News of super Ladies has been pouring in all day, some good and some not.
Several folks havenicetributes to Genuine Risk, formerly the oldest living Derby winner. I first learned of the “big beautiful chestnut filly” here, when Val did the timely piece that the mainstream media missed (again) by doing a tie in to Rags to Riches’ Belmont win. Rest in peace Genuine Risk.
For those who may have missed it, check out Jessica’s excellent account of the post Alabama scene in the winner’s circle. Great stuff. She also has a nice day after post and Geno has a nice set of shots from what looks to be the perfect Saratoga weekend.
Country Star made her triumphant return with an allowance win on the Turf at the Spa.
And in crazy news, my jaw dropped when my phone buzzed and I read this!
Anyone who pays even moderate attention to racing in New York knows that Linda Rice is the queen of turf sprints but this is almost unbelievable… and it’s not like it was a small field!
And what makes it even more super that you can’t tell from the chart is that the first, second and forth place finishers were fillies and the 3rd place finisher was a colt. Seriously super all the way around. Does anyone know how often a trainer sweeps a super?
And just because I haven’t posted anything since Saturday’s races, GbG horse of interest National Pride showed up and won the 1st on Saturday holding off a hard closing and impressive looking Posse Cat. Thanks to his unfortunate stumble out of the gate last out he paid $8.10, which is you guessed it, super!
Notional w/Joe Bravo up comes back with an upset in the Salvatore Mile at Monmouth (Sarah K. Andrew)
Today was the kind of day that reminds me why I fell in love with racing almost 2 years ago. Swifty and I planned on heading out to Belmont today come rain or shine, and while we didn’t get much shine we also didn’t get any rain. A few friends were planning to meet up at Monmouth for the United Nations and Salvatore Mile, but I really just wanted to have a nice quiet day at my beloved Belmont.
Swifty was hanging out with his 12 year old nephew Ted this weekend, or as I like to call him, the Future Handicappers of America. He joined us last year for Swifty’sbirthday outing and proved to be a bit precocious picking Dance Away Capote in the Duda Stakes.
Since it had been raining for two days, all but one of the turf races were on the dirt and there were a bunch of scratches. I only lightly handicapped so I wasn’t planning on playing very heavily to begin with. We got there not too long before the 3rd. My pick, Akin, had scratched so I took a pass. In the 4th I put Paris Winds over Them There Eyes for a couple bucks to no avail. In fact, I didn’t cash a ticket all day (again) but it started to get interesting in the 5th race.
I usually don’t like to play maiden races. I don’t have an affinity for using breeding in handicapping, although it’s on my list to work on, so I just throw a couple of bucks on a long shot here and there. The 5th was a Maiden Special Weight and no different for me… except no one was at long odds. In the paddock #9, Discreet Treasure was really acting up. There was no audio to speak of in the grandstand so we couldn’t hear what Jason Blewitt or Jan Rushton were saying, but Discreet Treasure was pretty worked up.
It was a 7F turf race that moved to the dirt. Quickly looking over the entrants I noticed that Discreet Treasure, a first time starter, was only showing one work on turf, and not even the last one! As they came out for the parade he looked great, perhaps too great. Did he leave his race in the paddock? Number 10, Counterspy, looked good too so I boxed them.
I’ll just let you watch the race for yourself… he’s the grey. A very big thanks to Party Manners for posting it!!
As it turns out, he’s a half to Discreet Cat, not that I knew that until I got home and watched Throughbred Action. And as great as it is on the replay it was even more thrilling in person. I can’t wait to see more of him!
The next race was also fantastic. It was a state bred allowance for non-winners of two. You may remember the name Overextended from the very beginning Derby Trail. He ran primarily on the west coast in all the big preps as a 2yo and even placed to Colonel John in the Real Quiet. I didn’t incorporate him into my losing trifecta key with Dr. W on top of the 4 long shots but his race was great nonetheless.
Just like Discreet Treasure he sat way off the pace, and talk about procrastinating, he still wasn’t in the race at the 1/16th pole! Then out of nowhere he closed like freight train… all I can say is welcome to New York! Previously trained by Doug O’Neill and now trained by Mark Henig, I’m sure we’ll be seeing him round these parts more often!
I liked the undefeated By The Light in the Prioress although I knew Indian Blessing would be tough at the distance on a muddy track. I was hoping it would have been Indian Blessing pressing Secret Gypsy with By The Light sitting off the pace but Indian Blessing has finally shown she can rate.
It was great to see Indian Blessing back and I thought By The Light was impressive given this was her first graded race! I had the 2 of them in a tri-box with Secret Gypsy but Indian Way spoiled that on the wire.
We busted out there right after the race and I got home in time to see the United Nations. I would have liked to have seen the Salvatore Mile, especially given that Notional pulled an upset! This really made my day… I loved him in the Risen Star was bummed when he had to drop off the Derby Trail with an injury. His 4 yo campaign has had an Evening Attire-like start, so to see him come back with a nice win that puts him in the BC was yet another excellent moment in a very satisfying race day. You can see it here, if it shows up on YouTube I’ll post it here as well.
