Handi-sitting

Tweet Me and the Space Kid (not pictured) are hangin' together today. Since he decided to take a mid-morning nap as I was expaining to him the turn-back angle, I figured I could sneak in a quick blog since we're mid-Preakness week and things seemed to have settled down out there on the interweb. I figured I could teach him some good 3 letter combinations today, you know, ADW, TVG, OTB....not that boring ABC stuff. He seems to be content eating, sleeping and pooping though. I guess those lessons can wait for another day.

We'll be downloading today's Belmont card and playing a little Grand Slam on races 5-8, that I can handicap during Space Kid's nap time and we can enjoy the races together this afternoon, while we do some bonding. Too bad Fort Erie runs on Sunday-Tuesday, we could have completed his racetrack trifecta of Keeneland/Churchill/? within his first six months. Thinking it through though, however, it's gotta be Saratoga (cuz the Space Gal would kill me if I took him to Finger Lakes today). Speaking of the Grand Slam, I played it Sunday along with a Pick 3 on the first three legs and actually hit the P3 and lost the GS, that's a first. How does that happen? I had decent priced winner Cugatcha ($24.40) in the middle leg on a backup $4 P3 ticket and my two selections for the GS missed the board, go figure.

Congrats to Bella Cavello Stables for the repeat stakes win in the Hancock County last night by La Chica Rica at Mountaineer. She had a six length lead at the top of the stretch and held off Hadavision at the wire by a length to take the $45K first prize money, pushing her over the half million mark with her 13th career win in 39 starts.

Some preliminary Preakness thoughts...

Rachel Alexandra - one of my respected handicapping pals GG ($33K Derby trifecta winner in 05 with Giacomo) thinks she's a mortal lock. He never goes out on a limb like that. He didn't play the Derby this year saying it was a tossup. So I will take note and probably play against her anyway.

Papa Clem - I think he's gotta be tired and due for a clunker.

General Quarters - his on again/off again pattern says he could be ready to fire.

Friesen Fire - fool me once, shame on me....of course, he'll be a pretty nice price and Saez didn't burn him out 2 weeks ago...considering.

Mine That Bird - might get the right pace scenario again, don't think he'll win, but could hit the board late....

Musket Man - Gotta respect him...

Pioneerof the Nile - Impressed me at Churchill, will take a lot of money on Saturday...in the mix.

There always seems to be a surprise horse to complete the Preakness exacta (at least in three of the last four years) like Scrappy T (2005), Bernardini/Sweetnorthernsaint (2006) and Macho Again (2007) so who could it be this year? I'd say Terrain or Big Drama are the longshots worth noting. Interestingly, Terrain's last real dirt race, he faced Drama (who won) and finished 5th as the favorite in the Delta Jackpot. Terrain (4th), the Sky Mesa colt, will join Mine That Bird (12th) as the only two BC Juvenile runners in the Preakness.

Ok, Space Kid is stirring...back to baby-cappin...

Bluegrass Day

Tweet If you can't get excited about racing today...

With all of the bad stuff going on this past week, it will be nice to get back to the sport at hand this weekend.

Keeneland has a spectacular racing day covered with several great stakes races (and a guaranteed all stakes Pick 4) on the card. You can catch all the live racing from KEE, including the Bluegrass Stakes live on TVG today, which means I will not be shut out like I was last week. A rebroadcast will occur on ESPN2 with a live showing of the Arkansas Derby at 6pm EST.

The Bluegrass Stakes (free PPs here) looks like a wide-open affair with any of four or five horses that has the ability to win this one. I'm alive in the Maker's Mark/Bluegrass double to Join in the Dance, Terrain, Charitable Man and Lane's End winner Hold Me Back, so I don't have to tell you who I like. Speaking of yesterday's Maker's Mark, I thought Kent Desormeaux's stretch ride on Keeneland's yielding turf course on Mr. Sidney was fantastic in holding off a game Passager and Edgar Prado, watch it if you get the opportunity. Back to the Bluegrass, I think JitD (Pletcher going for his third BG in five years and second in a row) will have some nice value and both Terrain (can handle the synth) and CM (long layoff, love the jock-trainer combo) intrigue me. Who scares me the most in the is one? Theregoesjojo has the biggest speed figure, is desparate for graded stakes winnings and has faced Quality competition over his last three races (yuk yuk). I'm not playing him as he is coming back after a hard ride two weeks ago at Gulfstream.


Notable winners of the Bluegrass include Spectacular Bid, Strike the Gold, Peace Rules and record holder Skip Away (1:47.20).


The Arkansas Derby (free PP's here) will be a redeeming one for Old Fashioned. I think an exacta box with fashionable pick Papa Clem could be in order for this one. I don't think OF will get caught in a speed duel in this one (lessons learned - see Ramon Dominguez in NY today) and should have enough in the tank this week to win outright. I'm not sold on Win Willy, the Rebel set up perfectly for his late running style and don't think he'll get that scenario later today.
A follow-up to Thursday's post on Churchill's fast-tracked accreditation, the CEO of the NTRA was interviewed on TVG yesterday afternoon by Jill Byrne (wish she would have asked him how they could pass muster with a one day on-site visit during a dark period). Again, I think the Code itself is great, but what happens to those tracks that aren't accredited, what's the downside? If it's not a rigorously-tested requirement, then what does it prove? Can you really verify all of the conditions that were in the "48 page application" with a one or two day visit? I'm sure we'll be hearing that Keeneland will be accredited in the next week or two (certainly before the Derby). I don't think I'm the only one scratching his/her head. Just trying to put things in perspective...

