As I’m preparing to handicap tomorrow’s 5th-10th at Belmont (read procrastinating), I noticed that Roi Maudit is the morning line favorite in tomorrow’s 3rd, a 6F $55K allowance.
Monkey scrutinizers and fans will remember Roi Maudit as the winner of the Monkey’s first race. That should make a good trivia question some day.
The lady jock I just mentioned in my prior post was 19 year old apprentice Carol Cedeno from Philadelphia Park.
According to DRF:
* Apprentice rider Carol Cedeno, 19, won her first race in New York Saturday when she guided Bizzy Trick ($11.60) to victory in the sixth race. It was her 75th career victory, 51 of which have come at Philadelphia Park.
Perhaps we’ll be seeing more of her up here.
The horses aren’t the only one prepping for the BC you know, I’m trying to make sure I’m in top form as well! So far so good too. A dear friend of mine is town from half way around the world and he wanted to go to Belmont with me. Since he had a flight later on tonight we decided to go “The Office” (OTB restaurant) in midtown instead.
Our day started with the 3rd at Belmont, yes the Monkey’s second start. I liked the Monkey, Joppa Flats ($3.60) & Giant Deputy ($25.40) and picked the wrong exacta of Giant Deputy & the Monkey. Damn… although I was pleased with myself for liking Giant Deputy.
While the Monkey’s race was clearly disappointing and I have to admit I picked him somewhat sentimentally. I wouldn’t dismiss him totally based on his price tag and performance so far. The circumstances under which any horse could actually make back that cost are so unlikely. As I’ve said before (still haven’t gotten all my old posts over here yet), it’s my opinion that his price is purely a function of oneupmanship rather than perceived worth. Playing armchair trainer for a moment, I might give him some endurance building works, cut him back to 6F and change the jock.
Annoyingly all the horses I liked in the 4th scratched and my pick came in last. Moving on to the 5th, I had the exacta ($49.80) of Dr. D.F.C ($12.60 – W) (great name) and Sky Dragon ($4.20 – P)! Of Dr. D.F.C’s last 6 starts at Belmont on the turf, 5 of them were in the money + he was loosing the blinkers (something I usually love). Sky Dragon got a jock upgrade to Johnny V, placed by a head in his last race at the dist on the turf at Belmont and his last 3 starts were in the money.
I had the exacta of Bizzy Trick & Running Dog in the 6th, but Running Dog was DQed to 3rd, and I’m still not sure why. I really couldn’t see it in the replay and if they didn’t change the order of finish in Desormeaux’s ride of Be Bullish, why would they change the order here? On another note, the winning jock was C Cedeno, a lady jock! I wasn’t able to find any info on her, but she put in a nice ride on Bizzy Trick ($11.60). At least I have the satisfaction of knowing I had the exacta of actual race order, although what I would have won would have been nice too.
Another note on the 6th, Appealing Speed’s last race was won by none other than Valerie’s current equine crush, Southwestern Heat! It was a 6F at Laurel on September 12th. Southwestern Heat won by 6 and half lengths while Appealing Speed came in 6th finishing 8 and quarter behind him.
I stunk up the joint on the 7th & 8th but I was very happy for Helene’s Dream ($31.80), the winner of the 8th. Prior to today, of his 45 lifetime starts, he had only won once, placed 4 times and showed 9. He came on strong today running wide and pulling away to a 2 length victory… bravo!
And finally, I had the exacta again in the Athenia… I feel like someone sprinkled exacta fairy dust on me! In addition to Dance Away Capote, who finished 3rd, I really liked Criminologist and I’m in Love.
Criminologist’s last race was a nice 100 Beyer and his variant was 104, but there was no figure for how the track was playing. He had won his last 2, was 3 for 4 at the distance and coming off a month’s freshening. Last time he was freshened in Feb, he came back with a win as well.
I’m in Love had 2 wins and 2 places out of 5 starts at the distance, improving speed figures and won her last at the distance. I definitely was feeling good things for her. I wasn’t sold on Fantastic Shirl at the distance but her last bullet work out concerned me a little. Sure enough, she came on strong at the top of the stretch and couldn’t hold the distance. Criminologist’s ($6.20) 4 and half length win was visually impressive.
The late Pick 4 payout was $18,726.00!! It was a longshot end of the day with Mondo Diverso ($28.80) in the 7th, Helene’s Dream ($31.80) in the 8th and Zip By You ($15.40) in the 10th. Damn! Best of all there’s $124,790 carryover on the Pick 6 for tomorrow!!
All and all it was a great day… great to see my overseas pal and doubling my money wasn’t bad either.
According to NTRA, Asi Siempre has been retired and will be sold. Mind you she’s not injured…
“She is not injured, just aging a bit,” said Biancone. “We have some very good young fillies coming up behind her. She was an unbelievable mare for us.”
She’s 5. So I guess age double standards for females exist for race horses too, unless there really is some difference in how mares age compared to horses (is there?). Admittedly she hasn’t had a good year, however I’ll miss her and wish she was going to be around longer.
