Pays to Dream on the outside lives up to his name (budmeister 26.2)

They’re retired with an injury!

Pays to Dream, the long shot that came on to surprise in the Dixie and then ran a game third in the Manhattan was retired with a fracture. Ugh is all I can say to that, and of course, get well soon!

Here’s his eye popping run in the Dixie on the Preakness Card:

And his game effort in the Manhattan:

Posted by dana on Jun 09 2008    
Filed Under: Turf, :(, YouTube, Get Well Soon, 2008, Injury, JJ Castellano, Belmont, Retirement, Race Replay, Pimlico, Edgar Prado, Racing

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Brad & John Hennegan working the crowd at the Preakness (wendyu)

We’ve all been a little distracted, what with the Triple Crown going on AND a Triple Crown on the line with what looks to be the most well positioned horse to get the job done in a quite awhile.

But remember how much you liked the film The First Saturday in May? Or, remember how much you wanted to see the film The First Saturday in May if it wasn’t playing near you? Great, then go buy yourself a copy or two of the DVD! Get a hat, some shirts or a poster!

You won’t be sorry, this blogger wasn’t:

My DVD copy of The First Saturday in May arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait to watch it and after viewing it last night for the first time, I came away very impressed. The behind the scenes stuff was terrific and I’m glad I made the investment. The personalities on the backstretch (grooms, cousins, sons, daughters, etc.) ended up being the most entertaining piece of the movie. Good stuff, get your copy while you can….

And look at the Hennegan Brothers at the Preakness… out there, working the table. They need your support! Hell, they weren’t allowed to walk around and sell their wares. Only beer and girls selling Frank’s Energy Drink were allowed to walk around and actively hawk the crowd, as Wendyu reports.

I mean we all would have liked to have seen the Hennegan’s in bikinis, and lord knows they’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done… but if our own venues won’t even support our own attempts to support the our sport, it’s up to us to do it!

So, don’t forget… order your DVD(s) today!

Posted by dana on May 20 2008    
Filed Under: First Saturday in May, 2008, Industry, Hennegan Brothers, You Can Help, Pimlico, Marketing, Racing

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Racecar Rhapsody and the rest of the pack head down the stretch in the Preakness (wendyu)

Big Brown blah, blah, blah… here’s how the rest of them came out of the race.

The good news is everyone came away in good order, although there was no mention of Yankee Bravo and Tres Borrachos.

Update: Here’s what some of the jocks had to say about their trips.

Posted by dana on May 18 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, 3yo, Pimlico, Preakness, Racing

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In a word, wow. Not that he had the toughest of competition today but I think someone may have slipped a little Winstrol laced Kool-Aid in my “what am I going to do with an hour to post” beer.

And did anyone call Macho Again? I took a quick look around and didn’t see anyone call that one! It looked really good for Racecar Rhapsody but he couldn’t hold off the hard charging Icabad Crane and Macho Again. Too bad too, my strategy involved a series of tri boxes of Big Brown, Racecar Rhapsody and the field. I also had a much more limited series of exactas, that did not include Macho Again.

Back to Big Brown, I was impressed with how well he rated and how effortlessly he took over to ultimately crush the field. That’s one more thing to check of my “prove it to me” list… can he intentionally rate? Check.

The Belmont should provide an opportunity for him to prove the one last thing that I’d like to see (and just in time too!)… how will he handle some real competition? His only competition so far has been his post position in the Derby. Casino Drive should be the first real competition of the equine variety to cross his path. Bring it on!

In other news, besides missing the Preakness trifecta by 3/4, I missed the Dupont Distaff exacta by nose thus concluding a full day cashing no tickets.

Here’s a note of interest in the Bloodhorse article about Big Brown’s retirement plan:

When the colt will be retired is completely controlled by his owners, IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr.

Do you think there’s a clause in the deal that nullifies it if he’s injured? Do you think the money has changed hands or does it change hands when he’s retired? In other words, who assumes the risk? Maybe they both do if there was some payment now with the balance payable upon retirement. If Three Chimneys assumes the risk it will be interesting to see just how sporting IEAH will be about it… clearly they could certainly count on continued purse money!

Well, congrats to Big Brown and Macho Again and West Point Thoroughbreds… now there’s a partnership group I actually like!

