I’m a little perturbed with all the spin about Stardom Bound being “barely best” beating an “unheralded” field and that her connections should face the “sobering reality”.

I couldn’t sum it up any better than Alan at LATG when he says:

Expecting to read the praises of the gritty win by Stardom Bound in the SA Oaks, I was surprised, and rather disappointed, to instead see it being framed in disappointment.

As Frankel put it, “She only ran 10 lengths farther than anybody else in the race”. Call me crazy, but I think having to overcome a wide, hideous, bumpy trip and still gutting it out to win is a plus, not a minus. But when one gets away on an easy lead with no challenge and wins by several lengths, well that’s impressive.

She’s staying put in my top 10 list for the PDI Index, I liked what I saw. (update: I removed her from my list after they announced she was off the trail. If she were still on the trail she would have remained at #2). Would I rather she had an effortless 6 length win? Sure, but what would she get out of that? The Oaks was probably the kind of race she needed if she wants to step up in to open company, and I hope she does!

But what do you think? Do you agree with Iavarone’s oversimplified (whoops, sorry!) assessment that she could “barely beat the girls” or do think she’s shown she can still get the job done even under adverse circumstances?

As for the last poll, it should come as no surprise that Chantal Sutherland was your favorite jock on Jockeys, Win or Die Trying. But, just like Stardom Bound in the Oaks, it wasn’t a runaway and she had to gut it out for the win! In the beginning it was a battle between Talamo & Gryder, but it didn’t take long for Sutherland & Smith to take over and battle for the lead. All the while Kayla Stra was in the mix and for several days she was on top!

There were a whopping 191 votes, that’s almost double the last most voted on poll (your biggest issue with the Breeders’ Cup) and I didn’t even promote this one! The final tally was 45 for Sutherland, 43 for Smith, 42 for Stra, 27 for Talamo, 26 for Gryder and 8 for Court.

As always, thanks for voting, even if you did you show up from a Google search for “pictures of Chantal Sutherland”!

Posted by dana on Mar 08 2009    
Filed Under: Kayla Stra, Jockeys TV Show, Iavarone, Aaron Gryder, Joe Talamo, I Want Revenge, Jon Court, Mike Smith, Stardom Bound, Chantal Sutherland, Derby Trail, Grrrr, Bobby Frankel, Poll, 2009, Impressive, Racing

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Big Brown in the shadow of last year’s winner (Sarah K. Andrew)

My remaining handicapping just got easier.

As Swifty said last night on the phone of Casino Drive “if anyone can do it…”

Posted by dana on Jun 07 2008    
Filed Under: Sarah K. Andrew, 2008, Big Brown, Casino Drive, Injury, Belmont Stakes, Belmont, Grrrr, Triple Crown, Racing

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Oddly named yet supremely talented G1 winning filly Panty Raid (Sarah K. Andrew)

I can’t claim that headline as my own, Sarah used it first when posting the photo above, but it still applies!

Panty Raid has been retired due to a non-career ending injury!

The injury was not career-ending, but it was decided to retire her anyway. “By the time we would have been able to get her back to the races it might have been this fall,” said John Greathouse. “She was already home.”

Grrrrr. They would have had to wait until the fall? Deprived again of seeing another talented horse.

Feast your eyes in this performance in the Juddmonte Spinster (grrrrrr) where she beat older fillies and mares. She did not go on to run in the Breeders’ Cup, which makes her early retirement even more enervating.

Please, no more bad news!

Posted by dana on May 28 2008    
Filed Under: Get Well Soon, Sarah K. Andrew, Farewell, Asi Siempre, 2008, YouTube, :(, Retirement, Let Horses Race, Grrrr, Race Replay, Injury, Racing

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NYRA Customer Service at Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

As I was watching the video of Dr. Ian McKinlay repair a quarter crack over at fellow TBA-er Fran’s fab Hoofcare Journal, I was struck by something he said about Belmont.

He talks about how it’s apparent to him that the track is really hard at Belmont right now and how he never used to see wall separations, but in this year alone they are 30% of the injuries he sees! Sprinkle in Paul Moran’s recent post about hard tracks and that the person at NYRA who is responsible for the maintenance of the track goes by the nickname of “fast track” and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

John “Fast Track” Passero first popped up on my radar last summer when Bloodhorse ran an article about how the New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association voiced it’s displeasure with the overly fast surfaces.

