La Chica Takes On The Boys

Tweet Seven year old mare La Chica Rica will take on the boys at Mountaineer Park in her 2010 debut tomorrow night (Friday) in Race 9. Western NY-based Bella Cavello's Stables' star will take on some pretty rugged competition in her return to the races after a seven month layoff. The race, at a distance she has had past success at, will be run at 5 1/2 furlongs where she is 5-2-1 in 9 tries. Chica, the highest lifetime earner in the field, is currently the fourth choice on the morning line behind Harlan Street (8/5), Flavor (9/5) and Run Brother Ron (4-1). Jareth Loveberry (that could so be my stripper name) has the mount on the Rich Girl. While the Stable is looking for this to be a nice prep for a race next month against F&M's, she'll definitely have her hands full running against the likes of Harlan Street, who is 4 for 4 at Mountaineer and 6 for 13 lifetime. Flavor, cuts back in distance and has some nice speed figures and has is also undefeated (1 for 1) over the course. Run Brother Run looks to be out on the lead early and should set the pace. It's good to be blogging about Chica again as she is a huge favorite of this site. The race goes off at 10:20 EST if you're watching from home. Good luck!

Report from Sin City

Tweet We're looking live from the Mirage Race and Sports Book! Yeah, that's the best Brent Musberger imitation I coud come up with (much better with audio). Arrived Monday morning to 100 degree heat in Sin City rarin' to go.

Day one (Monday): Off to a rousing start, playing some tracks I don't normally play (Fairplex, Mountaineer and Prairie Medadows). Not knowing the jockey/trainer combinations made it a little difficult, but tried to stay with normal handicapping angles (class drops, etc.) helped, especially at Fairplex. It reminded me of playing Fort Erie with Woodbine (synth) shippers as the Fairplex track is one of the only dirt tracks in California and most of the horses were coming from Hollywood, SA or Del Mar, and running on dirt for the first time. Anyways, we had some good fortune on day one hitting two trifectas, one exacta and a win bet at Fairplex. Mountaineer was another story until the last play of the day resulted in a nice $127 trifecta with a 9-1 on top, good times! A Ryan Grant 1st quarter touchdown was the only thing that kept me away from a perfect day one. What, three tries inside the five and he can't get it done (at 5-1 no less)! Finished the day with a hearty meal at Joe's Stone Crabs with the Space Gal (mmm).

Day two (Tuesday): Exploration day. Since most tracks were dark I decided to venture to some of the other casinos and check out the race books. Caesar's had the best televisions and I would say is second best, Treasure Island seemed a bit smallish, but cozy, and the Venetian one didn't seem to focus on racing as much as the other sports. I think I like the Mirage's the best so far, we'll see how the downtown race books look when I venture out on Wednesday. Tried my hand at craps at TI, looks like I'll stay with handicapping based on my five minute venture to the tables, although my partner promises to school me today downtown. Finished the day with the Mirage buffet, the Danny Gans show (awesome) and the TI pirate ship battle with the Space Gal.

Day three (Weds): Today we head downtown and I should pick up the mandatories for the NHC Qualifier on Thursday, so I can take a look at them prior to the contest. The contest is 15 mythical $2 WP bets with seven or eight mandatory plays, with a $40 entry fee. The top ten finishers qualify for a Dec 13 qualifier at the Red Rock. Casino Station, the contest location, is in Henderson, so an early trip tomorrow, to get a feel for the surroundings and understand the rules, is in order.

Betting Notes

Interesting lines out here, the Patriots went from top choice at 5/2 to sixth choice to win the Super Bowl (7-1 currently) after Tom Brady went down on Snday. Which also gives my Bills (22-1, down from 60-1) some optimism, although the NY Post is playing up this week's Pats-Jets (8-1, down from 75-1 per Favre) game to be a huge payback contest. The Ralph was shakin' on Sunday, more good times to come from Orchard Park.

Penn State (or State Penn, whichever side you're on) is a 27 point favorite over my hometown Syracuse Orangemen (i refuse to call them the Orange), a game PSU alum Space Gal and I will be attending with respective families at the Carrier Dome. Unfortunately I think it's going to be a rout on national TV....

More tomorrow night to report on the contest....here goes nothing (let's hope $0.00 isn't the result).

La Chica Romps!

Tweet For the third straight time, Bella Cavello Stables' La Chica Rica brought home the bacon (and the trophy) winning the $75K Hancock County Handicap last night at Mountaineer Park. It looks like there is no DRF jinx for this cat, as she was featured on page six of yesterday's form and registered the win with relative ease. The feature race of the night went off at 10:22pm (yawn) and although I was offered a seat for the five and a half hour drive, I decided to cover the race from the homestead on TVG. The five year old mare broke sharply from the gate and led wire to wire. The chart reads the following beautiful prose: "hand ridden, gamely." Bet down to under even money, Chica paid $3.80 and collected a smooth $45,750 for his Buffalo based connections. This puts her over the $300K lifetime winnings plateau ($344,274) and should render another large Beyer figure. Congrats to the team at Bella Cavello for another nice win. Update: 94 Beyer fig.

En Fuego

Tweet Bella Cavello Stables, who I cover here regularly in this blog, had another winner over the weekend and continues to be on fire. Coming off a claim from Scott Lake, the BCS reclaimed its 7 year old gelding, Gregson, he of 37 career races (8-6-7, 57% ITM) and placed him in a $14K claiming race at Pimlico on Saturday. As the post-time favorite, Gregson pulled away in the late stretch to win by 2 1/4 lengths to win ($5.00) his first race after the claim for Maryland based trainer Crystal Pickett and jockey Eric Camacho. Lake had claimed him in March after a race at Laurel from the BCS, so they were happy to get him back after a win at Pimlico in late April.

The Stable sends out their big gun, La Chica Rica on Tuesday night in the $75K Hancock County Handicap at Mountaineer. The 5 furlong race for Fillies and Mares will be a sterner test than she's faced last two times out. She also figures to be a better price than around even money where she has been for her last two wins. So La Chica goes for three in a row on Tuesday night with DL Parker up and looking to break the lifetime $300K earnings mark. Good luck!

Rough weekend handicapping wise. I had survived the Belmont SHOWdown through Saturday when both entries went kaput. I was out of town and couldn't get to a Form, so I relied on John DaSilva's Lock of the Day...thanks. Casino Drive had an impressive win in the Peter Pan, and as predicted here, Tomcito just didn't have it. Ready's Echo, who was my pick, charged back for third, but rendered too much ground early (listen to Durkin's call, "he'ssss wayyyy backkkk") to be a factor late. In the LS Derby, the Bad Cat rebounded to win on dirt and we'll see where he heads next. I'm officially done with King's Silver Son and My Pal Charlie, they just didn't bring it on Saturday. Still no word on Harlem Rocker and his potential entry into the Preakness, let's hope he does, so we can see what he's got. Update: He's out.