Recently I noticed that Breeders’ Cup posted this clip, created by the Hennegans, to their YouTube channel. I knew about it, but never saw it and am still not clear on where it aired. I love their sensibility and it instantly made me excited for the BC even though 1) it already happened and 2) it wasn’t all that exciting.
In photo news, you have until the end of tomorrow to go vote in round one of the TBA photo do over. Also, GbG regular rotation photog Raymond is on fire as of late over at Aqueduct… check him out too.
And speaking of being on fire, there was plenty of chatter over at Twitter during the races, muchof itaboutJones. (That should be *greet* Just Jenda… sadly Twitter does not have an edit function).
Note: this picture is not of the authoress of this site. (birdnest1384)
You’ve probably just walked in from doing all of your holiday shopping, making this list a mute point. But if you’re like me, you’re gonna wait till the last damn minute. Also, if you’re like me, you’re not gonna leave your house to shop. I think Amazon should use the following clip as advertising for why one should stay home to shop:
Here at GbG, we like to support our industry’s independent content creators. And with the recent spate of trade and mainstream media lay-offs, we’re expecting more independent content to support (and enjoy).
Let’s start with independent films. There’s a lot to choose from in this category and at the price point there’s no reason not to get all three! The First Saturday in May, Lost in the Fog and Women in American Racing are perfect stocking stuffers. I’ve seen the first two and both are great. Mother GbG ordered Women in American Racing for me and I’m using all my restraint to not unwrap and watch it (no doubt I will have watched by this time next week).
The First Saturday in May
Lost in the Fog:
Women in American Racing
You have may have noticed that there are a LOT of great photographers shooting racing. GbG would just be a bunch of boring words without their help. While I don’t know that all of them sell prints, you can always ask! I believe Charles Pravata and Sarah K. Andrew sell prints, but there’s also Raymond Haddad, Jason Moran, Bud Morton and new comer/old timer Walter Kobbe. Now that’s a classy present!
Looking to get more involved in racing? Why not give yourself the gift of ownership and join a partnership! There are several small, affordable, independent stables that just happen to be members of the TBA, which means you can read their thoughts and insights on racing and determine if they’re the type of people you want to do business with. My guess is that they are.
Moving from the independent to the unique, I’m a big fan of eBay present getting and giving. A quick twirl around eBay this morning uncovered the following.
Wanna spend the big bucks on that Sunday Silence fan? You’re in luck, the 1990 Hollywood Gold Cup saddle cloth worn by Sunday Silence is up for auction, currently at a mere $4,999. The good news is no one has bid on it, so perhaps it will be relisted. I have no idea if that price is reasonable for memorabilia of this caliber, but here’s the race. Sunday Silence gives 1990 horse of the year Criminal Type a run for his money and places by what looks like a nose, very exciting. Imagine the price if he had won!
From one of the highlights of this summer, Little Belle’s saddle cloth from the Alabama is available, starting bid $.99… and no one has bid on it! The auction ends on Thursday so I doubt it will stay low for that long, but I’m watching it just in case. Little Belle was one of the many talented distaffers this year. Here she is showing to Proud Spell and Music Note after setting a very “deliberate” pace, as Durkin puts it.
With only 2 hours and change left to this auction, you might have a chance to own alleged Derby history with Whirlaway’s supposed horse shoe up for auction. The inability to authenticate it is no doubt keeping the price low, currently at $82, but an additional bid has come in since I spotted it this morning, so it might climb up a bit more. It would be very cool if it were in fact the real deal but one could probably never prove it. Fun item nonetheless. Update: it ended up going for $262, an absolute steal if the new owner could manage to authenticate.
From the price is right department (no E, I’m not talking about your beloved Bob Barker), there’s a groovy 70’s Preakness patch currently at $4.99 with no bids. It ends in 4 hours but I would imagine it would be relisted if there are no bids.
I’m sure all of you Alysheba fans are glad he’s returned safely to the States. Why not celebrate that with a copy of the 1988 Monmouth program for the Iselin Handicap? He beat one of his rivals, Bet Twice, by less than a length (sorry, no replay but the link points to a fab Alysheba information page).
I know at least oneSpectacular Bid fan, perhaps he might like this 1979 Marlboro Cup Program, which ends tomorrow. Here’s the Bid crushing his competition in the race.
Thanks to Equidaily, Paulick Report, Pull the Pocket and Raceday 360 for sending so many holiday shoppers over here to the GbG eBay shopping bonanza! Since several of the listed items have ended, I’ve added some new ones for your potential shopping enjoyment.
