New Items added! See bottom of post.

Note: this picture is not of the authoress of this site. (birdnest1384)

You’ve probably just walked in from doing all of your holiday shopping, making this list a mute point. But if you’re like me, you’re gonna wait till the last damn minute. Also, if you’re like me, you’re not gonna leave your house to shop. I think Amazon should use the following clip as advertising for why one should stay home to shop:

Here at GbG, we like to support our industry’s independent content creators. And with the recent spate of trade and mainstream media lay-offs, we’re expecting more independent content to support (and enjoy).

Let’s start with independent films. There’s a lot to choose from in this category and at the price point there’s no reason not to get all three! The First Saturday in May, Lost in the Fog and Women in American Racing are perfect stocking stuffers. I’ve seen the first two and both are great. Mother GbG ordered Women in American Racing for me and I’m using all my restraint to not unwrap and watch it (no doubt I will have watched by this time next week).

The First Saturday in May

Lost in the Fog:

Women in American Racing

You have may have noticed that there are a LOT of great photographers shooting racing. GbG would just be a bunch of boring words without their help. While I don’t know that all of them sell prints, you can always ask! I believe Charles Pravata and Sarah K. Andrew sell prints, but there’s also Raymond Haddad, Jason Moran, Bud Morton and new comer/old timer Walter Kobbe. Now that’s a classy present!

Looking to get more involved in racing? Why not give yourself the gift of ownership and join a partnership! There are several small, affordable, independent stables that just happen to be members of the TBA, which means you can read their thoughts and insights on racing and determine if they’re the type of people you want to do business with. My guess is that they are.

That’s Amore Stable has a new Peace Rules filly they’re plenty excited about, Grevelis Racing (blogging at Owning Racehorses) has a few openings in Miss Belle Express as well as some spots in their claiming partnership and Castle Village Farms (blogging at The Business of Racing) has new 2yo partnerships in New York, Florida and Canada.

Moving from the independent to the unique, I’m a big fan of eBay present getting and giving. A quick twirl around eBay this morning uncovered the following.

Wanna spend the big bucks on that Sunday Silence fan? You’re in luck, the 1990 Hollywood Gold Cup saddle cloth worn by Sunday Silence is up for auction, currently at a mere $4,999. The good news is no one has bid on it, so perhaps it will be relisted. I have no idea if that price is reasonable for memorabilia of this caliber, but here’s the race. Sunday Silence gives 1990 horse of the year Criminal Type a run for his money and places by what looks like a nose, very exciting. Imagine the price if he had won!

From one of the highlights of this summer, Little Belle’s saddle cloth from the Alabama is available, starting bid $.99… and no one has bid on it! The auction ends on Thursday so I doubt it will stay low for that long, but I’m watching it just in case. Little Belle was one of the many talented distaffers this year. Here she is showing to Proud Spell and Music Note after setting a very “deliberate” pace, as Durkin puts it.

With only 2 hours and change left to this auction, you might have a chance to own alleged Derby history with Whirlaway’s supposed horse shoe up for auction. The inability to authenticate it is no doubt keeping the price low, currently at $82, but an additional bid has come in since I spotted it this morning, so it might climb up a bit more. It would be very cool if it were in fact the real deal but one could probably never prove it. Fun item nonetheless. Update: it ended up going for $262, an absolute steal if the new owner could manage to authenticate.

From the price is right department (no E, I’m not talking about your beloved Bob Barker), there’s a groovy 70’s Preakness patch currently at $4.99 with no bids. It ends in 4 hours but I would imagine it would be relisted if there are no bids.

I’m sure all of you Alysheba fans are glad he’s returned safely to the States. Why not celebrate that with a copy of the 1988 Monmouth program for the Iselin Handicap? He beat one of his rivals, Bet Twice, by less than a length (sorry, no replay but the link points to a fab Alysheba information page).

I know at least one Spectacular Bid fan, perhaps he might like this 1979 Marlboro Cup Program, which ends tomorrow. Here’s the Bid crushing his competition in the race.

