The Big A: The Day in Pictures

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I finally caught up to post a few pictures from my track visit last Thursday at the Big A. I wasn't sure what to expect while walking towards the large entrance from the parking lot off Rockaway Boulevard....but as you already know....it was all good. Thanks again to my gracious hosts for a super day.

Sam the Bugler doesn't take the winter off...he's still doin' his thing, cold weather and all.

Here's a view of the paddock in front of the finish line from the third floor.

From the third floor looking out on Equestris the indoor dining facility.

NYRA's 2009 leading rider Ramon Dominguez aboard Frame of Reference before the 7th.

Bug Boy Angel Serpa atop EquiSpace favorite Pewter who we last saw in the 2008 Prince of Wales for James Bond at Fort Erie.

A scene all too familiar at most tracks these days. But inside it was bustling with horseplayers. For a Thursday afternoon in January I was surprised at the size of the crowd actually. Official attendance was 2,114.

Finally, a nice view from the box seats on the second floor overlooking the paddock and the finish line.

So that wraps up our eastern track visit for the month of January. Next up: Sunshine Millions Day at Gulfstream Park. With three stakes races slated for Saturday, there should be some good racing to be had in the Sunshine State. The Space Clan will be heading down to celebrate the Space Kid's first birthday (and third track visit: KEE, CD & GP -- pretty nice tri for his first year!). So we'll be loading up the Space Shuttle to jet down south and get out of this cold weather for a few days.

Geno's Big A(dventure)

Tweet A is for Aqueduct.

I completed the NYRA triple Thursday afternoon with my inaugural track visit to the Big A. Due to some business in the Big Apple and some pre-planning with flight itineraries I caught the back half of the card at Aqueduct Race Track. To be completely honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the place. I had heard horror stories about the Big A around the interwebs and from some of my cohorts in crime. In fact the Puma was emailing me asking me if I and the 30 others in attendance were enjoying ourselves and if he could reserve me a table for 30 in Equestris. However, something about the place really got to me. Don’t get me wrong, flamingos are not exactly flying across the infield after the fourth race, and yes, the joint could use a fresh coat of paint. But it has a few things that captured my fancy and left me wanting more.

I had two gracious hosts in TRNY Ernie (hey, that rhymes) and Alan H from The Bug Boys, both who took time out of their busy schedules to show me the ropes at the Big A. Show me they did….from the Manhattan Terrace (love the sofas) to the Kelso Room to the spectacular views of the finish line from the 3rd floor. So why did I enjoy it so much? Let me list the ways...

1) Hardcore. Simply put the meek need not apply. Survival of the fittest. Guys who handicap for a living or live for handicapping (not sure which one). Cigar smokin’, Daily Racing Form totin’ regulars. Loved it.

2) Lots of Interesting Hats. The Jamaicans, the Tribe and the old timers. The hats people were sporting were A-1 classical.

3) History. The place was brimming with nostalgia. From paintings by the famous PEB to portraits of the Wood Memorial winners to the vast (and unfortunately shutdown and empty) grandstand you could just feel the history oozing out of the rust.

4) Old School. You know it when you see it. Plenty of cool simulcast rooms (Vegas-esque) and nooks and crannies throughout the plant that I could find myself enjoying on my next visit.

5) Coolest. Paddock. Ever. (without trees, that is). I really enjoyed overlooking the paddock from inside the clubhouse through the glass, from the outside overhangs and from the second floor box seats or even from the third floor seats. It is very unique in that it sits down below track level between the stands and the track. The horses take an underground tunnel to the paddock and then circle up onto the track from the paddock below. I found myself entranced by this throughout the day.

I really hope that something happens with the VLT’s and revives this old jewel of New York racing because it could certainly use some lipstick and a face lift to reinvigorate the place. I had so much fun I only placed 3 bets all day. I had some early fortune, hitting a nice exacta in the 4th (first bet ever at the Big A) but was par for the course in two back to back Pick 3 attempts hitting 2 of 3 in each instance. I got to hear some a cool story from a Railbird about how she hit her first Pick 6 at the Big A. But I wasn’t there for the gambling yesterday. I was there to share the afternoon with some folks who love racing, specifically New York racing….and that’s what it’s all about.

I’ll post some pictures later this weekend, when I get settled back in the B-lo. Enjoy the weekend.

Dirty Dozen and Optimism

Tweet As we head to the latter portion of the week a couple of news and notes that have been part of my racing world over the past few days.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be part of Wireplayers.com's Derby Dozen. I join fellow TBA'ers The Turk , Amateurcapper and Zipseatthetrack, as well as seven other handicappers/bloggers/tweeters from around the racing interwebs. Kudos to Steve Munday from wireplayers.com for pulling this together. I've put a link on the left sidebar to the first volume of the poll which also includes comments (he used two of mine...haha) from each of the respective voters. More on my dozen later in the week. It goes to show with a little work and cooperation anything can be pulled together, I view this similar to The Knight Sky Racing Blog's pet polling project I've been hyping (see poll on right sidebar), that picked up a few more blog sites over the past week (thanks to those who agreed to participate - you know who you are!).

