Pods and Ends

Tweet As most of you know, I'm a big Top Chef fan and being from Western New York we have some proprietary-type foods here such as the chicken wing, beef on kummelweck, (i would add Genny Cream Ale for comic relief here) etc. There's a restaurant in town I like to frequent that serves a contraption called the "pod" which is simply delicious. If you're ever in the area check it out. PS, if you are a Top Chef fan be sure to check out the podcast in the link above produced by a couple of Twitter buds. Ok, on to racing and the like.

- Prince Dubai (50-1 ML) takes on top NY Breds on Sunday for Bona Venture Stables in the Mohawk Stakes on closing day at Belmont Park. Winner at 27-1 at the Spa in August, he struggled at the break in his next start, but was closing hard and fast in his last start (where we put an asterisk on it) finishing fifth at 50-1. He may be overmatched in here with these, but he may be around to catch a piece with another EquiSpace favorite My Man Lars. The ML favorite is the everpresent Banrock, who could be vulnerable. bOf course, based on the weather, this one may go off the turf altogether. We'll be keeping an eye on this one at the Space Station tomorrow afternoon.

- I was watching HRTV last night (man, I've been waiting a long time to write that) under their new online program I posted about earlier in the week, and saw that Pletcher is pointing two colts, Join in the Dance and Ready's Echo at the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Check out my latest Dirt Mile post on the NTRA website.

- Speaking of HRTV, I received a nice email from a Senior Vice President of Distribution and Development who sent me a document to share with everyone on the new promotion they are running. I think he's the SVP who emailed me last year when I posted about the frustrations with DirecTV and the availability of HRTV. It's nice to know people are paying attention. I was not compensated for the Intellivision post, I wrote it on my own (for full disclosure purposes).

- The Syracuse Orange(men) are playing Akron in college football today and I found this amusing post which was generated via a Twitter contest to who could come up with the best (funniest) #beatakron capsules. Comedy gold. I'll be heading crossstate to the Dome next Saturday to see 'em get whupped up on by #5 Cincinnati. Guess they can have their fun this week with Ohio.

- I'm working on a Breeders' Cup post this weekend which should be up Sunday night or Monday morning dealing with a wide range of topics...stay tuned.

MMQB

Tweet As Saratoga week three comes to a close with three great graded stakes-filled weekends left we pause to do a quick anti-rain dance for the coming week and weekend. Picture me dancing. Waiting, waiting. *Thunder crack* Oh well...maybe by the weekend.


- Maybe NYRA should have replaced the bobblehead with the Toga umbrella on Day 2, would have been much more practical.

- Newly appointed New York Racing & Wagering Board Chairman John Sabini had some harsh words for NYRA in his comments following his confirmation hearing on Friday. Sabini criticized them for not doing a better job at promoting the Man o War turf race at Belmont Park featuring Curlin, which he said "attracted only a lackluster audience."

- Wonder if he misses the Clydesdales too? In a definite money grab situation, NYRA left the local Anheuser-Busch distributor high and dry (a long time institution at the Spa) for Coors Light and Heineken. Funny, how A-B has a major plant in New York State (Baldwinsville, near Syracuse) and the local distrib is building a multi-million dollar plant in Saratoga Springs, creating jobs and tax dollars in New York, but NYRA takes the short term cash.

- The jockey race is hotly contested with Johnny V (19) holding off Cornelio (18) by one win, but leads the earnings by over $500k. The Toddster has opened a three win lead over Stevie A. leading the trainers with 10 wins. Some big points available this weekend with the Alabama and Sword Dancer at stake.

- As pointed out by Handride on Saturday, an old angle taught to me by the Saratoga Resident back in 2004 in my first handicapping lesson surfaced, when the foreign horses swept the exotics in the Secretariat and Million at Arlington Park's feature day. I remember it oh so well in my first time at the Spa. It seems to me like less foreign turfers have been to the Spa this summer when compared to the past few years. I'm sure we'll see a few, including Red Rocks, on Saturday in the Sword Dancer.

- The Big Tuna (and frequent Spa visitor), signed the spurned Chad Pennington from the Jets in the aftermath of what was the Brett Favre circus. Wait til the Tuna finds out his arm isn't the same as when he drafted him seven years ago. Just what Florida needs another hanging (arm) Chad.

- Played Toga from home yesterday, two late scratches (Tasha's Star freaked at the gate and Gansevoort threw Julien Leparoux off in the paddock) threw havoc into races six and nine. Started out hot hitting the trifecta in race one and exactas in races two and four, and cooled off for the rest of the day, making one killer bad decision crossing out Classic Pack in the sixth in the two hole. I should know better to go with my gut and not listen to the TVG bots. After Sunday, I am right at the Mendoza line for the meet and looking for a big finish in the next three weekends. I started analyzing my patterns and I've been very good on the exacta plays and not so good with the tris. Gotta go with the gal you brought to the dance they say...

- If you haven't seen the comeback 4x100 free medley relay by the USA last night, it's worth watching, just for the enjoyment of watching the Frenchmen's faces. When are folks gonna learn that bulletin board fodder only motivates your opponent. The SpaceGal let out a scream at anchor man Jason Lezak's touch .08 seconds ahead of the French, that would have woken most neighborhoods. Great stuff.

- George Weaver's My Man Lars, a big DQ winner on the fourth of July (as called by Power Cap) ran a pretty big race yesterday grabbing the bronze in the $100k West Point Handicap at 18-1, just being nosed out by the aforementioned Classic Pack, paying $6.30 to show. You can't count Weaver out in the big races, even when on paper it looks hopeless, if he puts them in --they have a chance.

Five days to visit number 2....can't wait.