One of the points used to prove that Jess Jackson is not a sportsman is that he stated that he wished the Woodward purse was a bit higher.

Is he being a persnickety rich guy or pointing out a genuine inequity in a purse structure that favors breeding your talented 3yos versus campaigning them at 4? He’s probably being a persnickety rich guy (not that I care, see points 1-3), but this also raises an interesting point.

Who among us has not bemoaned the retirement of a talented 3yo colt bound for the shed? Who among us doesn’t want to see our “stars” (because 3yo colts are the only ones marketed to a mainstream audience) race longer?

Let’s face it, there’s no financial incentive for owners to return their talented 3yo to the track and the purse difference between the $1M Travers or $1M Pennsylvania Derby vs the $500k Woodward couldn’t be a better example.

Our friend Frank at That’s Amore Stables elaborated brilliantly last year:

Consider this: on the same weekend that Big Brown contested the $2 million Kentucky Derby, the richest race at Churchill for four year-olds was the $500,000 Turf Classic.

At Pimlico, older males ran in the $250,000 Pimlico Special while Big Brown was cleaning up in the $1 million Preakness.

And in New York, while Big Brown tries to secure the Triple Crown in the $1 million Belmont, older males will tussle on the turf in the $400,000 Manhattan.

In other words, while Big Brown was running for $4 million in purses, your older horse — call him Old Grey — topped out at $1,150,000. Old Grey was running for less than 30 percent of the purses available to Big Brown.

While JJ is probably playing a little poker to see if he can get NYRA to sweeten the pot, he inadvertently highlights systemic measures in place to support the “bred to be a stallion” phenomena. Now there’s something to complain about!

Posted by dana on Aug 23 2009    
Filed Under: 4yo, Industry, Big Brown, 2009, Sportsmanship, 3yo, Breeding, Let Horses Race, Retirement, NYRA, Racing

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Pyro returns to training for his 4yo campaign (Banamine)

While we wait around for some decent racing this weekend and the Belmont jockey announcements a few things caught my eye.

My beloved Pyro is back on the work tab! I had heard that he’s been galloping at Keeneland for awhile but nothing official until now. As if the news of the Belmont Special service being restored wasn’t enough, Pyro will be based in New York with Rick Mettee! Perhaps we’ll get a chance to see him at Belmont before the end of spring-summer meet.

This week’s HANA pool party takes place this Saturday at Canterbury Park, race 8. If you’re not familiar with Canterbury Park, check out Ted’s excellent recap of opening day!

I’m not sure about you but I’ve been enjoying Equidaily’s hilarious new editorial graphic trend… well done!

Are the now seemingly repetitive tote failures the side effect of Mercury Retrograde? We should probably be so lucky as Mercury Retrograde ends on June 14th.

Kennedy has a nice look at some of the current 3yo sprinters who are overshadowed by the Triple Crown while Ghostnapper has an interesting take on how team Zenyatta really needs to step it up.

And finally, buried at the bottom of a DRF post about something else, it looks Channing Hill is heading back east to Monmouth for the summer:

Two jockeys who found California a tough circuit to crack have left for greener pastures. Channing Hill won just two races from 53 mounts in Southern California and has left for Monmouth; Jesus Rios won 13 races from 163 mounts and left for Calder.

Be sure to say hi to Channing while you attend the ReRun 3rd annual Day at the Races Fundraiser at Monmouth on June 13th!

Posted by dana on May 21 2009    
Filed Under: 4yo, Channing Hill, Zenyatta, 2009, HANA, Technology, Pyro, Belmont, Come Back, 3yo, Sprint, Racing

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Curlin posing after a bath at Saratoga (wendyu)

Instead of regaling you with thoughts and memories about Curlin, I’m going to point you other places doing a fine a job of it, at least for now. Perhaps I’ll muster something up at another point, but for now I’ll just share last year’s Jockey Club.

Of all his races I’d have to say last year’s Classic was my favorite, but what I love about the Jockey Club (besides cashing my first Pick 4 because of Curlin!) was that it was the beginning of what was to come. The Curlin that we all know now was not apparent to most at this point, and even after this race there were plenty of folks who weren’t sold. This race sold me hook, line and sinker on Curlin.

Kevin, the world’s biggest Curlin fan, has a fitting and touching tribute. I’ve never fallen for a horse that hard (and secretly hope I never do, but I’ve already got a big crush on that Hard Spun/Zoftig offspring!). Geno also has a nice tribute.

Bill Finely covers it in the Times and Paulick has a post too. I’ll continue to add posts as I spot them.

I was lucky enough to see Curlin in person 4 times, and I’m as thankful for that as I am to Jess Jackson for keeping him in training this year (even if he really didn’t really have many other options).

Either way, thank you Curlin, it was a true pleasure… and I hope your beloved Pancho accompanies you wherever you end up!

Updates:
Mary Forney has a great video of Curlin schooling the paddock at Santa Anita!

Moran notes that there’s now a gaping hole in the 2009 season (except for Zenyatta)

Brooklyn Backstretch points out the similarities between Curlin’s announced retirement and his career.

Superfecta sums it up.

Crist considers Curlin.

Railbird on Valuing Curlin.

Duh, Raceday360 Wire is gonna have all the Curlin posts as they happen, just go to the Curlin tag.

Posted by dana on Nov 16 2008    
Filed Under: Sportsmanship, 2008, 4yo, Farewell, YouTube, Retirement, Curlin, Race Replay, Racing

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Zenyatta at Santa Anita (Sarah K. Andrew)

That’s right, welcome one and all to the official home of Zenyatta for Horse of the Year. We’ve been wondering why Zenyatta wasn’t mentioned in the same breath as Curlin and Big Brown for HOY, and even had a poll about it.

To ensure that the good word about Zenyatta has been known across the land we’ve had plenty of public service announcements and even a bootleg episode MTV Cribs.

But let’s just let her final breath taking performance of the year do the talking:

For those of you who had doubts that Starship Zenyatta should be in the running for HOY, I welcome you with open arms!

Posted by dana on Oct 24 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Sarah K. Andrew, 4yo, Big Brown, Impressive, Zenyatta, Santa Anita, YouTube, Curlin, Fans, Breeders' Cup, Race Replay, John Shirreffs, Racing

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Zenyatta after winning the Clement Hirsch (Charles Pravata)

After bitching yesterday about how boring it is read about Curlin vs. Big Brown for HOY I decided that I wanted to see how many other people would pick Zenyatta over them.

In our last poll, 31 of you said that the NTRA should market to any and all groups of people (a point of view I share), 14 of you said they should market specifically to sports fans, 3 of you said that they should market to known gamblers as well 3 for puzzle solvers. 2 of you said they should go after day trippers and not one single person said they should market to millennials.

As always, thanks for participating!

Posted by dana on Sep 18 2008    
Filed Under: Poll, 4yo, Big Brown, Zenyatta, 2008, Charles Pravata, Fans, Curlin, 3yo, Racing

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