Posts about Octave
 

RIP Breeders’ Cup Distaff


Ginger Punch winning the last installment of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (Charles Pravata)

Moran’s post this morning inspired me to watch all of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff races… he’s right, but here are all 23 reasons.

1984 - Princess Rooney

1985 - Life’s Magic

1986 - Ladies Secret

1987 - Sacahuista

1988 - Personal Ensign

1989 - Bayakoa

1990 - Bayakoa

[WARNING - includes Go For Wand’s upsetting breakdown in the stretch]

1991 - Dance Smartly

1992 - Paseana

1993 - Hollywood Wildcat

1994 - One Dreamer

1995 - Inside Information

1996 - Jewel Princess

1997 - Ajina

1998 - Escena

1999 - Beautiful Pleasure

2000 - Spain

2001 - Unbridled Elaine

2002 - Azeri

2003 - Adoration

2004 - Ashado

2005 - Pleasant Home

2006 - Round Pond

2007 - Ginger Punch

Posted by dana on Oct 12 2008    
Filed Under: Farewell, Charles Pravata, Ginger Punch, Asi Siempre, 2008, Tough Tiz's Sis, Take Back the Race, Indian Vale, Unbridled Belle, Hysterical Lady, Breeders' Cup, Octave, Lear's Princess, YouTube, Race Replay, Racing

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New Poll, What’s Your Fave PP Style

My inner 12 year old just chuckled as I wrote that headline…

Alan’s recent excellent post on gut feelings/over thinking and handicapping inspired the current poll question. I really wanted to do a poll on handicapping style and what y’all use as the most important factors (speed, pace, class, work out patterns, etc) but couldn’t come up with a pithy way to frame it.

My preferred PP is straight up DRF. I haven’t ventured into the pace figs yet and my all Mac home network precludes me from Formulator. My friend Joan likes the Brisnet Premiums with the Prime Power Numbers (or whatever they’re called) but I like to come to those conclusions myself.

I’m still trying to get a real system going with note taking. My current “system” includes keeping all of my scribbled on PPs in several growing piles around my desk. About 80% of the time I remember when I have notes on a race and am able to find said notes. I’ve also gotten better at actually remembering races and trips without the aid of my notes.

My sequence of events are: Handicap, look at ML odds, watch race replays, read/watch race analysis. I don’t always watch race replays or read/watch analysis, but as Alan points out, it usually serves to reinforce what I’ve already decided on… usually.

As a wrap-up for the last poll, Bernardini was your preferred sire for Octave somewhat closely followed by Hard Spun (my choice). Interesting, there were not votes for Any Given Saturday or Street Sense.

Posted by dana on Dec 03 2007    
Filed Under: 2007, Any Given Saturday, Bernardini, Octave, Handicapping, Hard Spun, Street Sense, Breeding

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And the Winner was…

Midnight Lute, by a head bob over Curlin for Most Impressive BC win in my last poll. Midnight Lute had 14 votes to Curlin’s 13 in my most voted on poll by far (46 total). War Pass was 8 lengths behind the leaders with 5 votes.

Big thanks goes to Valerie for her post on Octave as the inspiration for the new poll. Listed are all the Darley U.S. boys eligible for the job.

Posted by dana on Nov 15 2007    
Filed Under: War Pass, Midnight Lute, 2007, Octave, Curlin, Breeders' Cup, Breeding

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Here, There & Everywhere


Sophie’s Salad at Saratoga, can also be found on the menu at Mesa Grill! (Sarah K. Andrew)

The minute I don’t post for a day or two all kinds of things come up that I want to point out, or how to turn several small posts turn into one really long post.

Back in Action:
NTRA has several items of note on those who are back in action, of one kind or another. Great Hunter & Spring at Last are back in training and Rags to Riches is preparing to start training in Cali.

You’ll have one more time to ask yourself “Will He Shine?” as he will retire after his next start in the De Francis Dash.

In a Back in Action two-fer, or perhaps a Back in Action one-fer and a Back in Cali one-fer, one of my favorite turfers, Obrigado, is set come back after a few months off on Saturday at Hollywood Park with Patrick Valenzuela up.

Following-up:
Slew’s Tizzy showed in Commonwealth Turf Stakes. He seemed to like to surface and started to come on in the end. If it were me I would probably run him on the turf again or perhaps send him out to Cali to see how handles the various synthetic tracks.

Around the blogosphere:
Speaking of synthetic tracks, Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch, one of the only folks I’ve seen to consistently raise this worthy issue, has a post on the “big toxic waste dump” factor.

John at The Race is Not to the Swift has a couple of posts of note. One has two interesting videos of Aqueduct… one that documents some shuddered off areas and one that’s a bit of profile and/or ‘whatever happened to’ as told by those who are there. This post generated some discussion about NYRA that’s worth checking and perhaps chiming in if you’re interested.

His other post that has several video clips of sires being shown off at stallion tours. The one of Giacomo, no doubt preparing for his work day, is somewhat alarming (perhaps impressive?) yet also giggle worthy with ridiculous background music and angle of the video. All in a days work!

Valerie at Foolish Pleasure has a nice homage to Octave, a horse that no doubt didn’t get the respect she deserved being R2R’s stable mate.

This also generated some interesting discussion about how the current graded stakes system fails to recognize horses like Octave, among other things. If you’d like to see the American Graded Stakes Committee do something about that, and I know you would, go here and leave a comment.

I Rarely Disagree:
A few opinion pieces and interviews from 2 folks I rarely disagree with… Steve Haskin does not disappoint in his Talkin’ Horses transcript that’s full of great insight and commentary.

Dan Liebman has 2 nice editorials of note, one suggesting that there are plenty of ways in which tracks can work together to better each other and one that discusses a new heartening direction in marketing for the BC.

Finally, I had a business lunch today at Mesa Grill, owned by noneotherthan Celebrity Grill Master and Horse Owner extroadinare, Bobby Flay. Sophie’s Salad was on the menu but no Catmosphere burger… probably not a bad thing.

Posted by dana on Nov 14 2007    
Filed Under: You Can Help, NYRA, Dan Liebman, You Tell 'em!, Steve Haskin, Sarah K. Andrew, Marketing, 2007, Rags to Riches, Retirement, Slew's Tizzy, Great Hunter, Octave, Racing

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Causin’ a Commotion


Highly coveted broodmare prospect at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

More coverage of the Crystal and Alexis of the breeding set if you’re interested.

Or, you can go here to keep up with all the sales news, not just the dramas and scandals!

Update: Valerie has a great Day 2 recap.

Posted by dana on Nov 06 2007    
Filed Under: Auction, 2007, Octave, Racing

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