Space Thoughts - Top Ten Again

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I was walking my trusty companion, Tanner Jones, tonight and looked up to see an almost full moon on a balmy 45 degree evening in Buffalo, NY. I thought to myself, I wonder when the last lunar eclipse was? Then that reminded me of the Eclipse Awards on Monday night. Then my dog pooped.

That's how my mind works sometimes. This is the Space Station, you know.

I went back to the archives to see what I was bellyaching about last January and ran across a post-Eclipse Award entry and in the "Pat Yourself on the Back" department I called for the extirpation of emcee Kenny Rice.  Specifically: "Can we dump Kenny Rice as emcee (I called the brutal jokes, by the way)? Here's a vote for Jeannine Edwards or even Jerry Bailey to emcee next year's Awards. Some of his comments were waaaay out of line and completely sexist."

Not bad, eh? Looking forward to Ms. Edwards' debut.

I think we'll continue our one-year tradition of doing a Top Ten list for this year's Eclipse. Last year's topics were the "10 Things That Won't Happen Monday Night."

This year's Top Ten will be the Top 10 Things That Will Happen Monday Night.

10 - The television rating will be less than 0.1.  To be honest, I don't even know if it will be televised. Mainly because I'm lazy. Ok, let me google it. No idea. TVG has hosted it the last seven years. This one looks like a lock.


9 - Pletcher's Red Carpet interview will steal the pre-show on E!. He's vibrant, he's handsome, he's wearing Armani.


8 -  Edwards will kill it as the emcee. She's a consummate pro. She'll play right into the HOTY filly angle with Rachel, Z and possible Havre de Grace pulling the filly trifecta.


7 - Mott will win his third Eclipse. The Hall of Famer won back-to-back Eclipses in 1995-96 and his big wins in the BC Classic and the tremendous year by Royal Delta should put him over the top.


6 - Chocolate torte for dessert. The Beverly Hills Wilshire is the host and I could easily have gone with the cinnamon ice cream, but my sources say the torte will be the torte served at the $400/plate dinner. It is a Four Seasons Hotel.


5 - Animal Kingdom edges Caleb's Posse by less than 10 votes for Top 3-year old colt. I think this ones going to be close. The Derby winner will prevail due to the "two-turn" factor and the notoriety for winning the sport's biggest race. Barry Irwin + microphone = Ruh Roh Rastro.


4 - Team Valor wins Owner Eclipse. See #5 last sentence.


3 - Rapid Redux' connex gets standing O.  Winner of a special Eclipse, as opposed to a real Eclipse, the connections of the streak master go to the podium amid the night's biggest ovation. (Sure hope it's televised or I'll have no clue whether I was even in the ball park here).


2 - NTRA announces there will be a new Announcer Eclipse award.  Ok, not really, but wouldn't that be really cool. 


1 - The filly does it. Havre de Grace holds off Game On Dude by a larger than expected margin for Horse of the Year, making it three in a row eliciting happiness all through the land. TVG (if it covers it) cuts to Northlands Park (as opposed to Ruidoso Downs). 

It's a Racing Festivus 2011!

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It's that time of year where we dance around the Festivus Pole and discuss Racing’s 2011 Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances. If you remember we had our initial Festivus post in 2009, and came right back in 2010. We're all about tradition here at Space Central.

After downing a delicious Festivus dinner and a few Festivus ales we're ready to unveil our 2011 Racing Festivus for the rest of us...

"Feats of Strength"

-          Rapid Redux’s Streak. Was there any question that the little starter allowance engine that could, would crack our Festivus Feats of Strength list after winning 21 straight, 19 in 2011?

-          Resorts World Casino Construction Workers. The Aqueduct racino project that was completed, pretty much on time, in New York, nonetheless?

-          Shackleford’s Preakness. The horse that shouldn’t run more than a mile, turned back a late game effort by Derby champ Animal Kingdom to take the second jewel in Baltimore in May. It was a yeoman effort by the big guy, so he makes our “feats of strength section.”

-          Pletcher’s Saratoga Meeting. The Toddster just blew them away at the summer place to be. His 38 training wins was unprecedented and his nearest challenger, Mechanicville native Chad Brown, had 22 wins.

-          First Female Jock to Win Big Cap. She had to sweat out a ten minute inquiry, but Canadian jock Chantal Sutherland became the first female to ride the Grade 1 Big Cap winner Game On Dude at Santa Anita Park in March.

Ok, so here’s what you’re really looking to get after, my annual airing of grievances…also known as “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!”

“Airing of Grievances”

-          ESPN anchor Stan Verritt. Courier-Journal vet Jennie Rees took him to the woodshed for his asinine comments about Rapid Redux. Good thing they don’t cover horse racing….uh wait…oh. She’d like to send a big Animal House float over to Bristol, care of Mr. Verritt.

-          Maryland’s cluster___. Frank from That’s Amore Stable has his annual grievance airing on the state of Maryland racing, some things never change.

-          NYRA $0.50 Pick-3 wager. C’mon man, you gave us the $0.50 Pick-4, cough up the Pick-3, you can do it. I won’t even ask for the 50 cent tri this year (but if you give me the P3 this year, I’ll be sure to ask next year).

-          TwinSpiresTV working on my iPad. I’m not a real big fan of the mobile TwinSpires on the iPad, but I dig the PC version where you can bet right on the screen instead of having to go back and forth. (See last year’s Apple v. Adobe – “what are we in fourth grade?” grievance.)

-          Secretariat’s Belmont Scene. Really Disney, you filmed it at Keeneland? The biggest and most historic scene in the movie and it was filmed on polycrap?

If you have any of your own grievances to air, feel free to air away in the comments, tiz the season, you know.  Merry Festivus, one and all!