Last but not least, here’s a snazzy little design moment. An Air Mail envelope from Hollywood Turf Club’s Director of Publicity with a 1966 meter stamp. This one ends tomorrow with no bids and currently at $12.50, a great price for a unique piece of history!

Update, new items added!

Thanks to Equidaily, Paulick Report, Pull the Pocket and Raceday 360 for sending so many holiday shoppers over here to the GbG eBay shopping bonanza! Since several of the listed items have ended, I’ve added some new ones for your potential shopping enjoyment.

To avoid anymore Spectacular Bidding wars, this Spectacular Bid item is a first come, first serve with Buy it Now at $32. It’s a lovely vintage (read possibly slightly dingy) Spectacular Bid / Bill Shoemaker 1980 T Shirt size large. If you buy it, please send a photo sporting it! I was going to tell you all about the Spectacular Bid / Bud Delp / Meadowlands (Awesome!) Belt Buckle, but I bought it instead (sorry!). Sidebar, Bud Delp and I share the same eye wear.

Why not bundle this next item with Lost in the Fog? It’s a Russel Baze “I was there #9351″ Pin currently listed at $.99. It was given away on the day Russell Baze broke the record for most wins by a North American jockey. Russell Baze was Lost in the Fog’s jockey.

Speaking of Northern California, here’s something for your favorite Northern California racing fan that happens to be an aficionado of late 70’s design. It’s a lovely 1979 Pin from the recently closed Bay Meadows.

I know several folks who might like this one… 1972 Clairborne Farm Yearling & Horse Catalog, currently listed at $9.99.

Want more programs? 3 Programs from 1983 Suburban / Woodward / Jockey Club Gold Cup programs (a three-fer!), includes Slew O’ Gold & John Henry currently at $9.95.

History buffs should prepare to freak out… 1773 Sporting Calendar described as “The Sporting Calendar: Containing an Account of the Plates, Matches, and Sweepstakes, That Have Been Run for in Great-Britain, Ireland and North-America in the Year 1773. (Volume 5) by Thomas Fawconer” currently $200(ish, it’s in GBP).

And how about a couple of items for our harness racing friends? There’s the 1931 American Sportsman featuring 1930 Hambletonian winner Hanover’s Bertha currently at $14.99 and a First Edition 1949 “Horses of Destiny” by Fairfax Downey and Paul Brown currently at $25.29 to name a few.

STILL not inspired? As mentioned before Geno has a nice list and for the more bookish MaryJean Wall has an excellent vintage reading list complete with original covers. Raceday360 is also handily keeping track of all gift suggestion posts! Best of luck with your shopping, and here’s ho ho hoping you get some rockin’ gifts too!

Posted by dana on Dec 13 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Partnerships, Monmouth Park, Proud Spell, Raymond Haddad, Racing History, Bud Morton, Jason Moran, TBA, Sarah K. Andrew, Hollywood Park, Race Replay, Belmont, Tom Durkin, Film, Charles Pravata, YouTube, First Saturday in May, Racing

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Curlin & Robby Albarado on the cover of Monmouth’s 2008 program (Sarah K. Andrew)

If you come to GbG with any regularity you are well acquainted with photographic work of Sarah K. Andrew. She’s one of the talented photographers that radically enhances the GbG experience on a regular basis by allowing bloggers to freely publish their work for appropriate credit. A nice proposition all the way around, but I feel like I’m getting the better end of the bargain!

One of Sarah’s excellent shots of Curlin winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic is the cover for Monmouth’s 2008 program! Way to go Sarah, another job well done!

And since we can’t say it enough, thanks to all of the excellent photographers who make their work available to bloggers… may you always be appropriately credited!

Posted by dana on Jul 15 2008    
Filed Under: Sarah K. Andrew, Monmouth Park, Internet, 2008, Robby Albarado, BC Classic, Fans, Curlin, Breeders' Cup, Racing

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Notional w/Joe Bravo up comes back with an upset in the Salvatore Mile at Monmouth (Sarah K. Andrew)

Today was the kind of day that reminds me why I fell in love with racing almost 2 years ago. Swifty and I planned on heading out to Belmont today come rain or shine, and while we didn’t get much shine we also didn’t get any rain. A few friends were planning to meet up at Monmouth for the United Nations and Salvatore Mile, but I really just wanted to have a nice quiet day at my beloved Belmont.