I love that Mary Hartmann, Mary Hartmann and Precious Passion won the United Nations! I don’t know too much about her, except that I loved her sunglasses and Randy Moss (or someone) said that she started off as a hot walker some 20 years ago. But seriously, it’s always great to see one of the many non-high profile, hard working trainers win a big race and when it’s a woman it’s even more special. It goes without saying that there’s that extra level of “it ain’t easy” for women who work in a business that’s male dominated such a sports, or in my case, technology. So, good for her!
And to top it all off, Zenyatta stayed undefeated holding off an impressively closing Tough Tiz’s Sis in the Vanity Handicap. 6 for 6… is she looking more interesting for the Classic to you yet?
Pyro that is! He just cruised to a gorgeous victory in the Norther Dancer, winning handily over My Pal Charlie in second and Visionaire in 3rd. Had I been able to wager I would have had the exacta, which only payed $35.20, but that’s not the point, plus I would have wagered more than $2.
I’m surprised by Recapturetheglory, I would have imagined him to be in the mix up front, but not today.
At any rate, I’m really glad to see Pyro back on form!
Lava Man returns to form in the Charles Whittingham at Hollywood Park (qtfeather2000)
Looking beyond the triple crown for a moment, I was happy to see Lava Man’s performance in the Whittingham… he’s back!
I think the turf suits him and he responded well to his new jock, Tyler Baze as they set an aggressive pace and held on gamely as Artiste Royal and Monzante came on strong to win and place. Now THAT was a race!
Sorry about the quality, this was the only clip on YouTube. You can also watch it here at NTRA. I really like both Artiste Royal and Monzante and it looked to me like Monzante would have liked even more distance than the 1 1/4 mile Whittingham. Well done to all!
News has also surfaced that our old friend and member of the “almost but not quite Triple Crown club”, War Emblem is actually covering mares again!
You may remember that he had basically been refusing to cover mares for several years which fueled (silly) speculation that he might be gay or at least in my estimation bored.
When it became apparent that he has some talent as a sire there was a renewed interest in renewing his interest. Apparently at least part of the problem was that he’s just picky. I’m picky too, but then again it doesn’t impact how I perform my job!
His therapy program, which commenced in early spring, consists of a combination of changes in housing and management to naturally build maturity and breeding confidence, changes in breeding-shed handling techniques to maximize response, and carefully managed hormone supplementation as needed to boost libido to reduce his mare choosiness while his confidence builds.
Hmmmm, Spanish fly perhaps? Dr. Sue McDonnell, a specialist in stallion behavior and breeding management at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center summed it up perfectly…
I sure don’t know how horses think about these matters, but observations of his behavior indicate that War Emblem appears to be quite enthused about his new direction.
Well then, welcome back to both Lava Man and War Emblem!
Thor’s Echo before the 2006 Ancient Title at Santa Anita (Charles Pravata)
Besides being generally excited about what promises to be an exciting day at my most favorite track and the potential of witnessing a Triple Crown, I think I’m most excited to see Thor’s Echo return!
As mentioned before, Thor’s Echo has a sentimental place in my racing history. The 2006 Breeders’ Cup was my first real foray into handicapping in a serious way… it was clear to me at this point that my interest in racing was way beyond the casual “hey, let’s go to the track”.
Swifty and I had gone to Belmont for the 3rd time a few weeks before the Breeders’ Cup. It was the running of the Frizette and Jamaica. I had Sutra in the Frizette, which was great because she went off at 12-1, but nuttin’ in the Jamaica.
As we were leaving the track that day I had the feeling I always used to have back in my clubbing days when the lights would come on and it was time go home… I couldn’t believe it was over and more importantly when was I gonna do it again.
Enter the 2006 BC. I had started to grow tired of handicapping at the track, feeling like I could probably make better decisions if I had more time to analyze the data. I didn’t even realize at that point that I could actually get the past performances ahead of time! Our pal Joan sent sent us the BC past performances on that that Thursday and the rest was history!
Thor’s Echo and Miesque’s Approval were my two picks of the day, both long shots. Swifty has bragging rights to Invasor. I think the best part was that we spent the day at the Yankee Clipper sitting with a large table of investment bankers who were college pals of one of our friends. Swifty and I, the two newbies kicked their a$$es on the day… not to mention that they seemed a bit crestfallen to be outdone by a Lady.
Unfortunately there’s a dearth of Thor’s Echo replays on YouTube, the BC sprint is there but it’s really choppy and pretty much unwatchable so I’ll point you to his few replays on NTRA.
The BC Sprint was followed by a win in the De Francis Dash, which locked up his win of the 2006 Eclipse Sprinter of the Year award.
According to NTRA:
2006 Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Sprinter. Purchased privately by the Maktoum family for an undisclosed price at the beginning of the year. After two losing efforts in Dubai, he returned to Doug O’Neill’s Hollywood Park barn in May. Following surgery in August to remove a bone chip in a hind ankle, will be given time off and will point toward an ‘08 campaign.
So here he is, back for his 2008 campaign in the True North on the Belmont under card. His works have been solid, and although they’ve been over the cushion track at Hollywood, he’s beyond proven on conventional dirt.
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