Player at Belmont today, looking like he just got kicked out of the P6 (Jason Moran)

You may think that the only thing I blog about these days is thanking sponsors, and you’d be right, in part. I’ll cover a few other items but not without thanking sponsors first!

NJSEA, the folks who run Monmouth and Meadowlands, have decided to continue to use the Hello Race Fans Ad Network to promote their summer activities. I’m happy to report that I’m still Surviving at the Shore (narrowly) and hope to make a trip to Monmouth this summer… and you should too! Check them out (by way of clicking on their ad) as they have a whole summers worth of cool stuff to promote.

Sam Houston loves all of Texas, and the Hello Race Fans Ad Network! They’ve widened their current geo-targeted campaign to include all of Texas, so all you fun-lovin’ Texans should check them out (by way of clicking on their ads!).

And finally, we welcome Churchill night racing to the network! They kick off their Friday night racing with a little disco. Of the many genres of music that I love, classic 70’s disco is the top of the list (I was singing Odyssey’s Native New Yorker to my dog just the other day. Inner Life’s Caught up in a One Night Love Affair (which I’m NOT having!) is also in high rotation on my ipod). Why go to some stupid bar on Friday night when you can stay home and play Churchill? Or, better yet, play Churchill from the bar, unless, of course, you’re in the Louisville area. In which case you should boogie on down to Churchill.

But seriously, many thanks to our sponsors. If you like the blogs and sites and in the Hello Race Fans Ad Network, you should occasionally click on the ads. Every click helps!

In other news, you’d be surprised how many people search for things like “how to bet horse racing” or “learn to bet on horse races”. It’s heartening to see HRF getting decent search traffic from these sorts of searches after the Triple Crown. Here a few of the search terms that led folks to Hello Race Fans! today:

learn to bet horse races
reading a tote board
how to bet on horse racing
simple tote
what to look for in horse behavior in post parade
filly triple crown
how to interpret horse racing forms
playing superfecta
horse lineage terminology
horse race lingo

Also heartening was that Rachel Alexandra going to the Fleur Di Lis was picked up by AP (via Lane Gold).

Finally, you can support your fav racing bloggers (or at least some of them!) by going to the first, presumably annual, Horse Racing Blogger Awards and voting. Voting closes June 21.

Posted by dana on Jun 09 2010    
Filed Under: Jason Moran, Twitter, 2010, Churchill Downs, Monmouth Park, Ads, You Can Help, Racing

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(wendyu) The Homeboykris crew on the walk over, the embodiment of cheerful!

Sure, I could focus on all my horrid plays yesterday and how I stupidly left Ice Box off my tickets, especially since 1) I deliberated between using him and Mission Impazible and 2) I had Paddy O’Prado on my tickets, but I’m going to choose to be cheerful today, after all, it’s not often one calls the Derby winner publicly (so I’m going to enjoy it while I can… and sorry for the long sentence).

Since I’m not blogging a much these days, here are some things I had to say elsewhere about Super Saver… over at Twitter there was a discussion going on re: Super Saver and at least one esteemed colleague (@o_crunk) wasn’t buying him. My thought was this:

SS could pick up the pieces if he rates like he did in Ark Derby and there’s a pace meltdown. least that’s how I look at it

Reading Val’s piece for Hello Race Fans! on pedigree and Derby Distance + the reports out of Churchill that he was looking good in the morning definitely informed my thought process. Over at the other evil social media site, Facebook, I commented to a friend about my choice:

The services of one Mr. Calvin Borel aren’t too shabby either… but more than that, I think he got something out of his last two races and looked to me be getting underway at the end of the race last out. From what I’ve read his breeding suggests the distance should be no problem, which lines up with how I interpreted what I saw. I’m pretty jazzed about his odds too! (editor’s note: before they went south)

(Note: Facebook is so evil in fact that I can’t even directly link to that post!)

So, while I would have liked to have turned that into a nice score, my future wagers kept the weekend from being a total blood bath… and my parade play of Le Grand Cru in the Westchester. I’m now one for one at Belmont!

Also cheery making is that both Oaks and Derby handle were up, despite the massive AmTote crash that effected XpressBet, TwinSpires and a few tracks. On the bright side, at least it was clear on TwinSpires that a bet had gone through or not! On the downside I’m still annoyed over TwinSpiresTV blocking the Churchill simulcast signal. I’m still trying to find out more about that, so far I’ve gathered that Churchill was broadcasting it’s signal and leaving it up to the individual outlets to decide what to do with it, but nothing specifically about TwinSpiresTV.

At any rate, I’m still remaining cheerful… and might even do a couple of more blog posts!

Posted by dana on May 02 2010    
Filed Under: Twinspires, Twitter, 2010, Super Saver, Internet, Churchill Downs, Derby Trail, Triple Crown, Calvin Borel, Kentucky Derby, Racing

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Super Saver and Calvin Borel winning at Churchill in the Kentucky Jockey Club (ChurchillDowns)

There aren’t too many shots of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver over at flickr at the moment (unless you count images of yarn)… I suppose that will all change soon enough!

It was another stellar ride by Borel, and yes, Super Saver was my pick!

Congrats to the connections, and see you in two weeks!

LOL at the guy who yells “briiiing it!!” right before the race starts. Could have been one of the owners of Homeboykris?

Posted by dana on May 01 2010    
Filed Under: Churchill Downs, 2010, Super Saver, Kentucky Derby, Todd Pletcher, Derby Trail, Calvin Borel, Racing

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Buddy’s Saint, potential star and confirmed New York hype horse! (Melissa Wirth)

While it was a great long weekend of racing of every kind, I decided to pay more attention to 2yo racing than normal. Thanks to Val of Foolish Pleasure / Fillies First for alerting me to the Stars of Tomorrow card on closing day of Churchill, there were definitely some notable performances there.