Posted by dana on May 17 2008    
Filed Under: West Point Thoroughbreds, 3yo, Drugs, Greed, Prove it to Me, Wrap Up, Pimlico, Preakness, That's Why They Call it Gambling, Breeding, Gambling, Retirement Watch, Triple Crown, Racing

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Remember how shocked you were when War Pass was a non-factor in the Tampa Bay Derby? It could happen again tomorrow, or anytime for that matter. No horse is unbeatable.

This field reminds me of what it was like in high school when I was on the basketball team and we played Mansfield Malabar. They had a forward named Francine “The Machine” Lewis. She was all state, super tall and looked like she was at least 27.

Whenever we played that team we had to just suck it up, show up, play our best and hope for the best. To make it worse, because she was so good the gym would be packed. We never caught a break against Francine The Machine (she was actually a fantastic team player and her teammates where quite good as well), but you never know, one of these guys could catch a break tomorrow. At the very least one of the these guys could make my day wheeled under Big Brown!

Racecar Rhapsody is wholly unimpressive on paper. Although, if you look closely you’ll notice that he’s never far off the leader and has hit the board 3 out of 6 tries. He’s also versatile when it comes to surface with no real giant variation in his performance on dirt and synthetics. That’s all fine and dandy but watch his last race… actually, watch his last 2 races. He’s got a good turn of foot, a great closing kick and will knock a horse out of the way if need be. I really liked him going in to the Lexington and I really like him here. He likes a fast pace and I think he’ll get it.

It’s tough for me to pick between Riley Tucker and Giant Moon, both like a fast pace and both have been knocking on the door. Giant Moon has been training nicely and seemed a touch more game the Riley Tucker last out so I’ll tentatively go with Giant Moon.

I also have to give a little bit of a shout out to Hey Byrn, I really like how he’s been training. He’s kept the same time at 5f but is now breezing it + his whopper mile endurance work time has improved as well. His last race had a really doddering pace but he’s been able to hang with a faster pace, at least at mile, so I may give him a look too.

I will definitely be factoring Big Brown into my wagering, unlike in the Derby. I might even do something crazy like trifecta wheel him to the field (and no doubt if I did that, he would lose).

Assuming either that Big Brown wins or is a non-factor…

Good luck and please let everyone get home safe!

I’ll try to post my picks for the rest of the card before I go to “The Office” tomorrow.

Posted by dana on May 16 2008    
Filed Under: 3yo, 2008, Picks, Pimlico, Preakness, Triple Crown, Handicapping, Racing

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Channing Hill knotting the reins (~ RAYMOND)

She’s All Eltish blew my trifecta but I was still jumping up and down like a crazy person over Channing Hill’s killer ride on Sweet Vendetta.

Now y’all know why New Yorkers talk about Channing Hill so much! I also thought he did a great job in front of the camera in his interview with Jerry Baily.

And David Cassidy… who knew?

Posted by dana on May 16 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Celebrities, Raymond Haddad, Channing Hill, 3yo, Wooo!, Pimlico, TV, Racing

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Around the way rider Channing Hill at Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

It looks like New York rider Channing Hill will be at Pimlico tomorrow riding Sweet Vendetta (great name) in the Black-Eyed Susan!

I’m glad to see this talented young rider get a wider audience. Best of luck to him and his well named mount… although I’m digging Highest Class & Maren’s Meadow with a touch of Seattle Smooth.

Posted by dana on May 15 2008    
Filed Under: Channing Hill, Raymond Haddad, 3yo, Pimlico, Belmont, Racing

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(spin979)

I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting ready to settle into some handicapping, which probably means I’ll be posting quite a bit tonight!
The minute I don’t check in around ye olde internet a ton of stuff happens! Here’s a sample of the stuff I’ve cruised through as I gear up to get to down to business.

Filed Under “Big Fat Hell Yeah“:
“We Get It, Now Shut Up” at Railbird
“Pardon Me While I Don My Tin Foil Hat” at Superfecta

Filed Under “Here We Go Again“:
“Couldn’t They At Least Pretend?” at Superfecta
“those stupid sonofabitches paid $36 million for that horse” at The Race is Not Always to the Swift

Filed Under “Y’all are Funny!:
Post Parade’s Three Part Series - Mission Bob Baffert
Mission Part 1
Mission Part 2
Mission Part 3

“Why Doctor Death Should Visit the NTRA Blogs” at The Race is Not Always to the Swift

Posted by dana on May 15 2008    
Filed Under: TBA, Greed, Internet, 2008, I'm Procrastinating, Pimlico, Preakness, Breeding, Fans, Let Horses Race, Triple Crown, Racing

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and then I’m moving on.