I received an interesting email yesterday related to a post way back in this blog's infancy in April 2008 on the sire Incurable Optimist. Since I only had about 5 readers back in April 08, let me refresh you on this horse that currently stands in Argentina. At the time in 2008, he was the leading money winning sire in Argentina. He was bred by Dr. William Wilmot and Dr. Joan Taylor of NY and won four of six starts in 1998, most notably the 1st Generous Stakes (G3) and the Pilgrim Stakes (G3) on closing day at Belmont in 1998. His sire, Cure the Blues won six of ten starts and placed 15th in the 1981 Kentucky Derby won by Pleasant Colony. Cure the Blues won the Laurel Futurity and Marlboro Nursery Stakes and took a second in the Gotham and a third in the Wood in his Derby prep races. He finished as the top sire in Argentina in 2008 with 66 winners in 152 starters (and 102 hitting the board). He had a decent 2009, finishing 8th on the list with 62 winners in 168 starters (and 93 hitting the board).

The sire's owner communicated the following to me (which was a pleasant surprise):

"I happened to see your article in mid 2008 regarding Incurable Optimist and his success in Argentina. I raced and continue to own Incurable Optimist and can report to you that he finished 2008 as the leading sire in Argentina. He won the Pelligrini Award (Their equivalent of our Eclipse) as outstanding sire. His sons also captured Horse of the Year, Outstanding Older Male, and Outstanding Miler. He stands at El Paraiso near Capitan Sarmiento about 3 hours from Buenos Aires. If you ever find yourself in Argentina let me know and I will arrange for a visit. He appreciates that some continue to follow his career from afar."

Emails like that are what makes putting the effort into this blog, all the more worthwhile.

Who is the Face of Racing?

Tweet Some of us were having some fun in the twitterverse yesterday, mentioning all of the crazy fans that are recognizable, whether they support/represent a team or a biblical reference (see Rock n Rollen - the John 3:16 guy). We went through a bunch of them, Fireman Ed, Barrel Man, Big Dawg and Freddy Sez to name a few.

So it got me to thinking, who is the face of racing? Unfortunately, there really isn't one unless you count the local OTB'er who smokes like a chimney and spends his afternoon beating his side with a racing form asking his horse to get home. Not very recognizable, I know. So who else? Who is representing racing to the mainstream? What names are the most recognizable? Do we need an recognizable ambassador to makes us more meaningful in the mainstream, or am I just grasping straws here? Look at the folks we have in the forefront (on television). Hank Goldberg? The TVG analysts? Jimmy the Hat?

I guess it begs the question - will horse racing ever become relevant again? We've had some great news over the past 24 hours and we're on the cusp of a historic Horse of The Year announcement tomorrow night at the Beverly Hills Wilshire. But I guarantee you'll probably never heard of the MC at the Awards Ceremony and Billy Crystal won't be doing any stand up.
Maybe we don't need to be relevant, but if we did return to the mainstream, the money and advertising dollars should follow. We actually have some momentum with some extended careers for the first time in a while. Am I all wet here? Who's the guy or gal who should be the face of racing and giving the elevator speech?

Odds and Evens

Tweet This is going to be one of those random jobber posts. It's been a little slow around the Space Lab lately as we gear up for another tax season, but there are a few things running around upstairs....

- Good news on the La Chica Rica front as she's back on the worktab. She breezed 4 furlongs last Friday at Charles Town in 49:20 as she prepares to get back on the track for her six year old campaign. We'll keep you appraised of when the star mare of Western New York's Bella Cavello will start next.

- The initial month of the poll project collaboration between TBA bloggers spurred on by The Knight Sky Racing Blog finished up on a positive note. TKS posted the December poll results and you can see a marked increase in the number of voters on the weekly poll questions. But we're not done there. Whether you're a TBA'er or not, we'd love to have you pick up the widget and post the poll on your site so we can continue to increase the votes to get an even better feel for some of the issues that our sport faces and can point to as the "voice of the fan." Let us know if you're interested.

- My Sabres are hot. The Bills coaching search is not.

- I'm going to learn my lesson this year and not get too sucked into the Derby futures. That's not to say I won't take a flyer on a long odds horse. Speaking of odds, if you're into online betting, there are a number of UK races and NFL playoff games at your fingertips. I like the Jets plus seven this weekend (a lot). Sorry Jets fans, I think I might've just jinxed ya.

- I enjoyed Pull the Pocket's recent "Parallels" post examining various comparisons of horse racing to baseball and boxing.

