Wood Day

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We're in a joyous mood this bright sunny Saturday morning in Buffalo, thanks to the guy to the left (Nathan Gerbe) who scored two goals last night for the Sabres in a playoff-clinching OT thriller against the Flyers.  Check out the awesomeness of his spin-o-rama goal in the third period in the clip at the end of the post.

It's Wood Day, unfortunately tax season has prevented me from attending the big day at the Big A.  But that doesn't mean we don't have opinions and such. We took a quick stab at the Guaranteed $500K Pick Four last night and came up with the following:

G3 Comely:  3-Her Smile (3-1) is my top choice with David Cohen up for trainer Leigh Delacour. Looking for her to continue to improve third off the layoff after two races at Tampa (one on the turf). Beaten last out by Wyomia, who goes later today in the Ashford at Keeneland.  Also using the NY-bred Hushion horse 5-Ava K. who tries graded company for the first time and the Pletcher horse 2-R Holiday Mood, winner of two straight.

G3 BayShore: 3-JJ's Lucky Train has done little wrong during his 3-year old campaign, has been at Aqueduct before and the place horse in his last outing won the non-graded $75K Private Terms at Laurel. We'll also include the Vindication colt 7-Vengeful Wildcat and 8-Royal Currier looking for a price. I'm throwing out Royal Currier's Hutcheson based on his horrible start and looking at past races at Aqueduct he was only beaten by a good colt, Fort Hughes in the Jimmy Winkfield.

G1 Carter: Best race on the card. What's not to like about 7-Apriority? Comes out of an optional race at Gulfstream for trainer David Fawkes and owner Donald Dizney. Going a little deeper in here with two more horses, the Pletcher/Dominguez 1-Calibrachoa, who shows a win over the main track and two Grade 3 victories to his credit. He'll be looking for his fifth straight for Repole Stables.  We'll throw in 10-Morning Line, Zito's classy horse, still looking for his first Grade 1 victory. Still debating on 3-Laysh Laysh Laysh and 4-Kensei, but most likely will use neither. [UPDATE: Calibrachoa has been scratched due to soreness in his feet...so thinking LLL]

G1 Wood: Free square. Uncle Mo. You can see my analysis on this race at my Sports, Ink blog at The Buffalo News here.

Well, you know Triple Crown season has arrived when the following occur: (1) Claims of a weak 3-year old crop; (2) Defections due to injury (see To Honor and Serve and Premier Pegasus) and (3) no major TV coverage of a huge prep weekend. Three big preps today and I'll have to go to TVG for the Wood and Illinois Derby and HRTV or TwinSpiresTV for the Santa Anita Derby. Ugh.

On a positive television note, the Black-Eyed Susan, one of my favorite days will be televised for the first time by the NBC-owned Versus channel. This is an excellent development, several years ago I put up a poll on the site as to who would do a great job covering horse racing, and Versus was at or near the top. It will be interesting to see how they do with racing coverage, if it's anything like how they cover the NHL, it should be decent.

Speaking of the NHL...here's a look at that Gerbe goal (and about five replays!)....Enjoy the weekend!

Another TV Black Eye?

Tweet "Despite what you may hear or read, I feel that ESPN's commitment to Thoroughbred racing is as strong, if not stronger, than ever." ~ NTRA CEO's Blog, March 20, 2009

The commitment that just keeps on being broken. First it was Kentucky Oaks. The latest news is that that the WWL dropped the Preakness undercard on May 16th as well as Friday's "Black-Eyed Susan" Day on the 15th. Two cards I always enjoyed watching (in HD) and playing along. Now I'm not bashing the NTRA on this, as they don't control the Triple Crown series, the tracks do ("Triple Crown shoulder programming is handled not by the NTRA, but by the three tracks and their broadcast partners"), as astutely pointed out by the leader of our national trade group in the aforementioned blog.

So maybe it's time to dump college lacrosse-toting ESPN and find the right partner who is really committed to the sport and backs it up with more than words. We won't be missing Hank "Freezin' Fries" Goldberg, that's for sure. Confession: I would miss Randy Moss, however.

So what cable network would you want them to try? Versus (the former Outdoor Life Network) has been bantered around Twitterville - as they do an admirable job with NHL Hockey? How about Animal Planet - with their natural tie-in with the reality show, Jockeys? What if Bravo does a standup job with the Kentucky Oaks, could they be an interested party? How about USA network or TBS/TNT, both who have proven they can be an alternative to the nationals with baseball and basketball? Dare to dream, how about the NTRA Network? Maybe then they could bring back the NTRA National Pick 4 and televise all four races in their weekly broadcast and teach new fans how to play along.

I've posted a poll with these on the upper left sidebar, let me know what you think or if I missed a logical potential partner? Note: I did not include TVG/HRTV, both are picked up mainly on satellite systems...thinking cable TV here only.