I noticed two things while looking at my virtual stable.

One is that Dominican is making the second start of his 4yo campaign, this time on turf this Wednesday at Churchill in a 1 mile allowance optional claimer (not entered for a tag).

His last out he came in a solid second over the polytrack at Keenland.

Dominican is best known for his surprise defeat of Street Sense in last year’s installment of the Bluegrass. Wicked Style, another one who surprised over the polytrack at Keenland in the Breeders’ Cup Futurity, is entered as well.

Dominican in the Bluegrass:

Wicked Style in the Futurity:

Best of luck to both of them!

The other is that Call Me Larry, a horse racing for a good cause, won the 4th at Belmont yesterday!

Call Me Larry runs for Find a Cure stable. It’s great, particularly now, to see people in the industry trying to do things other than cash out… here’s the story that first alerted me to Call Me Larry. Congrats to him and his connections, and THANK YOU for trying to do something decent!

On his 3000th win!

Luzzi has his own, albeit small, wikipedia entry and I uncovered this interesting piece on jockeys injuries which features Luzzi.

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!

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.

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?

there was no stud deal, this is probably still true:

Iavarone said May 14 he believes there is no chance Big Brown will race as a 4-year-old

Not with those feet… sigh.

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.

(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

I love finding out that celebrities are horseplayers, in particular, lady celebrities. Today equidaily pointed to this item about Terry Hatcher of Desperate Housewives fame.

Apparently, every Mother’s Day, the Desperate Housewives star takes her mom and her daughter to Hollywood Park for some live racing action

If that’s not excellent, I don’t know what is! Other lady horseplayers include Christina Ricci and the late Elizabeth Montgomery.

(arimoore)

When you’re done weeping and vomiting, I would encourage you to start your own personal Pony Up! program. Everyone can help.

I sincerely hope the members of the Thoroughbred Safety Committee keep that footage in mind when they discuss (drastically) reducing the number of mares covered by stallions.

And here’s Ed DeRosa’s piece on Little Cliff in case you missed it last month.