- A couple of excellent TBA'ers have re-ignited their blogs and have rejoined the fray. Tote Board Brad and Gathering the Wind are both well worth checking out.

- Looking forward to my inaugural visit to the Big A next week (I get to cross another one off my list) to be followed up by Sunshine Millions Day down at Gulfstream the following week. Talk about odds and evens...winter in NY or Fla? Time to dust off the handicapping books.

- Speaking of books, I'm three quarters through the Headless Horseman by Jim Squires. Another reason why posting has been a little light, one of my resolutions was to read more and troll the interwebs less. How we doin' (said in my best Jersey Shore G-Train voice)?

- Cuse!!!!! #5 in the country. You know you're getting old when the nephew of one of the guys you played against in high school is starting on your favorite college squad.

Party Pooper

Tweet In another blow to the sport of racing, our sport's Captain Video, known to many in the racing world as "partymanners" has had his youtube account suspended by a jealous former contributor to his channel. In June 2009, the NY Times Rail blog posted a feature on partymanners himself, Jim Conti, a 31 year old digital historian from Long Island.

The story hit the message boards over the weekend at paceadvantage.com (see thread here; h/t @robinhowlett) and erupted through the twitterverse this morning, with a unified reaction of disgust and outrage as his library with over 1,000 races and probably just as many hours of work were shut down due to a youtube copyright complaint issued by the jealous contributor.

The story according to Conti (who goes by KirisClown at paceadvantage) follows:

This is pretty much he entire story, written speedily for those interested in it..

A few years ago I started a YouTube channel to pretty much show fans races they had no way of seeing anymore. Past greats like Holy Bull, Cigar, Skip Away etc.. It steadily built up over time.. by the time it was shut down the other day it had well over 2000 race videos.. and the channel had about 5 million views.

Some time in 2008 the individual who had my channel shut down contacted me and said he had many past stakes races on video, recorded on vhs mainly from replay shows and wanted to know if Id like to add them to my channel.. Naturally i said yes..

Everything moved along smoothly until an article about me was written and appeared in the Sunday NY Times sports section.. Once this individual read it he was extremely upset that he was not written about too.. something I had no control over. The author who wrote it was interested in the story behind my channel and what motivated me to do it.. I managed to smooth things out with him though after adding a "special thank you" notice on my channel devoted to him.. so we continued...

Fast Forward a few months to September, to me receiving an email from the upset individual.. demanding that I thank him even more and show more appreciation than I've shown, or he would "pull the plug" on the whole operation.. He continued on, as if he was speaking to a naughty 5yr old.. I wouldn't have any of it and I told him he was taking the fun out of doing it and I no longer wanted to work with him.. I was not doing it for recognition where it seems that was his only intent.

Fast forward again to Thursday night and my channel being shut down.. I received notifications that he claims to own Easy Goer's race videos from Aqueduct, Belmont, Saratoga etc.. He even claims to own the video of Fusaichi Pegasus winning the Kentucky Derby, somehow he convinced YouTube that he personally owns the copyright to the races.

He apparently has worked in different areas of racing before.. but from this experience it appears he is nothing more than any enemy of the sport..

Reading further down in the thread, it appears that the fellow who shut him down is an industry vagabond who has worked at a number of different jobs and places named Jeff Mende (see last comment in the NYT post for more info).

Let's hope justice is served and his account and his library of over 1,000 races is restored for the benefit of those who enjoy watching replays.

If You Could Turn Back Time...

Tweet No, I'm not a big Cher fan, but I do often wonder how Sonny Bono snagged her? And on the 16th anniversary of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident, we're going to rev up the way-back machine and list my top five sporting events that I would attend in a heartbeat (now knowing the outcome) and the top five sporting events if I could go back and change the outcomes......feel free to leave a comment to share yours (if afforded the opportunity) or what event you would alter the outcome of....as you can tell it's a little slow in the Space Lab these days...but here goes....

Top Five Sporting Events I Would've Attended if Afforded the Chance

1 - Secretariat's Belmont Stakes. Who wouldn't want to see this "tremendous machine" win by 31 1/2 lengths to take the Triple Crown in 1973?
2 - Miracle on Ice. Lake Placid 1980. Do You Believe in Miracles? U-S-A! U-S-A!
3 - 1958 NFL Championship (Colts-Giants). Greatest Game Ever Played. Unitas (my idol) hands off to Ameche to win first ever overtime championship game at Yankee Stadium. Before I was born, but I'd give my left leg (or maybe the right one) to have been there.
4 - Ali-Frazier I - The Fight of the Century. What other event had first graders taking sides. Well at least my first grade class.
5 - The Immaculate Reception. Although I cherish the moment that I put a hole through the chair in my living room (at 8 years old) jumping up and down on it while watching this game with my father....I think it would've been pretty cool to see that incredible play.

