In the 5th at Aqueduct, a 50k allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the Turf for 3yo & up, Alan Garcia gave Dantastic a fantastic ride to steal the win from Cardiff Road, who went off at 77-1! Dantastic was also not very chalky at 9/2 so that exacta paid $562!

Garcia had Dantastic near the back of the pack, a good 8-10 lengths off the leaders, not too wide but not on the rail either. As they neared the stretch he angled Dantastic towards the rail and waited for room. He got his room and Dantastic had run but after skimming the rail he cut wide around Cardiff Road to pass him! It was really something, both Garcia and Dantastic did a great job.

I just watched the 4th at Aqueduct, a 6F $52k Maiden Special Weight for 2 year olds. In the paddock I noticed that 2B, National Pride, looked a bit like a younger Curlin.

He sat mid-pack off the pace and and the top of stretch began his run. He had those giant Curlin-like strides and was really ate up the 3-4 lengths that the front running Saratoga Russell had built. As he got closer and eventually passed Saratoga Russell to win, it was apparent just how giant his strides really were. It was a very professional looking run! Saratoga Russell, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, also ran a nice looking race.

Over a month ago while unsuccessfully attempting to hit a big Cali Pick 6 carryover, I had noticed that most of the workouts were noted as Handy as compared to workouts on the east coast where the majority are noted as Breezing.

There ended up being a good conversation about this difference in my post that included Patrick and Jeff. This morning I also found a nice bit of insight over at Dan Illman’s Formblog.

In a nutshell, he notes that the California clockers are a bit more strict in how the designate a work out.

The lady just came in from walking the dog and said “I brought something home for you” and read the following words from AM NY, a free rag targeted towards commuters:

First it was your cigarettes. Then it was your cheeseburgers.

Now they want your racing form.

Now that’s an opener!

The entire article is here. For a more in depth explanation of the situation, check this article in DRF. [requires log-in].

Some of my colleagues have expressed their thoughts on the issue. And never one to disappoint, Steve Crist has a great commentary in DRF+ [paid subscription].

Agua Caliente Race Track, Tijuana Mexico 1958 (Nick DeWolf posted by dboo)

This stellar shot is from a nice set of photos of from Agua Caliente track in Tijuana Mexico from the 1950’s. It’s a part of an archival project featuring the photographs of Nick DeWolf.

Midnight Lute, by a head bob over Curlin for Most Impressive BC win in my last poll. Midnight Lute had 14 votes to Curlin’s 13 in my most voted on poll by far (46 total). War Pass was 8 lengths behind the leaders with 5 votes.

Big thanks goes to Valerie for her post on Octave as the inspiration for the new poll. Listed are all the Darley U.S. boys eligible for the job.

While waiting for my lunch to arrive on such a winter’s day (ok, such a rainy day), I noticed that The Green Monkey posted a 5F 1 min flat bullet at Hollywood Park. Perhaps the all weather track will suit him.

Sophie’s Salad at Saratoga, can also be found on the menu at Mesa Grill! (Sarah K. Andrew)

The minute I don’t post for a day or two all kinds of things come up that I want to point out, or how to turn several small posts turn into one really long post.

Back in Action:

NTRA has several items of note on those who are back in action, of one kind or another. Great Hunter & Spring at Last are back in training and Rags to Riches is preparing to start training in Cali.

You’ll have one more time to ask yourself “Will He Shine?” as he will retire after his next start in the De Francis Dash.

In a Back in Action two-fer, or perhaps a Back in Action one-fer and a Back in Cali one-fer, one of my favorite turfers, Obrigado, is set come back after a few months off on Saturday at Hollywood Park with Patrick Valenzuela up.

Following-up:

Slew’s Tizzy showed in Commonwealth Turf Stakes. He seemed to like to surface and started to come on in the end. If it were me I would probably run him on the turf again or perhaps send him out to Cali to see how handles the various synthetic tracks.

Around the blogosphere:

Speaking of synthetic tracks, Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch, one of the only folks I’ve seen to consistently raise this worthy issue, has a post on the “big toxic waste dump” factor.

John at The Race is Not to the Swift has a couple of posts of note. One has two interesting videos of Aqueduct… one that documents some shuddered off areas and one that’s a bit of profile and/or ‘whatever happened to’ as told by those who are there. This post generated some discussion about NYRA that’s worth checking and perhaps chiming in if you’re interested.

His other post that has several video clips of sires being shown off at stallion tours. The one of Giacomo, no doubt preparing for his work day, is somewhat alarming (perhaps impressive?) yet also giggle worthy with ridiculous background music and angle of the video. All in a days work!

Valerie at Foolish Pleasure has a nice homage to Octave, a horse that no doubt didn’t get the respect she deserved being R2R’s stable mate.

This also generated some interesting discussion about how the current graded stakes system fails to recognize horses like Octave, among other things. If you’d like to see the American Graded Stakes Committee do something about that, and I know you would, go here and leave a comment.

I Rarely Disagree:

A few opinion pieces and interviews from 2 folks I rarely disagree with… Steve Haskin does not disappoint in his Talkin’ Horses transcript that’s full of great insight and commentary.

Dan Liebman has 2 nice editorials of note, one suggesting that there are plenty of ways in which tracks can work together to better each other and one that discusses a new heartening direction in marketing for the BC.

Finally, I had a business lunch today at Mesa Grill, owned by noneotherthan Celebrity Grill Master and Horse Owner extroadinare, Bobby Flay. Sophie’s Salad was on the menu but no Catmosphere burger… probably not a bad thing.

After Market at the Lane’s End Stallion Open House (sj block)

Apparently After Market had a quiet little retirement after being scratched from the BC [Thoroughbred Times].

I would have thought that I was the only one who missed it but I was reading a handicapping article entitled Big Names to Bet Against [DRF+], and guess who one of the big names was:

As events proceeded, After Market had to be scratched at Monmouth Park because of the soft turf he cannot navigate. That meant After Market will return in the Nov. 23-25 Hollywood Park Turf Festival, where he will likely be dominated again by Crossing the Line, who will no longer be a double-digit overlay, but an overlay nonetheless.

The retirement article was dated Oct 29th and the article quoted above is date Nov 12th.

That’s a quiet retirement if the DRF doesn’t know about it! Dan Illman also published an updated Disabled List today with no inclusion of After Market in the Retired Column.

I’d love to think that maybe he’s really not retired, although being paraded around at the Lane’s End Stallion Open House 11/03/2007 would indicate otherwise.

I was just watching Law & Order SVU, a variety of Law & Order that I rarely watch, (when did Jack McCoy become DA?) and saw this Ebay commercial. It’s really more of a dog racing reference, but pretty funny nonetheless.

It’s hard to see in this version but in the last scene there’s a nice horse plate on the upper right hand corner of the wall… shop victoriously!