Starship Zenyatta crushes her tiny competition (Charles Pravata)
Zenyatta stays undefeated by sitting fairly far behind the pack, going wide around the turn and blowing by field in a hand ride. I consider Mike Smith to be somewhat of an over whipper so the fact that he was all hands in the stretch speaks volumes about her performance.
Long shot Model looked game for second but Tough Tiz’s Sis couldn’t give Zenyatta a run for it today. I reiterate my point about Zenyatta in the Classic.
My all time fav shot of Lava Man, winning his 3rd Hollywood Gold Cup (Charles Pravata)
The reports are in, my favorite horse currently racing is official retired. As it turns out he has some issues with his ankles so he won’t get the Funny Cide one last harrah race many of us were hoping for. It’s still unclear if he’ll be Doug O’Neill’s stable pony so keep your fingers crossed!
There weren’t as many of his races up at YouTube as I would have liked, in an ideal world I would post all three Hollywood Gold Cup’s and both Santa Anita Handicaps.
Congratulations to Lava Man’s connections for possibly the best claim ever and many thanks for keeping him around… he’ll be missed. Enjoy your retirement old man!
Lava Man still looking game in the Eddie Read (Charles Pravata)
The first thing I thought when Lava Man faded in the stretch was “Was that it? Is that how his career will end?” He was so damn came in the Whittingham and while he looked the part yesterday he just didn’t show up in the stretch.
Was it his time in the Detention Protection Barn? [DRF+] He does like his routine. Was the crowd too tough for him? He held his own last out in roughly the same company.
Retirement is seriously on the table for the wildly successful former claimer and fan favorite. The owners want to give it a week to see how they feel… but what you do think?
They could take the Funny Cide route by trying to find a race with a soft field that he could win and then retire him as a stable pony. They could just try him again at the same level if they thought it was a just an off day, or they can start running him in softer company if they thought he still wanted keep running but wasn’t up for G1 company (thanks Jeff!). Or, they could just turn him out.
Here’s his game effort in the Whittingham:
And his dud in the Eddie Read:
In our last poll about Curlin’s next move, 33 of you, myself included, want him to run on the turf here in the states before deciding on the the Arc, 17 of you thought he should just stick to dirt, 12 of you though he should stay on target for the Arc and 7 of you thought he should point towards the BC Turf.
Remember, the Jess Jackson’s poll is still open… and Turf is the current front runner at 52%.
Certainly not news now, but Curlin is cleared to run in New York! Which is great news if you’re a New Yorker and can make it to Belmont this Saturday!
It’s interesting to note what a deal Jess Jackson got on his 80% of Curlin, the equivalent of H&M for champion thoroughbreds with a bright future as a stallion.
Curlin beating Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont (Charles Pravata)
It’s looking like that’s what Curlin will be next Saturday in the Man o’War! The licensing issues are still not totally worked out, but inching closer with the expectation of it being finalized in the beginning of the week.
The licensing issues could be resolved at the beginning of the week when a Kentucky civil-court judge is expected to formally transfer the assets of two Kentucky attorneys who own a minor interest in Curlin to those who won a civil-case judgment against them.
Not only does it look like we’ll see him in New York, but it seems to be shaping up to be a turf war, so to speak, with Breeders’ Cup turf champions Red Rocks and Better Talk Now also expected to run.
And in other good news on the turf, my boyThorn Song , back at his best distance of a mile, beat the impressive Einstein by about a length and half in the Firecracker at Churchill today, not that I could wager on it with my TWINSPIRES account (ludicrous!).
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