mean smaller purses, in perpetuation of the downward spiral."

I found it very interesting that the group of jockeys (I assume with Jockey Guild backing) tried to use the Fourth Amendment to try and stop the random testing in the Shoemaker appeal. If I were a clean jockey I would also want protection against another jockey riding under the influence who could potentially injure me catastrophically due to reckless driving. Think of the innocent driver who is injured or maimed by a drunk driver...

What made me interested in this topic was the recent arrest of jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. in the Springs for cocaine possession. That and the fact that in some social media circles you can see posts by prominent (and not so prominent) jockeys proclaiming they are going out on the town, posts at early morning times, etc. Now I'll probably lose a few facebook friends over this, but who wants to bet on a horse the next day when his/her jockey has been tripping the light fantastic the night before? The NYS Racing & Wagering Board immediately suspended Arroyo's license to ride in New York. I also found that other countries definitely randomly test jockeys for drugs and alcohol. South Africa, the UK, New Zealand and Australia all perform some sort of random testing (breathalyzers for alcohol) of their jockey colonies.

Maybe we have a bunch of clean jockeys riding across the country and it's a non-issue. But what if it's not? Shouldn't it be something that's tested or monitored as part of the NTRA's Safety and Integrity Alliance Code of Standards since it appears that most jurisdictions (if not all) are currently performing testing? They are supposed to be the watchdog to ensure the safety and integrity of each track, why not add it to the code?

Insomnia 2.0

Tweet I can't sleep. My dog, Tanner Jones, is keeping me company tonight on the couch, so that I don't wake up the rest of the Space Clan. At least the squirrels aren't spinning, so no brilliant ideas to pass on early this morning, just some opinionated blather.

Tried pulling down the Pick Six on Thursday with a monstrous $8 ticket. You can imagine how that worked out. Amazingly, I hit 4 of 6 and I won't even write about what I did to talk myself off the other two horses that won, it's just too painful. One of these days I will learn to trust my own instincts.

On the Space Kid front, it's officially in the books that his first words were dah-dah. (Although the Turk swears it could have been spa-spa). Let's just say the Space Gal is beside herself and in total denial. Next step, reading the DRF.

Having happy thoughts for Edgar Prado. He quietly has won back to back feature stakes at the Spa with D'funnybone in the Saratoga Special and Shared Account yesterday in the Lake Placid. Who's he aboard in the Alabama? Umm....that would be a negative, as in no mount.

Watched Jockeys 2.0 season premiere with the Space Gal last night (at least I think her eyes were open). How many times are we going to see a shot of a jockey falling off a horse and hear how dangerous an occupation it is? This just in...we get it. Really. We do. I did enjoy the claiming process portion of the program. A nice way to educate new fans and understand the game within the game that occurs leading up to and during a claiming race. Boy, they made Nakatani look like a poster child for an angry man. Next up on the who can we hate list is Garret Gomez.

Alabama thoughts: I have a feeling this race might fall apart. I'm going with the Canadian filly Milwaukee Appeal (who picks up Johnny V), followed by Don't Forget Gil (beaten a neck in the CCAO by Funny Moon) and Casanova Move (don't overlook her PP's). All three also look like they could handle an off track (which is a distinct possibility). I think it will be an awesome race to watch and there are four or five horses that can win.

Lastly, I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

Between Clubs...

Tweet Anyone who has played golf has endured the dreaded "between clubs" dilemma. For me it's 120 yards out where I'm between my pitching wedge and nine iron and it usually drives me crazy trying to decide which club to hit (the hard wedge or the easy nine). Gayego, the 2008 Derby hopeful, returned to the races Monday at Saratoga on Monday, winning an $61K allowance optional claiming race going six furlongs.

Richard Mettee, Godolphin's North American racing manager said his ideal distance sprinting is seven furlongs, so the Vosburgh (G1) on October 3 at Belmont Park would likely pit him in against Fabulous Strike at six furlongs, and a trip to California to run in the Ancient Title (G1) on October 11 at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita would mean facing Zensational on a synthetic surface. “Which one would you rather do?,” Mettee asked. “You pick your poison. Against the good horses, he’s going to need seven (furlongs). He’s kind of a tricky horse to place. He’s won on synthetic. There are races at Keeneland.” One possible long-term goal that has been mentioned is the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, which will be run on the Pro-Ride synthetic surface at Santa Anita. Gayego is clearly between clubs. Let's hope he tries what should shape up to be a very competitive BC Dirt Mile.

