Acai (inside) winning by nose over Unbridled’s Heart (Sarah K. Andrew)

In some actual racing news I noticed that Discreet Treasure, the impressive maiden winner from about a month ago, is a main track only entrant in the 6th tomorrow, a 6F 76K allowance race. Update: Discreet Treasure scratched as the race stayed on turf.

I also noticed that Fabulous Strike is entered in the non-graded Harvey Arneault Memorial Stakes on the WV Derby card at Mountaineer on Saturday. Not exactly the Grade 1 Forego that was noted a potential next start when it was reported that he would miss last weekend’s Vanderbilt with a foot injury.

Beattie said he didn’t expect Fabulous Strike to miss a lot of training time, but that he would ship him back to his Penn National stable and come up with a new plan. Beattie said he would consider shipping back to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Forego on Aug. 30.

Odd, no?

One my best plays at Saratoga, employing the Papa Backstretch betting technique ($10 to win), was Acai who won the 4th on Saturday at 12-1 beating the fav, Unbridled’s Heart, by a neck on the wire. Acai is brought to you by IEAH & Babe and as it turns out, he might be their entry in the Travers!

For all of Babe’s annoying bluster, I must confess that I love his work patterns. After Acai’s maiden win at 1 1/16, he had 3 really nice endurance works to get him ready for the 1 1/8. That combined with how he looked in the parade was what sold me, even though I really don’t like to bet maiden winners next out. Thanks Babe!

Posted by dana on Jul 29 2008    
Filed Under: Sarah K. Andrew, 2008, Workouts, Fabulous Strike, Saratoga, 3yo, Racing

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Casino Drive works American style at Belmont (Sarah K Andrew)

I was just perusing flickr and found this note by Sarah interesting…

The Japanese connections of Casino Drive have a very cool way of working with their horses. Every morning, Casino Drive is tacked up around 5:30am. He and two other stable mates walk around the entire backside, picking up speed throughout their 45 minute walk until they are doing a verrry strong power-walk.

Then they walk the horses to the paddock to get them used to it for race day. Then they jog or gallop on track, depending on their training for the day. When they are done, they go back to the stable area and walk for another 45 minutes… first briskly, then they slow them down.

I’m no horsewoman, but who are we to think that only our way of working horses is appropriate? Clearly they’re doing something right!

I’m also intrigued by the maiden entry, Guadalcanal. You can’t do much better than Javier Castellano right now either. He’s currently 21% at Belmont and giving great rides to long shots all over the place, most notably Brookhaven’s Money this past Sunday in the 3rd, the Spectacular Bid in the NY Stallion Series.

I like owner/trainer Fred Seitz’s attitude:

He was bred for a route, he trains like he will want a route, and there are not many opportunities to race against 3-year-olds at 1 ½ miles. If we are on the board, we will be happy.

He’s got a point regarding mile and half opportunities!

Denis of Cork, Take of Ekati, Anak Nakal, Icabad Crane and Ready’s Echo are all of interest to me too, mind you, I haven’t really looked too closely yet.

Ah yes, and in case you were wondering about the Big Brown One, you can always look here for Big Brown’s Belmont Odds!

Posted by dana on Jun 04 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Sarah K. Andrew, Big Brown, Casino Drive, Anak Nakal, Denis of Cork, Workouts, Maiden, Triple Crown, Belmont, Belmont Stakes, International Racing, Javier Castellano, Racing

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Larry Jones training my beloved Hard Spun at Monmouth (Sarah K. Andrew)

Over at The Rail, the question was posed to Dr. Larry Bramlage about Larry Jones’ practice of exercising his trainees and if this could have played into Eight Belles’ accident.

No! This did not contribute to her injuries. You could even make the argument that it would be preventative in that it would make the bones stronger. He rides his horses regularly. They are adapted to him on their back. That would tend to make them stronger. The filly that won the Oaks, Proud Spell, is much smaller than Eight Belles. He rides her, too.

To which I asked (by way of comments): “doesn’t his answer indicate that the weight requirements for jockeys are waaaay too severe and in fact cruel? I thought the reason jocks had to weigh less than a supermodel is due to safety concerns for the horse.”

Can we now use his answer, in print in the New York Times, as evidence that jockeys don’t NEED to have ridiculous weight restrictions. While everyone is so high on safety right now, we shouldn’t over look our sport’s human athletes.

Posted by dana on May 08 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Workouts, Larry Jones, Jocks, Racing

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Lava Man and his beloved groom Noe Garcia before the Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park (Charles Pravata)

Charles Pravata was kind enough to send me this great shot of Lava Man and his groom Noe Garcia prior to the Khaled in the paddock. While he didn’t win, I thought he ran well and was definitely not the checked out Lava Man of his prior 3 6th places.

His connections seem to be eyeing another try at the Gold Cup! And while trainer Doug O’Neil was disappointed he didn’t win, he felt that Lava Man would probably need a race or two to get back into good form. Only fair for 7yo!

I took a look over at YouTube to see if I could find the race. Not only did find it, I found two excellent “extras”!

Here’s a clip of handicapper Rich Perloff discussing Lava Man. While discussing works he also points out the difference between breezing vs. handy between the east & west coast tracks. Someone in the crowd also raises my point about Lava Man’s 3 flops coinciding with his groom’s absence.

Here’s some footage of Lava Man preparing for the race.

And finally, the race itself…

Welcome back old man!

Posted by dana on Apr 28 2008    
Filed Under: Geldings, Charles Pravata, Hollywood Gold Cup, Doug O'Neill, 2008, Corey Nakatani, Workouts, YouTube, Lava Man, Fans, Handicapping, Race Replay, Turf, Hollywood Park, Racing

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Last year’s Monba winner, Dominican is making his 4yo debut tomorrow in the 8th at Keenland, a 62K 1 1/16th allowance optional claimer. He’s the lukewarm favorite at 7/2! BirdBirdistheword is also entered, he’s 10-1… neither is in for a tag.

Dominican’s last start was the West Virginia Derby in August where he came in 6th in front of my beloved Slew’s Tizzy (love is blind… our anniversary is coming up on Saturday!).

I’m not sure if he was injured or was just given a decent break but I did noticed him on the work tab. He wasn’t training very regularly at first but has put in a weekly work for the last month and has been improving nicely. Best of luck to him!

Update: Dominican came in second and Birdbirdistheword came in 3rd… congrats to both and their connections!

Also, check out the pace on last year’s race… I’m actually more impressed by his huge close than was then.

Posted by dana on Apr 17 2008    
Filed Under: 4yo, 2008, Workouts, Come Back, Dominican

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