“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

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

18 Comments »

Lawyer Ron working at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

How odd that not one but two posts this week reminded me of Lawyer Ron. First was the sad and unexpected news of Papi Chullo’s death as Papi looked to be in great form going in to the 2007 Whitney. The second was that the Whitney will be a Breeders’ Cup W&YI race, in fact I almost used a photo of Lawyer Ron for that post.

I was lucky enough to be at the 2007 Whitney on my first trip to Saratoga when Lawyer Ron had his coming out party by way of romp and track record. Swifty, Joan and I were stunned by his performance, primarily because we all had completely dismissed him but also because his win was so emphatic.

(BCWorldChampionship)

It’s amazing how many horses from the 2007 Whitney are no longer with us. First Wanderin’ Boy, next Papi Chullo and now Lawyer Ron…. it wasn’t THAT long ago. Let’s take a moment to be thankful for Dry Martini, shall we? Horses, like celebrities and sports figures, seem to be dying at a quicker than normal pace these days.

Lawyer Ron was no slouch as a 3yo winning the Risen Star, Rebel, Southwest and St. Louis Derby.

(Whirlaway65)

But the switch to Pletcher seemed to help him bring it all together. Sure, he still had trouble settling down on occasion but he won the Whitney, Woodward and Oaklawn and ran a very game second to HOY Curlin in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

(partymanners)

If you haven’t seen it already, The First Saturday in May featured Lawyer Ron and then trainer Bob Holthus on the Derby trail. Lawyer Ron’s groom Chuck Chambers was one of the more memorable characters in the film. It was clear how much he loved Lawyer Ron and I felt bad for him when Lawyer Ron got transferred to Pletcher.

Apparently the Champion Older Horse of 2007 was making quite an impression as stallion. Clark Shepherd, manager of Stonewall Farm Stallions noted.

His first foals are tremendous. When breeders call in to report their Lawyer Ron foals being born, they all have a story to tell.

Many people loved Lawyer Ron and you see plenty of great shots of him at flickr. Rest in Peace Lawyer Ron and condolences to Stonewall Farm and all of his previous connections.

Update: Steve Haskin’s tribute to Lawyer Ron is not to be missed.

Posted by dana on Jul 11 2009    
Filed Under: Farewell, Sarah K. Andrew, YouTube, Wanderin' Boy, Steve Haskin, 2009, Oaklawn, Papi Chullo, Todd Pletcher, Saratoga, Breeding, Belmont, Curlin, Race Replay, Lawyer Ron, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

7 Comments »

Wanderin’ Boy winning the 2007 Alysheba at Churchill (twinspiresdotcom)

This break in blogging is interrupted by sad news. Awful news in fact. As you might know by now, GbG fav Wanderin’ Boy broke down going into the stretch in the otherwise exciting Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, and was subsequently euthanized after being vanned off.

Just about 2 months ago Steve Haskin had a wonderful (a word I don’t use too often) profile of Wanderin’ Boy, one you should definitely read. The comments are also very touching.

At age 7, Wanderin Boy has made only 24 career starts, winning nine, with six seconds and three thirds for earnings of $1.2 million. Talk about not choosing one’s company wisely, he has finished second in grade I stakes to Curlin (Jockey Club Gold Cup), Invasor (Pimlico Special), Bernardini (Jockey Club Gold Cup), and Lawyer Ron (Whitney). He has, however, managed to win the grade II Brooklyn Handicap and the grade III Ben Ali, Alysheba, and Mineshaft.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, ‘OK, so what’s the point?’

The point is, a horse like Wanderin Boy – and I emphasize the word “horse” rather than gelding – often goes unnoticed because he’s never done anything that would cause people to pay a whole lot of attention to him, other than to say something like, “It was another good effort by Wanderin Boy, but he was no match for….”

But there often is much more to a horse than his record. In Wanderin Boy’s case, this is a horse who should be admired by all those fortunate enough to see him run his heart out race after race.

Haskin goes on to detail Wanderin’ Boy’s astonishingly resilient journey, littered with injuries and miraculous recoveries starting when he was a month old. It makes his final injury even more vexing given that he’s recovered so many times.

His last 3 efforts were very game. I saw his win opening weekend at Saratoga this summer in a 100k Optional Claimer (no replay available at YouTube) but his efforts in the Woodward and Jockey Club were just as game. He made Curlin work for that $10M in the JCGC and for a second it looked like he was gonna win.

My heart goes out to his connections, after all that he’s been through this must have been a devastating blow. Rest in peace Wanderin’ Boy. And here’s hoping that the Demoiselle winner, Springside, recovers from her injury today as well.

2006 Brooklyn Handicap:

2007 Alysheba:

2008 Woodward:

2008 Jockey Club Gold Cup:

Posted by dana on Nov 29 2008    
Filed Under: Wanderin' Boy, Steve Haskin, Demoiselle, 2008, Aqueduct, Farewell, Race Replay, :(, YouTube, Nick Zito, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

2 Comments »

Wanderin’ Boy is a GbG fav and the equivalent of a big foot sighting in racing as a 7yo HORSE. I always wondered about that and now feel enlightened thanks to an excellent post by Steve Haskin over at his Bloodhorse blog.

It’s always refreshing to see big fancy deep pocket owners keep their horses in training, particularly when fate provided so many opportunities for retirement! Wanderin’ Boy really made big bad Curlin work for his win in the JCGC. Go on with your bad Wanderin’ self (and stay sound and healthy while you’re doin’ it)!

Also from the “right on” department, Crist has a fantastic column this week about the BC gender division tom foolery entitled “If you must fix what ain’t broken…”

Proponents of a Filly Friday and a Studly Saturday are difficult to locate outside the Breeders’ Cup offices, and most fans and pundits seem to hate the idea. The most frequent criticisms are that it is inherently sexist (and renaming the Distaff the Ladies’ Classic sure didn’t help) and that it marginalizes half of the racehorse population by relegating it to second-class status and a much smaller television audience. Shouldn’t racing be showcasing the likes of Lady’s Secret, Personal Ensign, and Azeri on its biggest day rather than on a Friday afternoon?

He goes on to propose some viable, and less alienating ways to divvy up the races over two days. Hear, hear.

Posted by dana on Oct 01 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Take Back the Race, Impressive, Steve Haskin, Wanderin' Boy, Breeders' Cup, Injury, You Tell 'em!, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

4 Comments »

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: Dan Liebman, You Can Help, You Tell 'em!, Sarah K. Andrew, De Francis Dash, Steve Haskin, NYRA, Marketing, Rags to Riches, Retirement, Slew's Tizzy, Great Hunter, 2007, Octave, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

2 Comments »