I'm definitely having Saratoga withdrawal after a fun couple of days last week. Today was bombs away with some big payouts creating a $178K Pick Six carryover into Thursday's card. Another point in the Toga Party contest becomes available on Saturday for the 129th running of the Alabama Stakes (G1), which has attracted a couple of talented fillies from the Great White North in Careless Jewel, winner of the Delaware Oaks (G2) and Milwaukee Appeal, runnerup of the Prince of Wales in a photo at Fort Erie. Woodbine regular jockey Rob Landry will make a rare appearance at the Spa to ride the Jewel. It will be the first Alabama I'll miss in four years, as I will be watching from the Nittany mountains this weekend. It's shaping up to be a very good race, remember last year Music Note and Proud Spell scared off all comers and it was a four horse race by post time.

Mettee quote source: NYRA Communications

Did You Know...

Tweet This month's edition was very interesting to me as a relatively new fan to the sport. I learned quite a bit about some history, in particular a certain horse named Zippy Chippy.....so here goes...

Did you know:

- That record breaking trainer Dale Baird won his first race 49 years ago today at Ellis Park with a horse named New York? Baird won 9,445 races in his career. His life was taken from him in December 2007 in an auto accident at age 72.

- That 86 years ago today that the Jockey Club announced a match race between the Epsom Derby and Kentucky Derby winners to be run in October 1923. The match race between Zev, the '23 Kentucky Derby winner, and Papyrus earned spot #81 in the book, "Horse Racing's 100 Greatest Moments." Zev won the race for America by five lengths at Belmont Park.

- That 7 years ago today, Sunday Silence suffered a fatal heart attack in Japan. He was the horse of the year in 1989.

- And last, but not least, that Zippy Chippy, loser of all 86 of his lifetime races at the time, was defeated by minor-league baseball player Jose Herrera in a 40-yard dash. The race, called the "2000 Red Wings Derby," was held prior to a home game of the International League's Rochester AAA ball club at Frontier Field. Zippy would go on to lose 100 races and was banned from racing everywhere but Massachusetts. He even raced against a pacer in March 2001 at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey, spotting him 20 lengths and still lost.

Here's the video of the race if you haven't seen it:

Prince Dubai Strikes Turf Gold at the Spa

Tweet Bona Venture Stables, featured here last month, broke its maiden at Saratoga yesterday in a big way. Prince Dubai ($57.50) went off at odds of 27-1 and won the $49K 1 1/16th mile allowance for NY-breds in the seventh race on the Mellon Turf at ye olde Saratoga Race Course yesterday. If you were paying attention to the BVS twitter account you would have seen that this horse was ready to roll. The win by the gelding by E. Dubai out of Princess Caveat (by Caveat) was the inaugural win for Bona Venture Stables at Saratoga. The Prince is trained by Leah Gyarmati, ridden by Norberto Arroyo, Jr. and was bred by that famous Partridge kid, David Cassidy. I hope I get a chance to meet the Prince in two weeks when we visit the backstretch during Travers Day.

Perfectly timed, the victory came during a weekend when BVS' managing partner, Dan Collins was hosting a group of his ownership. He politely had invited me to attend, but I was distracted by the seven kids I was chasing at a water park in Buffalo all day. I was quite excited to read of the win upon settling down at the computer late last night and sent him a congratulatory email. He quickly responded, "We were very high on Prince Dubai today. The pattern was improving. Today was his fourth on the turf and he only lost last time out by 1 3/4 lengths. That pattern said he was prime for a big win. We had 40 people with us at the track today and many went to the IRS window and we heard people yelling among the crowd, "Go Bonnies! This was Bona Venture Stables first ever win at Saratoga, the queen of American race tracks!" Way to go, BVS.

Ironically, the horse finishing fifth (at 50-1) in the same race, Brushed Prince, was the horse the Space Gal wrote a guest blog on last summer. I watched the replay this morning and jockey Arroyo did a nice job getting Prince Dubai past the front running Fortissi More with Leparoux aboard in the stretch drive and held off both the charging Tobruk and Quiet On The Tee at the wire. Quite the exciting race.