Swifty was hanging out with his 12 year old nephew Ted this weekend, or as I like to call him, the Future Handicappers of America. He joined us last year for Swifty’s birthday outing and proved to be a bit precocious picking Dance Away Capote in the Duda Stakes.

Since it had been raining for two days, all but one of the turf races were on the dirt and there were a bunch of scratches. I only lightly handicapped so I wasn’t planning on playing very heavily to begin with. We got there not too long before the 3rd. My pick, Akin, had scratched so I took a pass. In the 4th I put Paris Winds over Them There Eyes for a couple bucks to no avail. In fact, I didn’t cash a ticket all day (again) but it started to get interesting in the 5th race.

I usually don’t like to play maiden races. I don’t have an affinity for using breeding in handicapping, although it’s on my list to work on, so I just throw a couple of bucks on a long shot here and there. The 5th was a Maiden Special Weight and no different for me… except no one was at long odds. In the paddock #9, Discreet Treasure was really acting up. There was no audio to speak of in the grandstand so we couldn’t hear what Jason Blewitt or Jan Rushton were saying, but Discreet Treasure was pretty worked up.

It was a 7F turf race that moved to the dirt. Quickly looking over the entrants I noticed that Discreet Treasure, a first time starter, was only showing one work on turf, and not even the last one! As they came out for the parade he looked great, perhaps too great. Did he leave his race in the paddock? Number 10, Counterspy, looked good too so I boxed them.

I’ll just let you watch the race for yourself… he’s the grey. A very big thanks to Party Manners for posting it!!

As it turns out, he’s a half to Discreet Cat, not that I knew that until I got home and watched Throughbred Action. And as great as it is on the replay it was even more thrilling in person. I can’t wait to see more of him!

The next race was also fantastic. It was a state bred allowance for non-winners of two. You may remember the name Overextended from the very beginning Derby Trail. He ran primarily on the west coast in all the big preps as a 2yo and even placed to Colonel John in the Real Quiet. I didn’t incorporate him into my losing trifecta key with Dr. W on top of the 4 long shots but his race was great nonetheless.

Just like Discreet Treasure he sat way off the pace, and talk about procrastinating, he still wasn’t in the race at the 1/16th pole! Then out of nowhere he closed like freight train… all I can say is welcome to New York! Previously trained by Doug O’Neill and now trained by Mark Henig, I’m sure we’ll be seeing him round these parts more often!

I liked the undefeated By The Light in the Prioress although I knew Indian Blessing would be tough at the distance on a muddy track. I was hoping it would have been Indian Blessing pressing Secret Gypsy with By The Light sitting off the pace but Indian Blessing has finally shown she can rate.

It was great to see Indian Blessing back and I thought By The Light was impressive given this was her first graded race! I had the 2 of them in a tri-box with Secret Gypsy but Indian Way spoiled that on the wire.

We busted out there right after the race and I got home in time to see the United Nations. I would have liked to have seen the Salvatore Mile, especially given that Notional pulled an upset! This really made my day… I loved him in the Risen Star was bummed when he had to drop off the Derby Trail with an injury. His 4 yo campaign has had an Evening Attire-like start, so to see him come back with a nice win that puts him in the BC was yet another excellent moment in a very satisfying race day. You can see it here, if it shows up on YouTube I’ll post it here as well.

I love that Mary Hartmann, Mary Hartmann and Precious Passion won the United Nations! I don’t know too much about her, except that I loved her sunglasses and Randy Moss (or someone) said that she started off as a hot walker some 20 years ago. But seriously, it’s always great to see one of the many non-high profile, hard working trainers win a big race and when it’s a woman it’s even more special. It goes without saying that there’s that extra level of “it ain’t easy” for women who work in a business that’s male dominated such a sports, or in my case, technology. So, good for her!

And to top it all off, Zenyatta stayed undefeated holding off an impressively closing Tough Tiz’s Sis in the Vanity Handicap. 6 for 6… is she looking more interesting for the Classic to you yet?

