Found this little gem while watching an interesting 2-year-old maiden replay from Belmont today (Tim Ice trainee, second place finisher was impressive too).
Enjoy your weekend!
Posted by dana on Jun 18 2010
Filed Under: YouTube, Internet, 2010, 2yo, NYRA, OTB, TV, Racing
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“Is blogging dead?” was a question posed by my esteemed colleague John of The Race is not to the Swift. He rightfully points out that other options such as Twitter and Facebook are easier outlets than blogging. Indeed.
I commented that as an example, I had posted several tweets of stuff I encountered while twirling around the web last night and had I not been on Twitter that they would have probably ended up as a blog post. As an experiment, of sorts, here’s what I probably would have written had I not had twitter:
While poking around on Hulu after finding an explanation of a tote board to post over here, I found this interview with Mike Watchmaker on Charismatic’s Triple Crown Bid on Charlie Rose. This made me wonder if Charlie Rose did any interviews prior to Big Brown’s Triple Crown attempt, and alas he did!
Since I didn’t really know much about Charismatic or racing in 1999 in general, I looked a little further. I watched the 1999 Belmont to see if any of Watchmaker’s predictions were right (they were not).
And imagine my surprise when I discovered the Charismatic / Chris Antely story, which I knew nothing about! Upon checking out Charismatic’s wiki page I discovered that an ESPN 30 for 30 episode is currently in development on the Charismatic / Antley story (thanks to @raceday360 for the ESPN link), very exciting! Apparently, there’s also a book on the saga entitled Three Strides Before the Wire (via @BklynBckstretch).
And as if all this wasn’t exciting and interesting enough, Haskin also has a compelling post about trainers who are still working that “once ruled the sport“. A true and proven talent not being able to sell themselves and ending up in relative obscurity is not a new phenomenon and certainly not limited to horse racing. History is littered with examples of artists, writers, musicians, etc who suffered the same fate, but as Jessica put it:
I still look at Turner and marvel, that trainer knows what it is to win the Triple Crown.
Here’s a recent trainee of his, Reforestation, hitting the board at 48-1 in the 2009 Grade 1 Prioress at Belmont.
Turner trains for Castle Village Farms, if money bags owners won’t work with the last trainer to win a Triple Crown there’s no reason why you can’t!
Posted by dana on Dec 04 2009
Filed Under: Big Brown, Internet, Racing History, 2009, Twitter, Steve Haskin, Legend, Belmont, Triple Crown, Belmont Stakes, TV, Racing
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Didn’t think I’d be using this photo again anytime soon! (Charles Pravata)
I love Lava Man. I have the above shot of him by Charles Pravata (from the 2008 DRF Calendar) up in my office where I can stare at it at length. If hard pressed, my answer to the question “who is your all time favorite horse” might be Lava Man as I arrived on the scene just as he was at his height. And to be honest my initial thought when I saw the crazy news about him was “heck yeah!”.
Like everyone else I went to the initial post (dated September 21st) and there weren’t a lot of details (that have since been added), which lead to speculation on the worst… the worst motives, the worst outcome, the worst everything. But then reports starting pouring out with details about crazy things like stem cell therapy and donating winnings to retirement funds.
From the Thoroughbred Times:
“He had to continue training at Magali as part of the stem cell treatments,” O’Neill said. “They found they were able to actually grow back cartilage. No one knew that was possible, so it’s exciting that this treatment may be able to help other equine athletes in the future.
“He really took to the treatment and it has done wonders for him. The doctor said that he is and will be the strongest horse in my barn. I couldn’t put into words how good he looks and how happy he seems to be back in training.”
If and when he runs, all of the trainer earnings will be donated to CARMA (California Retirement Management Account) so people don’t think this is all about greed.
And then there was his crazy first reported work out. Maybe there is something to this stem cell business or as a friend emailed to me upon reading the initial news “That poor horse. His ankles are like glass and he is DONE being a racehorse”.
So, what do you think, is it cool or alarming… or a little of both? I come down somewhere between “Concerned but hopeful” and “Stem cells? Very Cool!”. Of course, if it ends like it did for Gorgeous George there will be plenty of anger and hate to go around. They do seem to love him and want him to be happy so let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that Lava Man has an enjoyable and SAFE stay at fantasy camp.
For some back story on the story, namely how the heck does a horse like Lava Man go under the radar with something like this, check out Ed DeRosa’s account at his Big Event Blog. And on a Jockey’s note, Corey Nakatani must be happy with this news!
And finally, in our last poll, Fav Summer Racing, our east coast bias was showing!
I was too lazy to type all that out, but thanks as always for participating!
Posted by dana on Sep 24 2009
Filed Under: Poll, Corey Nakatani, Doug O'Neill, Claimer, 2009, Omnisurface Stars, Jockeys TV Show, Geldings, George Washington, Retirement, Wooo!, Lava Man, Injury, Charles Pravata, Come Back, Racing
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Those of who have become fans of Chantal Sutherland by watching the show Jockeys no doubt will be pulling for her to improve her place in the jockey standings at her home track of Woodbine in Canada.
The most recent episode featured Sutherland pulling out all the stops to get Smith to propose, and therefore give her a reason to stay in SoCal. Smith didn’t take the bait and advised her to do whatever it is that she needed to do (i.e., go back to Woodbine where she can get better mounts and make more money). After toiling on claimers to be with her beloved she decided to back to whence she came in search of the big bucks. But how has it worked out?
Currently Chantal Sutherland is 2nd in the Woodbine jockey standings behind Patrick Husbands. As of September 12th she’s had 608 mounts, won 88 times, placed 89 times and showed 89 times. Her earning so far are $5,028,992.
Compare this to how Sutherland did at Santa Anita where she ended up 11th (not 10th!). She made just 155 starts, won 18 times, placed 21 times and showed 19 times. Her win percentage was 12% compared to her current 14% but no earnings were available.
Obviously it’s not an apples to apples comparison if you look at the number of starts the top riders at Woodbine have compared to the number of starts for the top riders at Santa Anita but I think it’s safe to say that things have worked out for her!
You can keep track of Chantal’s current place in the Woodbine standings here and keep track of her race results here by scrolling down to Woodbine.
Posted by dana on Sep 13 2009
Filed Under: Mike Smith, Jockeys TV Show, 2009, Santa Anita, Chantal Sutherland, Woodbine, Racing
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There I was minding my business on Saturday afternoon with the NYC OTB channel on, volume down, laptop in hand, in the middle of some excellent puttering… reading tweets about entrants from various tracks, looking at Raceday360 Wire and possibly even sending email.
As I glanced up to see how many minutes to post at Belmont (for a 3 horse race) I noticed the DRF Formulator ad that reminds us that they were kind enough to make Formulator easy enough for us women folk to use. As I blankly stared at the TV I noticed something different, that the text on the noted frame had change, and that the word “expert” seemed to be included.
After thinking that maybe I had imagined it, I used the magic of digital television to go back and verify that indeed they had changed that frame! No longer did it read “for every skill level“, it now read “for beginner and expert handicappers!”, although the voice over had not changed. No doubt it was much easier to change the text than the audio.
Well how about that? One can only assume that some kind soul forwarded along this link to point out their inadvertent inference. Hats off to the fine fellows at DRF for making that change!
Posted by dana on May 31 2009
Filed Under: :), Industry, 2009, Daily Racing Form, TV, Ads, Marketing, Racing
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