Surgical Strike & Mother Russia

Tweet I'm sure my post title will garner a lot of hits from the Communist Party, but there was no doubt in yesterday's Statue of Liberty (ironic, no?) that Mother Russia ($6.00) would land a huge haymaker on the rest of the field and hang on to win the $150K race on the Inner Turf at venerable Saratoga Race Course. A nice crowd of over 18,000 was on hand to see her win for the 5th time in 8 races (and 2nd in 3 races on the turf) for the beautiful filly trained by the white hot Linda Rice. It was her second win of the day after winning the sixth with Willsboro Point ($7.90) both turf routes. Now we have to watch out for her in all turf races! Ramon Dominguez won his second race of the day and he had a great ride aboard the Mothership. I was fortunate enough to meet one of the ownership group from Obviously NY Stables during opening day and he was sky high talking to him before the race and I received an email earlier today from him asking about my thoughts on the race. She had opened a similar wide lead in her last start but ended up finishing sixth. When trainer Rice was asked about the turnaround at the longer distance she said, “When she ran her last race, she had a lot of issues coming up to the race. Afterwards, I was regretful that I had led her there. She was not on her game that day. I was hoping the two turns would help her, and it did.” Obviously NY also owns the filly Canadian Ballet who finished second her last out in a stakes at Woodbine. They're definitely a group to keep an eye on.

My two day surgical strike in the Springs was a very memorable one. I spent some time with my parents who were in town with three other couples from their alma mater, Kutztown State in Pennsylvania. Wednesday was a fun day that started with a chance meeting with my client and owner from Trade Winds Farm that had two starters entered. Scientist finished second in the Cab Calloway and Jogja ran in the 2 mile marathon. I also chatted with Old Friends' Michael Blowen in the paddock who we visited back in April, and he passed along some good news about Black Tie Affair who will soon be joining the retirement home. He was in town for the weekend since Old Friends is the home to three former Sword Dancer champions. It was nice catching up with him. I sat with the Puma in the box seats (sweet view) for the last three races of the card and shared a cigar and a cocktail with him after the races at Siro's. I spent the rest of my evening in town with some of my clients from Saratoga Eagle who were hosting 20 guests from the mothership in Buffalo (many acquaintances of mine) after having a dozen wings one of my favorite haunts, Hattie's.

Little did I know I would be dining at Siro's for the first time ever the following evening, after the Statue of Liberty. I have never been to a restaurant sporting $45 and $55 entrees. Holy smokes, who said the economy is falling? The place was packed for both dinner seatings and the experience will be one I'll never forget. I ran into one of the restaurant's owners we met at Max London's the second evening of the meet who told us the bar was packed at 2am on Tuesday after the Fasig-Tipton sales. Based on the crowds the last two days, life must be good. After dinner we met an interesting gentleman who embellished us with stories of the old Saratoga, Rush Limbaugh and Tiger Woods (interesting combination) as he had been to 58 of the last 60 Travers. Ironically one of the two Travers he missed was the Affirmed/Alydar Travers. He has been coming to town since he was 8 years old and has stayed at the same hotel and same room since 1982. It was certainly an interesting evening listening to stories from a long time Spa visitor.

Here are some pictures from the Statue of Liberty and Thursday am at the Oklahoma training track:

Trainer Linda Rice saddling the eventual winner of the Statue of Liberty, Mother Russia.















EquiSpace Toga Party pick Ramon Dominguez, heading over to his mount, Mother Russia.
















Edgar Prado on second place finisher who came at Mother Russia with a late rally, Es Mia.

















Mother Russia holding off Es Mia as they approach the wire in the 1 1/16th turf race.
















Welcome to the Oklahoma training track.



















Nothing better than having a cup of joe and watching the sunrise over the barns on the backstretch at Saratoga.

















Workout in progress....blinkers on!



















NYRA's finest getting their moment in the sun...
























A special thanks, as always, to the Saratoga Resident who never ceases to amaze me with his friendship and hospitality when I arrive on the scene for a surgical strike....