This week's "buycott" race is at Mountaineer (a track I follow occasionally) where a perfecta (exacta) is in order.

I'll also be keeping my eye on Laurel Park, where a good friend has a filly named Imalexus running in the 9th. Best of luck!

West Side Story

Tweet He was my colt in the Juvie, but had a rough trip from the 12 hole and finished a decent 6th only 3 lengths behind Midshipman and 3/4 lengths behind 4th place finisher Terrain. So I am stickin' with my boy, West Side Bernie (surely the kiss of death), in the Jackpot tomorrow night. It's scheduled to go off around 10:17 EST as race 8 as I previewed on Tuesday. I'm not sure what has me jazzed up about this race, but I can't wait to check it out. Maybe it's that the Derby trail is starting to kick up or maybe it's that not too much exciting is going on right now, but I am super charged about a couple of my early Derby horses going head to head down yonder. There's some real speed in here (Trinity Magic scares the hell outta me) that could set this one up nicely to kick off the weekend for Bernie (nyuk nyuk). I also think Big Drama is going to be in the picture, with Eibar taking a ride down south to join the boys down in the bayou for this one on Big Drama. We could use another Big horse on the Derby trail, couldn't we, especially one named Drama!

Skipadate tries dirt for the first time in five starts, he has an impressive placing behind Bittel Road in a non-graded stake at the Spa in August and trainer Mark Casse must think this is a good spot for him after a dismal 11th place finish in the BC Juvie Turf race at Oak Tree.

So based on what I think will be a decent pace scenario I'm going with the following in a trifecta box (predicted order of finish below):

1- West Side Bernie
2- Big Drama
3 - Terrain

For free PP's for the race, check out the TBA homepage and click on the link under the Stakes PP's heading.

Top Chef update (Timeout from racing, those not interested, thanks for reading)

I'm not a big TV watcher and limit my reality TV to a show or two, but Top Chef has totally hooked me. Of course, we also gamble on it. We have a little five contestant Top Chef pool going with the Space Gal, the Saratoga Resident, yours truly and a couple fellow EC alums living in Toga and after 3 weeks we are all alive with our selected competitors. With the top pick I selected "Island" Gene (the Flyin' Hawaiian) who has been pretty much flyin under the radar. Fellow alum and defending champ A-Ron selected the Euro Fabio who looks to be the toughest competitor with a strong showing through 3 weeks (nice duck entree last night). The Space Gal in the third slot selected the other Euro, Stefan, who should crash and burn based on having the biggest head (ego) in the contest, although his huevos rancheros last night looked awesome in the quickfire challenge. Fellow alum Rusty went off the board with Hosea, who has started some romantic shiznit with Leah, which is never good in reality TV -land (see Tim in The Apprentice where the chick was his downfall - lost focus). Finally with the final draft selection the Toga Rez went with Jeffrey, a slick chef who has been in the bottom three and top three in consecutive weeks. He has leadership qualities, but has time management issues which should be his downfall. The Euros are strong, but their opinions and egos will ultimately get in the way. I'm with my namesake all the way......stay tuned. One interesting thing, last week's throwout made s'mores and lost, geez if you were one of fifteen top chefs in the country would you make s'mores on national tv??

Eureka!

Tweet Pondering the Derby trail while wondering how Plax's thigh is feeling and thanking the Big Guy (*pointing upward*) for the Jags' Matt Jones' second half performance last night leading me (and my silent partner) to the eighth and final playoff berth....Eureka!

Friday night the Boyd Gaming's Delta Jackpot Stakes (G3) gets it all rolling with a big fat purse of $750K ($450K to the winner) and graded stakes earnings credit, which should just about guarantee a starting gate at Churchill Downs come early next May. EquiSpace favorite (#4 Terrain) is looking for some Derby cred while he takes on another early favorite of mine, West Side Bernie (#5) over 1 1/16th on the dirt at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana. DD is a modest little racetrack which doesn't have much history, the Jackpot has been around since 2002 (ironically, the same year that the slot machines arrived). According to Horse Racing Coast to Coast: The Travelers Guide to the Sport of Kings, "in its first two weeks, gamblers fed the casino $7.9 million. This sum was so far beyond the projected figure that money-handling complications temporarily closed the doors." Holy cow, when does that happen! We're making too much money, let's close the doors! It appears the purse has come down as it was a $1M purse in the past and has been lowered to $750K for the 2008 edition.

Past winners of the Jackpot include Z Humor and Turf War (Dead Heat - 2007), Birdbirdistheword (2006) and Texcess (2004). 2005 Kentucky Derby runnerup at 71-1 Closing Argument, finished second in 2004 as another competitor in this race. The highest winning beyer was the initial 2002 winner Outta Here with a 98, followed by last year's dead heaters at 96. The 2005 race was cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina.

Terrain and WSB join eight other entrants, including stakes winners Big Drama, Kick On, and Trinity Magic in one of the richest juvenile contests on the Road to the Roses trail. We'll look at the race a little closer in the coming days.

I'll leave you tonight with one of the challenges I deal with every day at work. It is one of the best quotes I have heard in a long time and of course, has absolutely nothing to do with horse racing....

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It separates us from the animals...except the weasel."

~Homer Simpson