BC Saturday: Day in Pictures

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Breeders' Cup (BC) Saturday is always one of the most exciting days of the year in thoroughbred racing. This year was no different, wherein 65,000 plus showed up to witness a rollercoaster ride of an afternoon.

Here are some thoughts as to Saturday's events and various pictures I took throughout the day. I was fortunate to be in the paddock for the BC Dirt Mile, one of my favorite races of the year, and on the rail for the BC Marathon and BC Mile for Goldikova's shot at history. I had fun live-blogging the event for The News all day long, so I didn't get much time to visit, although I caught up with The Bug Boys Crew, Frank from That's Amore, The Turk and Stacy Berge from Thoroughbred Legends Stables.

I missed my flight home on Sunday morning, but was able to get on the next available flight on standby, and as luck would have it, sat next to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin for the ride to Chicago-Midway before heading home to Buffalo. He was extremely nice to me and we shared a few laughs about Saturday's track conditions, Horse of the Year, Sheikh Mo and It's Tricky. Of course, we were off the record, so I'd have to kill you if I told you what he said. The guy is top notch all the way around.

So here are some of my preliminary thoughts before I barrage you with pictures taken with my wife's pink point and shoot.

Best Moment of the Day: When Caleb's Posse flew by me at the rail in the BC Dirt Mile overtaking a game Shackleford in the final furlong. In using an old Joe Hirsch phrase - "He was a bullet on four legs!"

Worst Moment of the Day: Union Rags drifting out in deep stretch after being caught 4-wide and unable to catch Hansen who wired the BC Juvenile. It not only blew up a decent Pick-3 play I had, but our joint Pick-4 ticket. I could punch myself in the face for not including him after touting him in last weekend's preview article in The News.

Most Disappointing: Uncle Mo stopped right where we thought he would.

Biggest Surprise: Court Vision's win at 64-1 caught more than a few of us off guard. There was more than one person also excited that he was not in the IEAH silks for that one. Afleet Again at 41-1 was a close second.

Funniest Moment of the Day: Jerry Bossert of the NY Daily News saying if Chantal would have nipped Mike Smith, the headline would have been "The Nutcracker."

Most Annoying Moment of the Day: I didn't have one.

Most Enjoyable Moment of the Day: Cashing a nice Pick-3 with Wrote-Amazombie-Regally Ready that paid for a lot of bad betting. If Grand Adventure comes in during the Turf Sprint, we would have been even happier, like $2,300 happier. Just have to remember the old mantra, "first you cash the ticket, then..."

Best Pants of the Day: DerbyFan78's Secretariat pants wins by a landslide.

Here are some of my day's activities in pictures....Enjoy:

Army sky-diver w/Breeders' Cup Flag

Birdrun - Second in the BC Marathon

Press Box - Top Floor

Bill Mott - Big Weekend!

Giant Oak in Paddock before Marathon
(finished third)

The incredible E-Train

Brigantin before Marathon

The Turk and Little Turk

A.U. Miner and Calvin Borel

Cease and Garret Gomez

Afleet Again takes over in BC Marathon

Martin Garcia on The Factor

Baffert saddling The Factor

Jersey Town

BC Dirt Mile winner Caleb's Posse

Trying to rake it in all day

Shack Attack

Tapizar before BC Dirt Mile
Gomez up

Tres Borrachos with Rosario up

Wilburn w/JuLep in the irons

Irrefutable before Dirt Mile
(Bejarano up)

Jersey Town

Caleb's Posse and Rajiv Maragh

Trappe Shot and Johnny V

Gio Ponti in Post Parade
before BC Mile 

Gio Ponti heading to the paddock

Goldi heading to the paddock

Team Goldikova

Courageous Cat with P-Val

Mr. Commons getting a pat
from Mike Smith

Court Vision in the Upset Special
(Robby Albarado with the win)

Turralure was second by a nose

Goldi in the Post Parade
before finishing third

Stretch drive in the BC Mile

Drosselmeyer and Ruler On Ice
in BC Classic Post Parade 

Headache and Uncle Mo (one in the same)

That's a wrap from Louisville....time for a little break...

Turn Out The Lights...

Tweet For those not old enough to remember Dandy Don calling MNF with Howard and Frank, you surely missed some true entertainment. You know you're getting old when the guys you watched growing up are starting to pass away. Dandy Don Meredith died yesterday at age 72 of a brain hemorrhage.

I always enjoyed these three and if you see some old clips you know they were smoking cigars and probably nipping at the bottle during the weekly broadcast. It usually made for high comedy television and even when the game was a blowout, you would keep watching to see what Dandy Don might do to keep the audience's attention.