Space Invasion: Saratoga

Tweet

Trip one resulted in a 4:09....we're looking to avoid student drivers, elderly ladies in pintos and avoid breaking the Tom-Tom this trip. I mean business this time and the 273 mile trek is about to be humbled. We're doing a little two day roundabout in the Springs before returning with the Space Gal on Travers weekend. Dropping a little surprise visit on the folks in the Turf Terrace while gracing the presence of the Puma, JB and the Saratoga Resident. Game on.

Never Gonna Get It

Tweet I hate taking shots at the World Wide Leader, but I just can't understand why they wouldn't have two broadcast teams (other than cost) one at Arlington and one at Saratoga on Saturday afternoon. By far the best 90 minutes of racing all summer long took place between 4:30pm and 6:00pm EST when you had four (count em 4!) grade I races take place as follows: (1) Beverly D. from Arlington [off at 4:54]; (2) the Test from Saratoga [off at 5:15]; (3) the Arlington Million [off at 5:45 and finally (4) the Whitney from Saratoga [off at 5:50]. Talk about a great show that could have been. Instead you had race fans across the country flipping back and forth to TVG or MSG+ for the SAR races and missing any commentary ESPN might have had after the Beverly D. or the Million. So if they were trying to push their Breeders Cup racing series, they probably lost a good portion of their audience that wanted to watch the Grade I's from the Spa. They'll say it's a cost issue, but you only can look back a week and say, did they really need to show the Eddie Read from Del Mar. To be honest, I can't even remember who ran in it, not to mention who won it (and I like racing). They had some huge potential public interest stories with Commentator trying for his 3rd straight Whitney available to them, but again they just don't seem to get it. They may not receive another 90 minutes of great racing from two different locales again this summer. What a shame.

Keep an eye on Dick Powell's "Play of the Day." He's on fire and had a 6-1 winner on Saturday afternoon in Exclusive Scheme ($15.60) and I used on of his POD's on Day Two to complete a sweet baby exacta. He's a tremendous handicapper and has some excellent thoughts in this column on the Inner and Mellon turf courses at the Spa. [Today's selection William T. paid $5.50 to place and $3.60 to show].

The Toga Party contest is heating up with two points being handed out on Saturday. Keith at Triple Dead Heat he anonymous Dollar Bill each earned a point with longshot Bullsbay. In the crazy eights question in honor of my daughter's and Jelly Roll's birthday, only one #8 came across the wire first (Maram in the John Hettinger Stakes). Robert of They're in the Gate, the Saratoga Resident [leader at the clubhouse turn] and yours truly all are on the board. Todd Pletcher is atop the trainer board with 8 victories and Dominguez and Garcia (14 each) are tied on top of the jockey colony. Through week #2 there has been 48 turf races with four full weeks to go.

The Bills debuted last night in Canton and were surprised by a pretty cool fake punt play by the Titans. Don't ask me why they unveiled it in the preseason, sure didn't make much sense to me. Other than give me nightmares remembering Homerun Throwback. I almost peed myself when the Bills came out with the no huddle in the first series throwing to TO twice. Man, it was a nostalgic weekend for the Bills and hopefully we have some exciting football to look forward to in a month. Hey, I guy can dream can't he?

Here's my dedication to the WWL....

At the Quarter Pole

Tweet Hard to believe that the Spa meet has reached the quarter pole already. With Day 9 in the books we are 25% of the way through the meet already and the races for leading jock and trainer are very close. Ramon Dominguez has 12 wins to lead the red-hot Julien Leparoux (inset: courtesy me) by one victory. Leparoux rode three winners today in front of 23,368, including Solitaire in the John's Call paying $13. The man is golden on the turf and also leads in jockey earnings through the first quarter. In the trainer standings, Todd Pletcher and Bill Mott sit atop the leaderboard with 5 winners apiece.

The Toga Party Contest has two points up for grabs tomorrow, the Whitney winner (get your picks to me if you haven't already) and the # of wins by the 8 horse tomorrow. Crazy 8's day (08/08) at the Spa. There are two morning line favorites wearing #8 tomorrow, Spell (2-1) in the 2nd and Maram (5-2) in the 8th. One of the new contest questions was the number of races on the turf for the entire meet. Through the first quarter 37 races have gone on the turf as scheduled, and only 10 have been rained off the turf. This projects out to 148 races, which would put the SpaceBro in good shape. The past few days have been brilliant weather-wise and no races have been washed off the turf. But as you know, the weather can change at any moment in the Adirondacks.