Trainer Tom Bush was quoted as saying:

“Horses are running way too fast; we’ve got track records being broken,” Bush said. “The track is hard because there isn’t enough preparation after repetitive sealing. Horses are suffering from more foot issues–shedding frogs and bruises–and it is because they are being concussed. After all, the message on John Passero’s cell phone is, ‘John Fast Track Passero.’”

What was “Fast Track’s” response?

“I was a bit surprised by all this,” Passero said. “I don’t know what is driving this train. If horses are having problems, it’s not because of the track. I will stand by the tracks. The NYRA tracks speak for themselves.

So, over tea this morning (which is actually having the desired “happy caffeine feeling” effect, unlike yesterday) I put this letter together to send NYRA. I sent it to nyra@nyrainc.com, the only email address I have (as it’s listed on their site)… if anyone has a better address, please post it here!

I encourage you to copy this letter and send it, or write your own (it’s not like mine is stellar, I just wanted to send something)… but PLEASE, voice your displeasure over their ridiculous practice! Over sealing tracks to make them artificially fast is a complete scourge that must be stopped, let NYRA know that!

To Whom it May Concern:

The recent report of the reemergence of Big Brown’s hoof problems combined with the following quote from Dr. Ian McKinlay are disconcerting at best.

“The tracks at Belmont have definitely firmed up, I can tell that from they type of injuries I’m getting now. When I started in 85 at Belmont, very rarely would I see a wall separation, which starts in the sole. You get an abscess in the sole and it travels up the wall and eventually comes out at the hairline, it’ll take the whole quarter out… I never saw them. As of the the last 4-5 years I’ve been getting more and more of them. This year being 2008, I’m probably running at 30% of the injuries are these wall separations.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx5gU1K7KtQ
(quote is from the video and starts at 5:58)

As a fan of the sport and NYRA track regular I’m asking that you please stop your practice of over sealing all NYRA tracks. The fact that the director of racing surfaces, John Passero, refers to himself as “fast track” sums up the attitude that must be examined and addressed in this new era of concern for safety of the horses and scrutiny by the media.

Last year when the horseman brought the issue of the over sealed track to the attention of NYRA, Passero was quoted in Bloodhorse as saying:

“If horses are having problems, it’s not because of the track. I will stand by the tracks. The NYRA tracks speak for themselves.”

http://www.bloodhorse.com/NOW/News/TopNews/40544.aspx

Please, for the safety of the horses, reexamine and change your track maintenance practices, enough is enough!

Posted by dana on May 26 2008    
Filed Under: You Can Help, TBA, Industry, Raymond Haddad, :(, Injury, Belmont, Grrrr, NYRA, Racing

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Racing right to the shed, Big Brown wins the Derby, but what’s the real cost in the long run? (Charles Pravata)

Hats off to Jessica for pointing this out…

Meanwhile, amid all this talk of improving safety and the breed, IEAH co-president Michael Iavorone boasted on Wednesday that a stallion deal for lightly-raced, achy-hooved Big Brown is nearing completion, and that the farms bidding for the Derby winner’s breeding rights included “one of the most widely recognized stud farms in the world” (Blood-Horse). All the outrage over Eight Belles’ unfortunate death, all the urgent discussion about what happened and what should be done differently, all the critics piling on Rick Porter and Larry Jones — I think we’re talking about the wrong horse, the wrong connections. Big Brown represents the racing industry gone awry, not the filly.

Boom, there you have it. Inspired by this I commented the following on the current Straight Up post, Safety First:

There’s another horse we all should be talking about as well… Big Brown and the implications of such a lightly raced horse with foot issues being put into the breeding shed! We can’t pay lip service to the issues by acknowledging we have breeding issues (among others) while we passively watch a horse that probably can’t even make it past 6 races go to the shed! Shame on everyone! Where is the outrage about this kind of greed? This is EXACTLY what creates more of the circumstances that we should be avoiding when it comes to safety. Wake up people.

I’m also saddened by the Jockey Club’s Health and Safety Panel. How can breeders be objective about issues with breeding? Four of the seven panel members (all men) are in the business of breeding horses. As my grandmother used to say, Jesus H. Christ on a crutch! (clearly we weren’t religious people).

In all sincerity, I hope Big Brown (and everyone else running) stays safe through the Triple Crown. I don’t have the best of feelings about it.

Update: My apologies to Dell Hancock for my erroneous (and moronic) assumption about her gender based on her name… sorry!!

Posted by dana on May 08 2008    
Filed Under: Charles Pravata, Greed, 2008, You Tell 'em!, Triple Crown, Breeding, Retirement Watch, Grrrr, Racing

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