Meredith's trademark song when a game was decided was Willie Nelson's Turn Out The Lights the Party's Over....here's a sound clip from a game where he serenaded the audience.....




From the booth to the racetrack..we're about to Turn Out The Lights on the 2010 Racing Season......

- Zenyatta's retirement turns out the lights on a great racing career. She is the Horse of the Decade regardless if she wins a little statue in January.

- Eskendereya, a promising 3-year old colt turned out the lights too early for us in 2010....oh would could have been....

- They're trying to turn out the lights on the NYC OTB, but they're like a bad penny and they keep turning them back on...

- They turned out the lights at Saratoga in September after a record 40 days of racing...

- They turned out the lights after a unforgettable Breeders' Cup, which ran under the lights for the first time over the two day championship meet.

- A fan favorite, Odysseus, turned out the lights way too soon while on the Derby trail, after a tremendous effort in the Tampa Bay Derby in an unbelievable photo finish.

- The Belmont winner, Drosselmeyer, turned out the lights right after his Triple Crown victory for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

- Turn out the lights on the Santa Anita Pro-Ride....the party's over.

- Jess Jackson turned out the lights on the amazing Rachel Alexandra after a disappointing 4-year old campaign after being upset in the Personal Ensign at the Graveyard of Favorites.

- Someone tell those folks in the Preakness infield - the party's over!

Any others you can think of?

Here's a clip of one of the MNF openings back in the 70s...classic stuff....enjoy.

Belmont Day in Pictures: Halloween in June

Tweet The only thing I took home (besides the Space Gal) yesterday was the nice red "Fly Emirates" cap that one of these young ladies gave me. We had a great time, but the gambling was Michael Meyers scary. A bloodbath of sorts. As Steve Crist said in his article today, chalk it up and move on. I'll share a few of the gory details: Live to five horses in the 5th race on a $15 early Pick 4 ticket, the 9 horse (also known as the $#%$ 9 horse Hoppsey) closed late on one of my five horses, Cherokee Speed and the table was set for a horror show of a betting day. The only ticket I cashed was a $5 place bet on Discreetly Mine in the Woody Stephens. Even Alan H's son scored more than I did yesterday (2 goals!). The late P4 where we went 3x3x3x4 had four straight seconds and no winners. Never, ever happened to me. Shell shock city. Oh well, we had fun all day nonetheless enjoying New York's big day and enjoying many different vantage points while sampling some BBQ and taking in some backyard funk.

As far as the big race goes, wouldn't have had the Nutcracker repair man if I re-read the PP's another hundred times. I really liked Fly Down and he ran a good race. I had my train tied to FD and Make Music for Me, who finished a non-threatening tenth. We were down at the finish line behind the ESPN camera guy. The Space Gal could have pinched his arse and screwed up a couple live national TV shots, but she thought better of it. Not the best way to make Sports Center.

Here's our day in pictures....

Rajeev on Tapaline who won the second race as my single in the early Pick 4. I also singled Trappe Shot, who was very impressive in the 4th and we should see this summer at the Spa (and hopefully in the Jim Dandy (my next planned big race weekend).




The goods.












Funk Filharmonic was funking up the backyard. We hung out here for some of the afternoon to catch a nice breeze that was blowing through the picnic area, some brews and some great music. I can report that some folks were having a really good time.








D'Funnybone crosses the wire in the Woody Stephens in front of Discreetly Mine (I cashed a ticket!!). This is always my favorite race of the day (outside of the Belmont).










Edgar on D'Funnybone in the winners' circle.















"Hey Babe, nice win...wanna bite of my pretzel?"












The HRTV gang was in the house....the Red Bulls were flowin'.....












Gotta give the World Wide Leader equal time on the Space blog....da da da da da da.











GoGo on Cherokee Queen in the paddock before the Just a Game Stakes where he finished fourth.












Proviso (GB) surges to win the Just a Game, just as the guy in front of me decides to do his rendition of YMCA.











Me: I like Top It on top.
Barber: Take a little off the top?
Me: Cut me, Mick.
Barber: I'm charging you extra.
Me: Don't you know who I am?
Barber: No.
Me: Ok, Take a little off the top, then.







The Call to Post for the Belmont!













"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today......"

Oops....hopefully not coming back either...










And they're off in the Belmont Stakes!














That's a wrap on another triple crown series and it's on to summer racing and the Haskell, Travers and BC Classic for this unassuming group of three year olds....