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

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(visualkaos)

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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(Simon Bak)

Today marks the first weekend installment of the HANA pool party, which is the 6th at Hawthorne. The Pretty Jenny is $100k 6F stakes race for state bred 3yo fillies.

Today has been all about errand running and attending to things around GbG manor, so I’ve only done the quickest of looks. That being said this is an interesting race, even though sprints are not generally my favorite types of races to handicap.

There’s plenty of speed of in this race and plenty of horses coming off a decent break. A quick glance at yesterday’s HAW races reveals that in all but one instance, horses who sat off the pace in 6F races won.

With that in mind, Lose None, Miss Fontana, Bow Tie Pasta, Cart’s Zenforus and Happy Henrietta all look plausible. B N Graced N Glory also jumps out on paper with 2 consecutive wins at HAW at 6F, but in the slop.

I’ll wait to take a look at them before I make any decisions but I’m most curious to see B N Graced N Glory, Lose None, Bow Tie Pasta and Happy Henrietta, who has won off a break equivalent to the one she’s returning from today.

As usual, you can pick up free PPs, Thoroughgraph data and picks from Hawthorn’s GM and resident handicapper Jim Miller at HANA. Good luck and have fun!

Update: Bow Tie Pasta took the race by several lengths, followed up by Cart’s Linda, Lose None and Tessie’s Tilbury. Yours truly is now 0-4 in HANA pool party having gone with B N Graced N Glory to win and tri box of B N Graced N Glory, Lose None and Happy Henrietta. There was a touch of drama as #9 Cumulonimble dumped her rider out of the gate was loose on the track. After the race the announcer mentioned she was still loose and now going in the wrong direction, although she was never on camera. An outrider safely grabbed her not too long after the race ended.

Another note, the dumped rider was the tall Brandon Meier that appeared briefly on Jockeys, Win or Die Trying. No word on his condition.

Posted by dana on Apr 25 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, Jockeys TV Show, HANA, Picks, Sprint, Handicapping, You Can Help, 3yo, Racing

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Kayla Stra & Jennie C. Green in the winner’s circle with Lucius Antonius (yausser)

I was making my usual rounds this morning when I happened upon this excellent photo set over at flickr of Kayla Stra scoring a win, over Chantal Sutherland no less, Friday at Santa Anita. It was the 4th race, a $25k maiden claimer at 1 mile on the fake stuff.

Lucius Antonius, trained by the also lovely Jennie C. Green (in the white shirt) and owned by Gary Broad (no comment), “stepped to a slim advantage and set pace outside rival, roused and shook free in upper stretch, came in some later and just lasted under urging”, according to the chart.

But you can see it all here, Kyla mentally preparing outside the Jockey’s room, the team approaching the paddock, the pep talk, trying to psych out the opponents, breaking well, and holding off Chantal Sutherland in the stretch. Great stuff! And at least as interesting, if not more so, than anything else that went on in racing this weekend, no?

Speaking of which, check out Geno’s foray into “complaining”, well done and the more the merrier!

It also appears as though Channing Hill gets his first couple of mounts at Santa Anita on this Wednesday in the 5th & 7th.

Posted by dana on Mar 22 2009    
Filed Under: Claimer, 2009, Jockeys TV Show, Kayla Stra, Channing Hill, :), Chantal Sutherland, Maiden, Santa Anita, Racing

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(fauxrealphotos)

Dan Liebman’s post today on Bravo brings up (and over looks) some interesting points. He correctly points out that ESPN “decides for us what is sport and what is not, and what we will be able to watch”, although admittedly this is a construct of media in general.

He puts the icing on the cake by saying:

Apparently, it is more important to find out who is the world’s strongest man than who is the world’s best Thoroughbred.

However, the real missed opportunity in this discussion is main stream marketing or lack of it.

Lower interest in racing can be attributed to several things, among them more choices today for viewers and the fact many core fans are watching on HRTV or TVG, or at a simulcast or off-track betting facility. While HRTV and TVG serve racing’s core, they do little to help cultivate new racing fans. It’s doubtful other, smaller cable networks will either.

I don’t think it matters what channel racing is on as long as it’s marketed, after all, people can’t get interested in what they don’t know about. Look at the success of Jockeys on Animal Planet of all places. Remember how concerned we were with their crazy breakdown-a-palooza promotion? It didn’t matter, the show was success… and it couldn’t have been a success if they had just hoped people would find it. Sound like a familiar approach?

In regards to Bravo, Patrick at Handride argues that positioning racing as cultural phenomenon will be racing’s undoing as far as growth goes. An interesting comment thread ensues that explores the oft debated sport vs. gambling angle. Additionally, the tweet-o-sphere disagreed with him on the cultural phenomenon part. I don’t think it matters one way or another with no mainstream marketing.

Prior to Liebman’s post today, Jason Moran pointed out the World Wide Sports angle here at GbG over the weekend. He makes some great points and in fact he has shared other interesting thoughts about sports coverage here at GbG in the past. The Wide World of Sports idea is particularly interesting because, as several commenters at Bloodhorse point out, racing telecasts that go on for hours are pretty boring. The other side of that coin is what Moran has pointed out before, that NBC knew how to tell stories and fill the seemingly long space between races with interesting, well told stories.

I’m no sports maven, in fact I can emphatically say that I don’t give a shit about sports, but look at the NBA & TNT. Is TNT a sports channel? No, it’s the home of Drama. That’s actually a pretty brilliant hook for any kind of sport or game if you ask me. And guess what, they market it!

I think the bottom line is that, regardless of whether it’s locally or nationally, if we’re really concerned about growth then racing ought to start marketing itself to more than the existing fan base.

Posted by dana on Mar 17 2009    
Filed Under: Becoming a Fan, Industry, 2009, Jockeys TV Show, Twitter, Kentucky Oaks, Internet, Marketing, TV, Dan Liebman, Mainstream Media, Racing

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