On thing that’s made me feel somewhat better about not covering my bets with the winning combo is that of all the experts and bloggers I read, no one predicted the winning combo (although I still should have done a $20 tri box with the three favs, dammit!).

As I’ve noted before, I’m a big fan of biases and I watch them closely. On the day before the Preakness and day of, front runners and stalkers were favored to closers. Only one closer had won the day before, and with the exception of the 4 & 5th races that I didn’t see (because I was in transit to the “office”) front runners and stalkers were winning. Interesting to note because biases, like all other handicapping tools, are not to be taken as the only factor… and as most will tell you, a good horse can overcome anything.

I was re-reading a few of my posts because I was thinking about things I wanted to see about a few of the horses before I became a believer.

From my Derby Futures Wagers post:

“The things that I don’t like about Curlin are that he hasn’t raced against tough competition and we have no idea if he’s got the heart for a fight. Could he hold his own against Street Sense in the stretch?”

Answered: Yes!

I still want to see Street Sense go 3 or 4 wide and weave in and out of horses.

Here’s a gripe… the Pimlico simulcast didn’t have split screen so you couldn’t see what the back of the pack was doing. This is one of most helpful things ever, I felt like I didn’t know what was going on in the race because it was just focused on the front runners. Is this a Magna entertainment thing? I’ll have to look at this more closely. It’s one thing for NBC to not have the split screen, but an OTB simulcast? That’s ridiculous!

Now for the moving on part… rematch! The distance in the Belmont will be very interesting. Swifty thinks Hard Spun won’t run, and he’s probably right. A few interesting additions are going to be Tiago, Imawildandcrazyguy and hopefully Rags to Riches! Tiago & Imawildandcrazyguy will do much better at that distance for sure. I would love to see Rags to Riches win the Belmont!!

Posted by dana on May 20 2007    
Filed Under: 2007, Biases, Handicapping, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, Imawildandcrazyguy, Pimlico, Triple Crown, Tiago, Wagering, That's Why They Call it Gambling, Hard Spun, Street Sense, Rags to Riches, Curlin, Racing

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While I am extremely bummed to have lost all $180 that I bet, I have to say that Curlin ran a monster impressive race!!!

I pretty much had every combination except the winning one and I’m kicking myself because I almost ran to the window in final minute to place a $20 box of Street Sense & Curlin, which would have just covered my bets. To be honest, it was because I was more concerned about Street Sense than Curlin.

I would also like to point out that Curlin took a dump right before the parade… this is something that I look for in horse (and I overlooked it here). McCann’s Mohave took a dump right before going in the gate at the Sunshine Millions and won at 30something-1 odds (and not since!). I also won some money this way with Indian Flare in the Flower Girl, but I digress.

Man, I’m soooo bummed about Hard Spun, it looked like Pino urged him to catch up in the back stretch and Hard Spun hit the gas a bit too heavy. He looked like he was really struggling at the end. Given that, it’s a testament to his talent that he hung on for 3rd.

As for Street Sense & Curlin… I would have thought that Curlin would have sat closer to the pace given his pre-Derby front running style, but he clearly is more of a fantastic dramatic closer! Street Sense got his rail trip and only had to get by CP West (who also ran an impressive race!) to take the lead.

Curlin may have won by a nose but he kicked Street Sense’s ass in my opinion. He came 3 wide to Street Sense’s inside trip and the really poured it on at the end. Fucking Fantastic! He galloped out nicely too. The one thing I did get right was that the Derby was good for him! He really has the killer instinct.

The only win I had all day was Remarkable News in the 10th. I love a South American horse… when I have my hugely successful Giant Bag of Money Stable, it will be filled with South American horses!

Posted by dana on May 19 2007    
Filed Under: 2007, Mario Pino, Preakness, Pimlico, CP West, McCann's Mohave, Handicapping, Triple Crown, Hard Spun, Wagering, Street Sense, Curlin, Indian Flare, That's Why They Call it Gambling

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