Five Sporting Events I Would Change the Outcome (you know, if I were Kazaam)

1 - Wide Right. No Contest. Instead of leading to four straight Super Bowl losses....who knows what may have happened?
2 - No Goal. Do you see a pattern here? Sabres take Stars to game seven....ya never know...ok no more Buffalo references...
3 - Home Run Throwback. I lied. This one was painful. We tackle Dyson or play ruled a forward pass (screwed again), game over. Rob Johnson/Doug Flutie combo take us to the Super Bowl (ok, so I'm delusional). Hey, this is my post so get ovah your ownself.
4 - USA/Russia Gold Medal Basketball Game, 1972 Olympics. Ball slips through Belov's hands, we win the gold.
5 - Eight Belles' Derby/Barbaro's Preakness (tie). 'Nuff said.

[Editor Update: Honorable Mention - Keith Smart's jumped clanks off rim, Syracuse wins 1987 National Championship (I was there for that one)]

Dynamic Duo

Tweet Looks like Johnny V has taken his rightful spot next to his main main, The Toddster. Upon opening the package Monday morning, my first thought was that the guy who I bought it from (on eBay) colored in a mustache on the bobblehead, but I guess he had the porn stache going back in the day. It was Johnny V who gave Pletcher his first Triple Crown victory with the filly Rags to Riches in the 2007 Belmont Stakes.

The reunion on my shelf reminded me of my first race track experience at the Spa. The Saratoga Resident and I had gone to the races in August 2004 and he was teaching me how to read the Form, when we came across a horse Johnny V was riding. He immediately educated me about the love affair the Spa crowd has with the jockey/trainer combo of Pletcher/Velazquez. He told me the horse would be underlaid (like I knew what that meant) and hugely overbet (that's more like it), but never to discount the combination as they were perennial winners at the Spa. Fast forward to Sunday's opener at Gulfstream and the combo grabbed back to back winners with Blues Street and Quality Road and a third place with Inner Groove.

So that being said, I wanted to actually see how well they've clipped over the past five years (by year). Try finding that information on the web. Via Equibase I could find individual statistics for each, but not the jockey/trainer combo wins and percentages. Why is it so hard to put my fingers on this kind of information? Why is it so frustrating, when you can grab MLB batting averages, NFL QB ratings or Tiger's 2009 greens in regulation? All for free, mind you. Ease of access to information for horseplayers and fans didn't make Alex's year end wish list, unless you count "improved education and development efforts for new fans," but I don't think that's what he meant. Help me, people, help me!?!

Well, Well...Look Who's Supporting PETA

Tweet Ironic? Looks like the late Bobby Frankel's daughter has a new cause to further. As we all know, PETA has been a staunch thorn in the side to the horse racing industry and now they've grabbed one of our own (you can see her in the HRTV special on her father in the winner's circle several times). Sorry for the PG-13 post today, but what the heck, it's a new year and I've already blown about 3 or 4 resolutions already.

Has the industry hit bottom?

Y2KX: Troubleshooting

Tweet It's been quite a week in the world of sports. Coaches being fired for crazy stuff, pro hoopers stowing guns in an NBA locker room, college bowl games ad nauseum and coaches being criticized for pulling their stars and giving up a perfect season. We should be glad we don't have those types of headlines causing trouble for our sport.

In the horse racing world, things are kinda quiet until some of the Derby preps will start revving up in the coming months. As the New Year turns, we're only a scant four months away from the Derby and those prep races can't get here soon enough. Gulfstream Park opens tomorrow with Quality Road making his first appearance since his wacked-out gate showing at the Breeders' Cup Classic. I'll never forget those moments at Santa Anita during the load and the way he freaked at the gate truly unnerved me. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow in the Hal's Hope (G3) for QR. He fared very well on the GP strip last year winning both the Fountain of Youth (G2) and the Florida Derby (G1). 2008 Prince of Wales winner Harlem Rocker (3-1) is the second choice going a mile for $100K. I would have loved to see these both in the gate at the BC Dirt Mile last November, but alas.

Tomorrow is the 17th anniversary of the best football game I ever watched in person. I remember being in the bathroom at halftime asking the guy next to me if he thought they'd put Gale Gilbert in at quarterback and replace Frank Reich. The energy in that stadium (people were jumping the fence to get back in) during the second half was something I never have ever experienced at a sporting venue. The closest electric moments were both in horse racing: (1) The Big Brown Belmont crowd during the gate load; (2) Zenyatta charging down the lane to win the Classic and (3) Joe Carter's home run to win the 1993 World Series at SkyDome.

I have been contemplating all day pulling my first no-show since I became a Bills season ticket holder in 1987. I miss meaningful January football at Rich Stadium. But there's still a little magic in that old place....