The Whitney looks like a great field, I like Smooth Air to win over Asiatic Boy and Dry Martini. How's that for in-depth analysis.

Tomorrow is a big day in Western New York as defensive end Bruce Smith and owner Ralph Wilson are inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bruce and I arrived in Buffalo the same year, although he was a number one draft pick and I was the last recruit to get an offer at a firm called Touche Ross & Company. His starting salary was a tad more than mine at the time. He was an incredible football player who I loved to key on way up in section J3 in the upper deck. He would come around the corner faster than anyone I've ever watched to record sack after sack to the roar of BRUUUUUUUCE, by the Rich Stadium faithful. Mr. Wilson, based in Detroit, has also been involved in thoroughbred racing. He bred the 1971 Santa Anita Derby winner, Jim French as well as two-year-old European superstar Arazi, winner of the 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and European Horse of the Year. Ralph has done right by Buffalo, although he has his critics in town. I look forward to watching their induction speeches tomorrow as it will bring back fond memories of the 90's Bills and the awesome run I was fortunate to witness first hand.

How 'bout that. A whole post without mentioning whatshername....have a great Saturday.

Justenuffhumor on a Hump Day

Tweet I'm having some early morning insomnia and the squirrels were turning inside my head this morning, so you know what that means.....random thought Wednesday....

- Bona Venture Stables is sending out It's the Big Cat (15-1 ML) on Thursday at the Spa in Race 5, a 5 1/2 furlong turf sprint. This is trainer Leah Gyarmati's maiden voyage for this 2 year old named after St. Bonaventure and NBA great Bob Lanier, he of the size 22 dogs (see inset). Good luck to my friends at BVS.

- I totally had a belly laugh when I read Steve Crist's mention of his own little 4 hour mark in his Day 6 Saratoga Diary: "2:45 pm: Missed the first three while driving back to Long Island. Not a straw in my path until I hit the Whitestone Bridge, crawled home from there. Track-to-track driving time, Saratoga to Belmont, including two rest stops, was 4:15:32.30. Guy I know who likes to bet on anything wanted to go over 4:07 for $1,000, but I didn't bite. Good number, though." Guess I'm not the only one shooting for a 3:59. Impressive that he went down to the tenths, I'm definitely slacking...Saratoga Resident's response: "Is Belmont Park my driveway?"

- The Turk. The Turk. The Turk is on fire. I recommend you check his site out when the Nominations come in. I totally overlooked Justenuffhumor when making a P3 play on Sunday in the Fourstardave at the Spa. After reading his post and looking back at the PP's, I noticed my glaring error and included him. He also successfully nailed Informed over the weekend in the San Diego Handicap. That man can handicap. If you were really paying attention you would have seen that Alan at Left at the Gate gave out the Pick 4 ($254) on Saturday at the Spa also. It pays to read the TBA posts.

- More Rachel thoughts. I posted a comment to Monday's blog that another reason the Travers makes sense over the Woodward is television coverage. Of course, this is totally from the perspective of growing viewership and the sport. The Travers is scheduled to be televised by ESPN, the Woodward, not so much (TVG, HRTV and MSG+). I have to believe they could raise big advertising bucks proclaiming another historical victory (last filly winner = 1915) is in the making. You have to figure the folks at the World Wide Leader have some pull here. Secondly the reemergence of once hailed Derby contender Quality Road, makes the race all the more intriguing.

- Interesting article on blogging/hijacking articles in the WaPost by Ian Shapira. Reminds me of my business partner (from Niagara Falls) trying to refer to the book "Who Moved My Cheese" as "Who Stole My F'ing Cheese" instead...comedy gold.

Racing Revival

Tweet Back in March I penned a post named "Why Can't Racing Generate America's Next Hero?" and it's amazing that the two words, Rachel Alexandra, didn't even show up. My goodness, how things can change in a few short months. Well since then, this super-filly has dominated our sport like no other has in a very long time. She is as close to a hero as we'll ever have. She's on ESPN Sport Center highlights today after winning the Haskell, with a good two to three minutes of statistics, interviews and highlights. She's a topic on PTI, she was a topic on Jim Rome's radio program today. Not too shabby, as the iconic Adam Sandler would say.