To avoid anymore Spectacular Bidding wars, this Spectacular Bid item is a first come, first serve with Buy it Now at $32. It’s a lovely vintage (read possibly slightly dingy) Spectacular Bid / Bill Shoemaker 1980 T Shirt size large. If you buy it, please send a photo sporting it! I was going to tell you all about the Spectacular Bid / Bud Delp / Meadowlands (Awesome!) Belt Buckle, but I bought it instead (sorry!). Sidebar, Bud Delp and I share the same eye wear.
Why not bundle this next item with Lost in the Fog? It’s a Russel Baze “I was there #9351″ Pin currently listed at $.99. It was given away on the day Russell Baze broke the record for most wins by a North American jockey. Russell Baze was Lost in the Fog’s jockey.
Speaking of Northern California, here’s something for your favorite Northern California racing fan that happens to be an aficionado of late 70’s design. It’s a lovely 1979 Pin from the recently closed Bay Meadows.
History buffs should prepare to freak out… 1773 Sporting Calendar described as “The Sporting Calendar: Containing an Account of the Plates, Matches, and Sweepstakes, That Have Been Run for in Great-Britain, Ireland and North-America in the Year 1773. (Volume 5) by Thomas Fawconer” currently $200(ish, it’s in GBP).
And how about a couple of items for our harness racing friends? There’s the 1931 American Sportsman featuring 1930 Hambletonian winner Hanover’s Bertha currently at $14.99 and a First Edition 1949 “Horses of Destiny” by Fairfax Downey and Paul Brown currently at $25.29 to name a few.
STILL not inspired? As mentioned before Geno has a nice list and for the more bookish MaryJean Wall has an excellent vintage reading list complete with original covers. Raceday360 is also handily keeping track of all gift suggestion posts! Best of luck with your shopping, and here’s ho ho hoping you get some rockin’ gifts too!
Big Brown is a no show for his date with destiny (Sarah K. Andrew)
What a day, nothing like last year… well, maybe a little something, but I’ll get to that.
Never in my life did I drink so little liquid on such a hot day. The well reported on bathroom situation started not too long after I arrived so thankfully I hadn’t totally tanked up on water yet.
One of the many bright spots was that my pals the Hennegan Brothers generously comped me a ticket to Garden Terrace for my work with them on their site for The First Saturday in May (buy the DVD!). The benefits of their generosity were that 1) it was great to meet and hang with their friends 2) I think it was the only area with air conditioning and 3) for the most part the bathrooms were working and the lines were NOTHING like downstairs.
That’s not to say that bathroom weren’t disgusting, they were, in more ways that one. At one point the toilets were so backed up that I was hard pressed to recall a more outhouse like experience in such a fancy context. Teresa has a great account of the day and my comment sums up my bathroom experience in the Garden Terrace (so I won’t repeat it here).
Another bright spot was getting to meet a lot of the TBA-ers in person! I hang with a coupleof them regularly as we all live in the city and I had met Superfecta once before at last year’s BC but it was great to put faces to blogs and have at least an all too brief chance to chat with everyone. We should definitely plan some low-key non-event race days to hang out.
I had another abysmal day at the windows cashing no tickets. In fact the one race I called exactly was the only one I didn’t place any wagers on! I correctly called the Acorn as Zaftig, Indian Blessing and Game Face but since they all had really low odds I took a pass (although it kept me alive in the Pick 4 for one more race!). As Swifty and I recounted our respective days at the window I said “At least I called the order of the Acorn” and he replied “How many horses were in that field?” (note: he picked Game Face). I’ll take what I can get! In fact, seeing Zaftig power home was the most exciting part of the day for me.
As for the Big Brown one, the good news is that he’s ok AND he’ll stay in training. I’ve read plenty of interesting thoughts, conjectures and opinions this morning. There’s a lot of lively commenting going on over at The Rail that I found interesting and (so far) without unnecessary bashing. I found this comment in particular to be insightful on the potential combination of the post position, heat and steroid regiment cycle.
Other thoughts have surfaced around the ride itself. Was Desormeaux being lazy or taking the appropriate precautions? OR, deciding to ease him as opposed to have him come in 7th or so on his own?
I’ll take my fellow TBA-er’s word for it that Kent D has a history as more than one of them that I trust have expressed the opinion (and I’ll keep an eye out for myself in the meantime so I can form my own opinion). I go back and forth between feeling relieved that he probably did the right thing and that it was totally unsportsmanlike to throw in the towel if your horse throws a clunker.