Posted by dana on Jul 05 2008    
Filed Under: TBA, Monmouth Park, Wrap Up, Discreet Cat, Dance Away Capote, :), Randy Moss, Doug O'Neill, Zenyatta, Tough Tiz's Sis, Indian Blessing, 4yo, 2008, Sarah K. Andrew, Sprint, Inspirational, Maiden, Race Replay, Breeders' Cup, Breeding, Belmont, Come Back, Turf, Trifecta, BC Classic, YouTube, Notional, Evening Attire, Racing

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This was the txt that Mrs. Swifty sent to Swifty after he txted her that he had just won $881 on the classic… and perhaps my favorite thing of the whole two days. No fool that Mrs. Swifty… and she can pick a pony on sight too. She picked Dance Away Capote in the Duda and Kelly’s Landing in Dubai by looking at them. I was bummed that she couldn’t come with us, not only because of her pony picking prowess.

Overall, I always do better either playing from home or at “The Office” (an OTB restaurant in Midtown), but there’s nothing like going to the track. I’ll never forget the thrill of sitting at the top of the stretch of this year’s Belmont to see R2R roar around that corner and take on Curlin & Hard Spun. And while I’m really glad I was there this year, I will be playing from home or “The Office” for next year’s BC.

Swifty and I are good travel pals… we gabbed like giddy teen girls on the party chat line all the way to Monmouth county in our Zip Car. We were hosted by his brother Eric, sister-in-law Mary and their 3 lovely girls Dana, Faye & Gail. They were a pleasure to stay with and we’ll definitely be back to check out Monmouth on an “off” summer weekend.

The middle girl, Faye, strikes me as having the pony picking gene… she’s a horse crazy 7(ish) year old with a room full horse figurines, pictures, blankets and drawings. She also only ever dresses up as an animal for Halloween… why be a princess when you can be an animal?

After a quick local lunch we headed to the track in increasing rain. We had both brought rain pants + assorted rain gear. I would like to note that ponchos are somewhat disorienting, particularly when going to the restroom.

Our seats were out in the open so we didn’t stick around too long. We cased the joint and found a warm, dry not too crowded teletheatre upstairs… we even got seats. The man next to me had a garbage pile waded up in the corner near his seat that consisted of a hot dog wrapper, used napkins and several used “lucky” mustard packages. It’s worth noting that there was a garbage receptacle less than 4 feet away.

While it was nice to be seated, warm and dry, if I’m inside watching races on a TV I’d rather be at home or at “The Office”. This is also how I feel about the Big A, it’s cold + the track is far away & hard to see so I end up inside… this is not why I like to go the track. I can see people spit on the floor and throw garbage everywhere in the subway, but I digress.

At the end of the incredibly sloppy Friday races, I was down and Swifty was even. I allowed myself 20% of my bankroll for Friday and managed to not lose it all, but close! We went to Rooney’s and had a nice seafood dinner, it turns out my Monmouth county colleague was also there on Friday night (I didn’t see him) and he said the prices were jacked up… nice!

While we were sitting there, a table of two nicely dressed couples sat next to us. We were reviewing our A picks for Saturday so we could start to put together our Pick 4s and 6 when we got back to Eric’s. When our delicious food arrived, they all turned around to look at it and asked what we had ordered. Next thing you know we’re chatting about the BC.

They were in from Kentucky, one couple from Lexington, one couple from the Keeneland area. Years of close proximity to bass heavy speakers have shot my hearing in public places so I didn’t catch their names (or half of the conversation). Swifty asked if they were “in the business” and they coyly replied that they own “a few nags”. We actually had a pretty nice chat about the state of the industry, how the media consistently fails to build up rivalries or tell the great stories but chooses to focus on the tragedies.

Back at ye old homestead it was time to get to work. Sadly we had to pass on a TBA get together hosted by Patrick of Handride… I hear a good time was had by all! Swifty still had the last 4 races to handicap and as he finished we talked through our notes. When we take racing trips together, it’s like we’re roommates in college cramming for exam week complete with intermittent bouts of goofing off and giddiness usually accompanied by the question “when did we smoke that dube?”. This time was no different.