In my opinion it’s too early to hop on any bandwagons for Kentucky Derby 2010 but it’s never to soon to put a horse in your watch list! Here’s what caught my eye this weekend generally speaking, not necessarily just from a Derby perspective.

Carrington Village - Debut Winner at Churchill 11/26th, 8th race:

This gets my vote for most impressive effort overall and most impressive win. He pulls an Evening Attire out of the gate (#5), and remains unhurried down the backstretch. Coming very wide into the stretch he made up ground quickly and once he cleared the leaders Desormeaux stopped asking and he kept right on going. I’m looking forward to seeing what this McPeek trainee does next out.

Down with Dixie - 3rd in a MSW at Churchill on 11/28th, 7th race:

Watch gate 11, Down with Dixie stumbles and then gets squeezed out. He drops in at the back of the pack and you’ll see him start his run on the outside going into the far turn (white hat). Fly Down’s effort should be noted too, but I thought Down with Dixie was the more impressive. However, both showed that they can deal with traffic and that they have heart. While that was Down With Dixie’s 5th start it’s only his 2nd start on dirt, a surface he definitely seems to like more than than synth. It was Fly Down’s second start and first time with blinkers.

Sassy Image - Golden Rod at Churchill

Sassy Image sat off a solid pace and came wide to duel with a game Decelerator but had enough left to kick at the end and look great doing it. She’s owned by Dale Roman’s brother, who was advised by Roman’s precocious son Jake to shot a with her.

Super Saver - Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill

If it wasn’t for Williams Kitten putting in a decent run himself you’d think the rest of the field was just falling off but Super Saver, who was getting leg weary going into the stretch, kicked again after setting solid fractions. I think this Winstar colt’s win was more impressive than American’s Lion Hollywood Prevue.

Buddy’s Saint - Remsen at Aqueduct

While Buddy’s Saint was nothing to sneeze at, I think Super Saver’s performance was more impressive. Buddy’s Saint sat behind a dawdling pace and was the beneficiary of a front end hook up between Homeboykris (who should definitely learn to rate!) and Citrus Kid. Yes, Buddy’s Saint did it insanely easily, but I’d like to see him overcome adversity before I get super jazzed… the good news is that there’s plenty of time for that!

Tizahit - Demoiselle at Aqueduct

Similar to Buddy’s Saint, Tizahit was the recipient of a very patient ride and a pace meltdown up front, this time courtesy of Oh Diane. What was more impressive about Tizahit’s win was 1) the pace was faster than in the Remsen and 2) she held off closing rivals in Protesting and Fuzzy Britches. And not to pick too much on American Lion but in my opinion Tizahit was the more impressive Tiznow offspring of the two of them this time out.

It was also interesting to note the difference in coverage between Super Saver and Buddy’s Saint. I thought the Super Saver article at DRF seemed almost too understated compared to the Buddy’s Saint article which was lavishly entitled “Buddy’s Saint sure looks like a Derby Contender”. Within the same article the sub-head for Tizahit was “Tizahit gets dream trip”… and Buddy’s Saint didn’t? It’s interesting to note the difference in reporting both between reporters and even between very similar races by the same reporter.

Update: Here’s another you can file under ‘it’s only just begun’, The Saint Makes a Heavenly Statement. I’d have to do a little research before I named what I thought was the best performance by 2yo male all year but I’d take Carrington Village’s debut win of the ones I have listed here!

Not to continue to rain on the parade but Crist provides some fractional comparisons between all the Aqueduct races from Saturday:

The Demoiselle was slow-early/fast-late while the Remsen was the reverse. Buddy’s Saint was not under pressure winning the Remsen but any enthusiasm for his 4 3/4-length victory has to be tempered by his unimpressive final furlong of 13.49 and final three-eighths in about 39.50.

And here are two more the list, Dan Ilman points out Conveyance winning an allowance at Hollywood Park and Val points out Maximus Ruler.

At any rate, a special thanks to Churchill for making ALL of their replays available AND embeddable on YouTube!

Posted by dana on Nov 29 2009    
Filed Under: Remsen, Demoiselle, Hype, Impressive, Super Saver, 2009, Churchill Downs, Aqueduct, Race Replay, Derby Trail, Maiden, 2yo, YouTube, Racing

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(superterrific)

The HANA Pool Party is back at Monmouth today! It’s the 7th race that goes off around 3:30pm ET, so you still have time to grab the free PP and get in on the action! Update, I had the winner at 11-1!

A few other notes of interest… there goes my Google traffic.

Not only did boozy 20 somethings enjoy Churchill’s historic foray in to night racing, the numbers show a notable increase in handle as well!

It was bona fide dance party at Belmont last night with Disco Diva in the 5th and Danceyoursocksoff in the 7th. In fact, Disco Diva over Gin Tango is quite possibly the best Friday night exacta ever!

Riderless horse Phone Jazz just crushed the field in the 5th at Belmont, good thing I had Hold the Cruiser, the official winner ($19.40) who finished about 3-4 lengths behind the riderless winner. Hopefully the game Phone Jazz was collected without incidence and the rider is ok.

And finally, it was nice to see Ocean Colors, the last foal out of 1988’s Santa Anita & Kentucky Derby winning Winning Colors put it together on turf at Churchill. For those of us who have been following her since Saratoga, it was great to see her show a little front running dazzle that her mother was so famous for.

Posted by dana on Jun 20 2009    
Filed Under: Riderless Horse, 2009, Twitter, HANA, Churchill Downs, Monmouth Park, Belmont, Chantal Sutherland, Turf, Racing

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