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Obviously Tuesday

You know the old Poltergeist line...it goes without saying that the boys from Obviously NY Stables reacquainted themselves in the winners' circle yesterday with their 3-year old gelding Obviously Tuesday ($10.00).

Unraced since closing week last year at the Spa, the gelding responded with a super effort in the one mile maiden special weight. Alan Garcia broke an 0 for 40 streak at the historic race track on Wednesday with an excellent ride in the Spa's nightcap.

Even though it was Wednesday, the 4-1 selection stalked the pace early and took over at the top of the stretch and held off Cincinnati Kid at the wire breaking his maiden and setting off a joyous celebration in the Saratoga winners circle by the local Albany ownership group.

I've known some of the principals of the group for several years and have followed closely some of their better horses, notably Canadian Ballet and Mother Russia, both who combined for four wins back in the 2009 Spa meet. They are a down to earth great bunch of people who pulled me into my first ever winners' circle photo. Kudos to the Obviously NY team.

It was a rather chalky day that did not net out very well for yours truly and I blew the biggest opportunity on the card in the first race by changing my bet. The horse I liked the best of the day, Hot Money (who finished second) in the first was at 15-1 and instead of just playing him under Silver Timber with the other two horses I favored, I added a couple in the show spot and dropped him down to the third slot in my trifecta. Big mistake. A $380 mistake. That shook me for the rest of the day and although I hit two Pick-3's and the Grand Slam, Rizzi's Comet (3rd) and Emerald Beech (5th) blew up two of my larger multirace plays. Back to the drawing board today.

I spent some time in the paddock and watched two races with interest in the winners' circle on Wednesday. The 4th was a 5-1/2 furlong 2-year old race which featured some interesting babies including Seeker, a Hard Spun colt trained by Steve Asmussen and Raconteur, one of Dogwood's 2-year olds trained by the Toddster. Vexor, a Wildcat Heir colt looked impressive holding off Seeker, both were sent to my watch stable.

The day's stakes race was a 1-1/2 mile turf race, the Waya, was taken by Jonathan Sheppard's Emerald Beech, Shocker, Sheppard won a long turf route, he has to be respected. Unfortunately, I did not and paid the price.

Here are some photos from a fun Wednesday at the Spa....

The Toddster with Raconteur

Steve Asmussen with the Hard Spun colt Seeker

Vexor with Javier Castellano up

Seeker and Raconteur before the 4th

Vexor ($8.20) in the Winners Circle

Dyani before the Waya

Emerald Beech ($14) takes the Waya

Son of a Beech

Alan Garcia - The O on his silks
was his Spa record before the 10th

Cincinnati Kid finished a game second

Obviously Tuesday heads to the track

Obviously Tuesday holding off
Cincinnati Kid as they approach the wire

I capped off the day by attending a lecture at Fasig-Tipton's Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion, which is absolutely gorgeous. The series was promoted by the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation and featured Paul Roberts, author of the book The Spa: Saratoga's Legendary Track. It was final part of a 3-part series focusing on the original buildings of 1864 to developments made by NYRA. Mr. Roberts discussed every phase of Saratoga Race Course’s remarkable past. It was extremely interesting and fascinating to see the changes that the track has undertaken over the years. With the new VLT monies starting to flow in the fall it will be nice to see additional capital dollars being committed to the historic track.