There's a lot of talk out there about facing Zenyatta. I stay behind my thoughts from my Godzilla v. Rodan post, most folks outside our little circle of love don't have a clue who Z is. I think she should continue to dominate the 3yo colts and move on to the older males (Travers/JCGC route) and keep rewriting the record books as we know them. In the meantime, she is the lightning rod our sport has been waiting for. Being the first filly since 1915 (Lady Rotha who ironically won via a DQ) to win the Travers would be something to keep this tremendous mo' going. Then on to the older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, wouldn't that be a nice way to seal the deal? Check out some of the horses that have won the JCGC, it's a who's who of racing lore. Folks (including Jess Jackson) are starting to mention this filly in the same breath as Ruffian. As a relatively new fan of the sport, I don't know anything about how close she is to approaching that level, but based on her accomplishments thus far, she's damn special.

No guts, no glory. Go big or go home. Those are passe cliches, but man do they apply here. She's the freakin' rockstar we need to hitch our concert to. No disrespect to Zenyatta, but no one in the mainstream will even know about her race this coming weekend at Del Mar. It won't get the ESPN-like media light outside of our "other sports" drop down world. I'm telling you folks as a sports junky who has Bills and Sabres tickets, played college hoops, follows golf and just happens to write a horse racing blog, that people outside the sport are talking about Rachel. She's exactly the hero I was talking about. Our sport hasn't ended as it typically does in the mainstream after the Triple Crown series. I ended that hero post with the following sentence:

The Vacancy light is ON, I just hope, for our sports sake, there's a horse or jock out there that flips the switch.

The switch was flipped at Monmouth Park yesterday for a racing revival. Ask any of the 37,000 plus who were there.

Buckle Your Seat Belts

Tweet It's one of those special days in the world of horse racing, like the one where Squints conned the beautiful lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn in the pool scene in the movie, The Sandlot. "He walked a little taller that day and we had to tip our hats to him."

Today the best filly since Ruffian takes on yet another challenge [albeit with a nice weight advantage] in the Haskell. Ms. Rachel Alexandra will take on six other rivals in the much hyped-race around 6:15pm. With it raining here in the metropolitan Buffalo area (weather update at MTH), we are locked and loaded in the Space Station with the family (and my 2006 Haskell hat on) to watch the day's events unfold. My only wish is that TVG would turn on the HD...racing is simply awesome on HD. RA trainer Steve Asmussen will try to reverse his last Haskell disappointment, when the mighty Curlin finished third behind Any Given Saturday and Hard Spun in the 2007. A tiring 14-race card at the Shore's Greatest Stretch today. As one racing tweeter says a 10 race card with just stakes would do him just fine, and I tend to agree. Man, 7 hours of racing is a long time to stay focused (and maintain a bankroll).

While she should dominate here, don't count out the locals on Haskell day. The MTH jocks can be tough and they know the track well. I think Atomic Rain could be a factor. Not sure Munnings can get the distance, but I hope he can as he is a fan fav here. In the Haskell game contest today, I focused on a lot of horses with the hot MTH jocks and those who have previously won at the course. Survival at the Shore update: slipped to 27th, but still alive with two preservers.

So much for my plans for a hockey playoff-like beard for the Spa meet. After three winning days, our grand slam bet went up in flames with Love Cove and Here Comes Rita in the Lake Luzerne. Oh well, today is another day. GbG and the Dresden File each garnered a point in the Toga Party Contest (see standing in right margin) with Kensei's win in the Dandy. I really liked him (especially when he momentarily drifted up to 5-1), but the tote resettled and I sat out the race. He's a nice horse, who I was fortunate enough to see run in the Derby Trial S. in April on Churchill's opening day. Here's a shot I got of him in the paddock heading out for the Trial.
















Let's hope today is as special a day as Michael Squints Palledorous had that one magic summer day....

Whirlwind Tour and My Racing Jones

Tweet There's no better medicine to get back your racing jones, than a two day swing through the Historic Saratoga Race Course (photo courtesy: me). Let's just say I'm back in the saddle and the place just recharged my batteries. It was great to see old friends, new friends, interweb friends and meet some new acquaintances, but it was certainly a whirlwind two days as the Saratoga Resident once again proved to be an incredible host.