We can never know and I can’t really fault him for being cautious, however the beginning of his ride reminded me of Gomez’s awful ride on Hard Spunin last year’s Belmont. Hard Spun was rank and Gomez fought him and kept him hard held through the race, not that I think Hard Spun would have won, but he certainly could have done a little better. (Note, watching last year’s Belmont made me feel a little better!).
As for the other entrants, I was as flabbergasted as anyone else about Da’Tara. I wouldn’t have been as surprised by Anak Nakal and I was really happy to see him and Ready’s Echo hit the board! They all looked tired as they lumbered down the stretch, the heat couldn’t have helped but Da’Tara really put them away!
As Swifty and discussed how we felt the race would unfold, we imagined Da’Tara would go right to the lead, BB would sit chilly not too far behind with Tale of ETAKI not too far behind. We thought about midway through the backstretch BB would come on and it would be over a la Secretariat, but not nearly as dramatic (please note, I AM not in any way comparing BB to Secretariat, just using the timing of how his run would unfold!).
As they neared the end of the backstretch Swifty said “they’re not doing what we thought” a couple of times as it was becoming clear that something was amiss. It was hard to tell what was going on coming into the stretch but the first time Swifty said that BB was being pulled up I thought he was joking, but then said it again. It was an incredibly nerve wracking several moments until we could see that he didn’t seem to be injured. As he cantered through the stretch there were several a-holes booing him. I yelled at the one closest to me to shut the F-up (and he did). People never cease to amaze me.
As Swifty and were making our last minute wager determinations, I was planning a super wheeling BB on top over Tale of ETAKI, Denis of Cork, Macho Again, Guadalcanal and I was going back and forth between Anak Nakal and Icabad Crane. Swifty decided to split the ticket with me and he settled on Icabad Crane.
You’ll notice the winning horse was nowhere in our mix, we both TOTALLY disregarded him. In fact, it seemed odd and a bit reckless to me that Zito entered him. As Teresa has pointed out about Zito, he likes to honor the history of the races by actually entering horses in them (now there’s a concept!), which is great and I totally applaud. But I inappropriately wrote Da’Tara off as a “there’s a classic race in New York and I’m entering it”. Well, let’s just say I’ve learned that lesson the hard way! Additionally, I think this a great time in my handicapping career to make the effort to learn more about breeding!
Fellow TBA-er and night owl semi-frequent poster Nellie has a great wrap-up with a lot of good points to ponder, most notably that what might be this year’s weak or at the very least inconsistent crop could turn out to be next year’s strong handicap division… let’s hope so! She also notes something that cheered me up too, that Mushka is back on the work tab!
On a final note, if I gave you my card yesterday (and you’re still reading) say hello, leave a comment! And please, PLEASE don’t judge my beloved Belmont on it’s backed up toilets and garbage mountains, come back when it’s a regular old Saturday… it’s one of the best places to spend an afternoon I can think of, and you won’t have to pee in the bushes, unless of course you want to!
Brad & John Hennegan working the crowd at the Preakness (wendyu)
We’ve all been a little distracted, what with the Triple Crown going on AND a Triple Crown on the line with what looks to be the most well positioned horse to get the job done in a quite awhile.
My DVD copy of The First Saturday in May arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait to watch it and after viewing it last night for the first time, I came away very impressed. The behind the scenes stuff was terrific and I’m glad I made the investment. The personalities on the backstretch (grooms, cousins, sons, daughters, etc.) ended up being the most entertaining piece of the movie. Good stuff, get your copy while you can….
And look at the Hennegan Brothers at the Preakness… out there, working the table. They need your support! Hell, they weren’t allowed to walk around and sell their wares. Only beer and girls selling Frank’s Energy Drink were allowed to walk around and actively hawk the crowd, as Wendyu reports.
I mean we all would have liked to have seen the Hennegan’s in bikinis, and lord knows they’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done… but if our own venues won’t even support our own attempts to support the our sport, it’s up to us to do it!
I feel crusty when I watch TV during the day, unless of course it’s the OTB channel, but I took a break from procrastinating to watch the Hennegan Brothers on Martha Stewart. I must say that there were the perfect foil for Martha!
The segment had them literally making a Derby pie with Martha, chatting about the film, the Derby in general and the importance of home made pie crust (which is what they lack in Dubai… link to segment when it’s available). If you missed it or didn’t DVR it, check for a re-run, you won’t be sorry!
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