Check out her gutsy run in last year’s BC Distaff… she’s the grey. She gets bottled up and steadied in the backstretch, gets bottled up again behind a wall of horses in the stretch, goes about 5 wide and THEN literally pushes her way through to go past the wall of horses and closes for 2nd.
Sorry about that YouTube video… didn’t realize that annoying overdub carried all the way through until I got home.
Pegasus Wind breaks his maiden at Saratoga with Rafael Bejarano’s urging. (Sarah K. Andrew)
The weekend of the Champagne Stakes I was waxing nostalgic for my even more green days and thinking about last year’s Champagne.
Pegasus Wind showed in the Champagne and I wondered what happened had to him. Here’s what I found out.
Google uncovered that he prepping for the Southwest Stakes but sustained an ankle injury in his allowance prep race.
I also asked the question at Dan Illman’s Form Blog (he’ll answer all reasonable questions, fyi… a great and very generous resource). He had a post about the current disabled list, discussing horses that have been out awhile and the speculation if we’d see them again. He confirmed that there was no real news other than what I had found.
Here’s the conversation:
Me:
Speaking of sidelined, the Champagne got me thinking about last year’s Champagne.
Any word on Pegasus Wind, who showed last year? I found an item about an ankle injury keeping him from the Southwest Derby but that was it. Thx!
dana
Dan Illman:
Haven’t heard a thing. He was beaten 20 lengths in his lone start this year at Oaklawn on January 27, then worked on February 2 before injuring his ankle. He hasn’t worked since. I’ll put him on the disabled list, but I’m not convinced that he’ll come back.
So there you have it… only time will tell.
John Henry as a yearling at Golden Chance Farms (jeandiva).
Another great one from JeanDiva… this is courtesy of Golden Chance Farms where John Henry was bred.
Look how cute… even as a young crab!
I’m happy to report that I’m now an official member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance! You’ll notice that I’ve added the TBA members links and standings.
The standings, based on Graded Stakes (more info here) and are meant to underscore that horse racing is a SPORT first. The TBA also makes an annual donation to Old Friends in the name of the TBA Horse of the Year (based on the standings).
I’m really happy to be included in this diverse group of smart folks / racing fans. I’ve learned a lot from reading their blogs & comments and look forward to learning more.
Check out their sites if you haven’t already… mind you that’s meant for the 5 people who came here regularly who weren’t already TBA members. Man, my traffic has really jumped already and I’ve only been in the RSS feed & links since about 10 this morning!
John Henry at the Kentucky Horse Park (jeandiva).
Upon reading the news of John Henry, I found some very touching photos taken by a fan during a visit to Kentucky Horse Park this past Labor Day.
You can view the whole set here.
Her write up is as touching at the photos:
These pictures are from my visit to the Kentucky Horse Park on Labor Day ’07 and the day after. According to the experts, John Henry is one of the greatest living racehorses. To me, he’s THE greatest. He came farther from further back than many with better starts in life.
I used to watch him race and work out at Santa Anita, back in his prime. He is now 32, and lives in Kentucky at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was one of the most successful horses of his era, his toughness and attitude being his greatest assets, not his conformation or his pedigree.
She also has some nice shots of Cigar and Tiznow, among others.
How long has 3 been the “age of retirement”?
Evan Hammonds has on opinion piece at Bloodhorse about how 3 year olds have always turned in solid performances in the BC Classic… “All in all, 3-year-olds have proved their point in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in its 23-year history”.
Mind you, this is my first full year of being a fan, and for that alone I will always hold this year’s 3 year olds close to my heart, but it does seem like they are exceptionally talented.
Nonetheless, for this crop or any other, how well would they fare if the most talented (or at least most lucrative) hadn’t retired and had another year of racing under their belt? Perhaps we’ll never know, but I’d like to think that someday we’ll find out.
Two things I love unexpectedly join together. I was just laying in front of the idiot box, post pasta, thinking that I should get up and blog (feel free to laugh at me). It was back to back Law & Order episodes, which I can usually justify watching for hours on end if it’s episodes that I haven’t seen.
Fontana and Green had just figured out who their suspect was and went to his place of employment for questioning. He had been tipped off of by girlfriend and left work in the middle of his shift. Upon inspection of his locker they found The Form in his coat pocket with a few races circled.
Fontana: Belmont’s over an hour away
Green: But there’s an OTB right around the corner
[cut away to shot of TV in OTB showing the stretch run of a race, OTB regulars engaged in race. Fontana & Green make their suspect]
Suspect: C’mon, C’mon…. damn!
Green: Never bet the chalk bro
Suspect: I know, it’s not my lucky day
Fontana: You have no idea (cuffs suspect)
Thank you TV gods! Actually, there’s an episode about horse racing where a son inherits a father’s business and uses the company’s pension money to buy a race horse. I won’t ruin it in case you haven’t seen it and have to good fortune to do so.