Once he finished the Classic, we talked for a good hour comparing AGS and Street Sense… we had already concluded that we both agreed that Curlin was our pick to win, the distance was probably too much for Hard Spun to hold and that if anyone was going to engage HS in a battle before the stretch, it was Lawyer Ron, increasing his chances to not finish well. I’ll do a separate post about this conversation, but it felt like we were preparing to argue a case, going over each positive and negative point, trying to find the differentiator(s) and figure out how to weigh them.

On Saturday between the 1st and 2nd race we were supposed to have our Official TBA Meet Up… as the fates would have it (I blame mercury in retrograde) several folks didn’t make it in time or were in the wrong place. I did have the good fortune to met the stylish Superfecta and her husband. We chatted for awhile, watched the second race and parted ways.

Since it was still raining and our pricey seats were squarely in the elements, we set up shop in the simulcast area near the men’s room on the first floor. This worked well until it started to get a little stinky! We had placed our 16 ticket Pick 4 online prior to leaving and our Pick 6 was only ticket, so I went to place the bet while Swifty decided what he was gonna do for the Juvenile.

I started to tell the agent my 4 horses per race. She totaled it, paused, looked at me and said “That will be $8,192″. We stared at each other for about 4 seconds, “Cancel that!”. In my tired state the night before I thought if we double our money it meant we could double the amount of horses in each race. We quickly refigured our selections narrowing it down to our two A picks for the first five races and all 4 picks in the Classic. I went back to the same woman, with my $256 bet, which had felt outrageous to me until I was asked for $8,192.

The next stop, track food. I took a quick lap and reported back… hot dogs $4, “gourmet” sandwiches $10″. We went our separate ways to grab food and meet in another less stinky location. The crowd was really starting to pick up. On my way to procure a $10 turkey sandwich on white bread, I ran into John Hennegan of the First Saturday in May and his lovely wife (I’m 0 for 2 in remembering spouse names). I had been playing phone tag with Brad so I was happy to at least get to meet one of them for a few minutes! Additionally, I don’t think you can call a sandwich gourmet if it’s on white bread.

After trying out a few different spots we managed to get a decent one in a simulcast area that was right by the door to the paddock. We spent most of the afternoon here, it was about as good as it was gonna get… close to the windows, paddock and an actual little table to spread our PPs out on (now if I had payed more attention to my notes, it might have been a different day).

Another of my favorite moments came in the Distaff when a well dressed woman with a fist full of tickets parked herself in front of the crowd around the TVs. As the race went on she started to gesture more and more at the TV. She was in the full head banging gesture (minus the hair tossing) of one foot forward shaking one arm at the TV during the stretch battle. When it was over, she quickly composed herself and walked away like nothing had happened… well done!

The weather broke before the Turf so we decided to watch the Classic from our seats (or better if we could get them). We ended up in a decent spot in about the middle of the stretch in some bleachers. The parade was right in front of us… and they looked great. All that mishugas was worth it for this, seeing them all together, this close, many of them racing for the last time. It was incredible to hear them run by and see how fast they really run. Their speed and power were so palpable… and thrilling.

It was nice to go out on Swifty’s big win… if it’s not gonna be me, I’m glad it’s him (although ideally it would be both of us). It was also helpful to have the excitement of his win to keep our attention off of the tragedy on the track.

I hope to hell they run Curlin next year… someone made the point that while he’s obviously quite valuable as a stud, the owners are unlikely to get another like him again. Please, please horse racing gods, let us see what’s he got next year!

Posted by dana on Oct 30 2007    
Filed Under: Pick 6, Pick 4, Hennegan Brothers, BC Classic, Monmouth Park, 2007, Breeders' Cup, Hard Spun, Curlin, Rags to Riches, Lawyer Ron, Racing

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Nice story about Shake the Bank, Better Talk Now’s rabbit, who’s getting his own shot this weekend at Monmouth. The rabbit concept bums me out a bit so I’m happy to see one getting a chance to run their own race.

Update: Shake the Bank placed!
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Posted by dana on Jun 16 2007    
Filed Under: Monmouth Park, 2007, Racing

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