Slew’s Tizzy in the paddock at the Belmont Stakes (Jane E Hill)

Jay Hovdey has a very nice article one of my sentimental favs, Slew’s Tizzy. Just last week I noticed his work at Santa Anita, and have bemoaned his races on conventional dirt in the past. But alas, his day (and mine!) have come.

Greg Fox, also trains his full brother, Slew’s Tiznow, had this to say:

“This may sound crazy, but we’ve been pointing for this race since last fall,” Fox said. “We think that he is much more effective on a synthetic surface. I also think that Tiznow is turning into one of the best sires of synthetic-track runners.”

Hear, hear! His assistant trainer Mittleider goes on:

“As a 4-year-old, I think he could be 10 times what he was at 3,” Mittleider said. “He’s bigger. He’s stronger, and he’s really trained well out here. He ships like a million, loves to fly. He just backs into his slip in the plane and puts his head down. The minute we take off, he goes to sleep, and he doesn’t wake up until we hit the ground.

Apparently he even has “skunk tail”… funny, so do I. Best of luck to him in the Strub, I’ll definitely be rooting for him and I’ll give you 6-5 that I’m wagering on him.

[DRF+ – paid subscription]

Ginger Punch and Rafael Bejarano in the Ruffian at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

The weekend Beyers are up at Formblog and Ginger Punch posted an impressive 109 in the Sunshine Millions Distaff. This is her highest Beyer to date. Previously she had turned in a 104 in the BC Distaff and the G2 First Flight at Belmont.

Bob Black Jack also posted a 109 in the Dash.

The top honors go to Benny the Bull who posted a 115 in the Sprint. This was his second highest Beyer to date, with 119 as his highest fig in the Forego.

Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg tells it like it is to Ed Fountaine of the NY Post when it comes to meds, legal or otherwise. Nothing surprising to anyone who follows racing except for the fact that he’s SAYING it.

“These horses, they can’t say no,” Van Berg told The Post from his barn at Hollywood Park. “They’re getting steroids from the time they are babies. They don’t have time to grow and mature like they should.

Just open your eyes and look around. You know how many trainers would still be winning races if they couldn’t use medication? Some of them would starve to death. The veterinary bills are as big as the day money (training bills) for a lot of them. You watch and check how much these veterinarians are making on the backstretch now. They’re becoming wealthy.”

He’s certainly not the first and definitely will not the be the last to speak out on the rampant over medication of race horses, but he’s the first trainer I’ve seen to speak out so strongly.

Dance Away Capote winning the Nobel Damsel at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

I’ve been waiting for a reason to use this shot and the day has finally come!

Barclay Tagg will see if Dance Away Capote can stretch out to 1 1/8th this coming Sunday in the Grade III Suwannee River Handicap at Gulfstream. Best of luck to her!

I’m puttering around procrastinating what will no doubt be another full day of work when I noticed something that made me very happy. In keeping with the sentimental favorite theme for the weekend, I noticed Slew’s Tizzy put in a work at Santa Anita, and a good one too!

As I said recently:

… like one of my sentimental favorites, Slew’s Tizzy. I really, really wish they’d send him to California or just run him on synthetic surfaces, isn’t it clear by now he doesn’t like the dirt?

He posted a 6F at 1:11.40 H 4/35. It would be great to see him regain the good form he showed on the polytrack.

File this under “learn something new every day”, I received this message from a friend on Facebook:

Thought of you at the Kerouac show at the 42nd street branch of the NYPL. He used to create these fantasy horse race newspaper reports. They’re very cool, cute little horse drawings and all. Now that you’re an aficionado thought you’d get a kick from them.

Really? I was never a Kerouac fan, however this sounds kind of promising. The exhibit is called Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road and is on view in the main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd street through March 16th.

Kerouac’s minutely detailed fantasy baseball and horse racing materials, which he created as a boy and played with throughout his life, will also be on display.

A quick touch of Googling uncovered this:

Leo also introduced his son to the world of horse racing which, just like baseball, would stimulate Kerouac’s young imagination.

In New York between now and March 16th? Then you might want to check this out.

in Whole Foods this week is about as close as I’ve come to doing anything racing related.

I’ll be watching the Sunshine Millions but not playing due to extreme work load. This gives me an opportunity to try out one of my only racing “resolutions”, which is to stop or at least cut down on sentimental wagers that don’t involve any handicapping.

However, if I were to do any handicap-free sentimental wagering this weekend, I might go for Bayou’s Lassie in the Distaff with a token straight exacta of Ginger Punch over Prop Me Up. That’s it really, not a lot of sentimental favorites running this weekend and definitely no time to handicap.

In the meantime, go to the TBA homepage and grab all the past performances for the Sunshine Millions. Just because I can’t handicap doesn’t mean you shouldn’t!

Corey Nakatani at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

According to DRF, Corey Nakatani took a spill during a morning work Saturday at Hollywood Park and broke a collar bone. He’ll be out for undetermined period of time. Sadly, Bouweizase, the unraced filly had to be euthanized.

Best of luck for a speedy recovery.

Greg at Power Cap has a template you can copy and paste to write to your representatives in the New York State Assembly and Senate. The issue is that the NYRA signal is being blocked to New York Residents using ADW sites such as youbet.com or Twinspires.

As Greg points out, it seems like a move to force bettors to either go to an OTB or watch the OTB channel, however, not all New Yorkers are lucky enough to have access to an OTB or an OTB channel (the most fabulous thing on TV if you ask me).

Please help your OTB channel-less fellow New Yorkers, go here, find your representatives and let them know how you feel!

Although he’s Kentucky bred, you’d think Evening Attire was a Native New Yorker the way New York crowds love him.

Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch has 2 posts about her day at the Big A to watch Evening Attire… one specifically about Evening Attire while the other is a more about The Big A experience in general (and a great read!).

Greg at Power Cap also has a nice write up about his trip to see the old man. At the end of his post he links to an excellent Evening Attire Fan Site that that I’ve included in my new link category, Fan Sites.

I thought Evening Attire looked great and ran game second. As Teresa points out, it really wasn’t enough distance for him. His next outing will be at 1 1/8 mile, so look out you rotten kids!