We did a respectable 4:09 on a busy Wednesday morning in from Buffalo which was hampered by the continued construction between exits 39 and 40, an old lady in a pinto, a student driver and the loss of my GPS with 26.7 miles to go. The Puma was watching on the "Geno Cam" as he calls Twitter and sending me encouragement for the 3:59, but it just wasn't meant to be. Regardless, with the traffic at the corner of 9 and 50, I would have been hard pressed to make it if I was closer. I'll have a couple more shots at it later this summer.

The racing on opening day was spectacular, I hit the early double and exactas on the two early baby races to make day one on the gambling front a profitable one. The Schuylerville was a nice race and Hot Dixie Chick looks to be a good one.

It was great to see Pyro back from a long layoff, here's an awful picture I grabbed of him while three deep at the paddock fence....

Day one at the track was a wrap with the Saratoga Resident taking the early lead in the Toga Party contest. His attendance guess of 25,750 was only 306 higher than the NYRA reported attendance of 25,444. He based his selection on the fact that he doesn't have any visitors scheduled for the rest of the summer at the Residence (other than me). [Dollar Bill: need your Dandy pick or you get the post time highest choice]. We headed over to Siro's in the pouring rain for a post-race drink and smoke. I had a nice blogger meetup with some of my interweb comrades and we all shared some stories from the day and caught up.

Day two started off bright and early (can we blow it off?) with a round of golf at beautiful Ballston Spa CC. The Puma broke out both his Puma shirt and socks for the occasion (I think he was trying to psyche me out), but the Saratoga Resident and I held off him and the Dragon on hole 18 to pocket a few more dollars. The round had two highlights for me, I just missed my first ever hole in one (on the second hold - one foot away) and secondly the Toga Rez convincing me to try a Jean van de Velde-like shot out of puddle. Needless to say, I was wearing said puddle (and the mud) on me for the remainder of the round.

Back to the track and we wandered the box area and ended up sitting right in front of D. Wayne Lukas. I got the courage (after some prodding) to ask him for a photo and ended up chatting with him for a few minutes about his spreading of the Triple Crown races out. He was a classy gentlemen, even when I told him I was one of those crazy racing bloggers.

As you can see, D Wayne had his best duds on and looked extremely sharp...

Next we moved up to the Puma's box to watch the last few races of the day, including spending some time with my pal, JB and some of the Saratoga Resident's Albany buddies (and avid readers of EquiSpace - thanks guys). JB and I went down into the paddock before the Quick Call Stakes and the only horse I didn't get a picture of was the winner, and Linda Rice-trained Awakino Cat. I also met one of the owners of Canadian Ballet (running today at Woodbine) who also uses Linda Rice, and we both left the Cat off our tickets after we were talking for ten minutes about how good she is in turf sprints. Robert from They're in the Gate joined us for a race or two (nice call on Backtalk).

I did get a side view of winning jock Alan Garcia though before jumping on Awakino Cat:

We wrapped up the day at the track and I got to meet one of my favorite jockeys, Julien Leparoux who was kind enough to pose after riding the final race of the day on Regal Refrain....

Back to Siro's, where I found these two fine gentlemen just waiting to get their picture taken with these colorful jackets. I figured I would give them their 15 minutes of fame.

We had a fabulous dinner at Max London's at the bar, where we met one of the owners of Siro's, who was enjoying his meal next to us at the bar. We haggled over a price for Siro's, but just couldn't get it done. Nice guy and enjoyed our time with him. We headed over to the Grey Gelding for a nightcap where we met Frank the Postal Guy who told me it was a federal offense to mail back the Puma's lighter upon my return to Buffalo...good to know...you never know what you will learn when you spend some time in the Springs.

The trip concluded on Friday morning with some breakfast at Shirley's (my favorite Toga diner) and a little business. We visited my good friend and client over at Saratoga Eagle Sales & Service (the local A-B distributor) and had a great tour of their brand spanking new warehouse in the Grande Industrial Park. Thanks Jeff, for the great tour (and samples!!).

Well, I'm glad to report my racing jones is back. The Spa is just what the doctor ordered. Just in time for a great weekend of racing. On a side note, La Chica Rica is taking on male rivals for the first time on the West Virginia Derby undercard. Looking forward to seeing how she fares.