Monthly Archives: June 2008

Off to a Date with Destiny

Post Time for the Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

Quickly, here are my picks for the card… I posted my win selections over at the TBA homepage along with the other TBA picks. I put a straight pick 6 ticket on those selections as well. No doubt Swifty and I will be playing some pick 4s and 6s together.

True North:

I’m going with Thor’s Echo returning to form and Benny the Bull regressing a bit. I also like Suave Jazz and a little bit of Council Member!

Picks: Thor’s Echo, Benny the Bull, Council Member
Just A Game:

I think Bayou’s Lassie will have the pace her way and takes them wire to wire, or Lady of Venice and/or Bit of Whimsy come on. I love Criminologist but don’t think it’s enough distance for her.

Picks: Bayou’s Lassie, Lady of Venice, Bit of Whimsy
Acorn:

Now that Dance Gal Dance is out, I think Indian Blessing will probably go wire to wire, but I still like Zaftig and Game Face.

Picks: Zaftig, Indian Blessing, Game Face
Manhattan:

What a field! I love both Shakis and Stream of Gold in here. Out of Control is a logical choice too, particularly since he stumbled in the stretch last out. Proudinsky looks dangerous as well as he does well off a freshening as does Better Talk Now winning on his return from an abysmal effort aboard last year. I think the pace is not going to be to Dancing Forever’s liking and I loved Pays to Dream’s last out but the turf was really soft as was the pace. I’ll probably play a little Stalingrad and Strike a Deal across the board too.

Picks: Shakis, Stream of Gold, Out of Control
Belmont Stakes:

Obviously I’m bummed about Casino Drive but I am looking forward to seeing what looks to be a Triple Crown. I’ll be wheeling BB over several in supers, most likely most if not all of Tale of Ekati, Denis of Cork, Macho Again, Anak Nakal, Guadalcanal and Icabad Crane.

Picks: Big Brown, Take of Ekati, Denis of Cork

Good luck to everyone, enjoy your day and let’s get everyone home safe!!

The Japanese Way

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!

Welcome Back!

Thor’s Echo before the 2006 Ancient Title at Santa Anita (Charles Pravata)

Besides being generally excited about what promises to be an exciting day at my most favorite track and the potential of witnessing a Triple Crown, I think I’m most excited to see Thor’s Echo return!

As mentioned before, Thor’s Echo has a sentimental place in my racing history. The 2006 Breeders’ Cup was my first real foray into handicapping in a serious way… it was clear to me at this point that my interest in racing was way beyond the casual “hey, let’s go to the track”.

Swifty and I had gone to Belmont for the 3rd time a few weeks before the Breeders’ Cup. It was the running of the Frizette and Jamaica. I had Sutra in the Frizette, which was great because she went off at 12-1, but nuttin’ in the Jamaica.

As we were leaving the track that day I had the feeling I always used to have back in my clubbing days when the lights would come on and it was time go home… I couldn’t believe it was over and more importantly when was I gonna do it again.

Enter the 2006 BC. I had started to grow tired of handicapping at the track, feeling like I could probably make better decisions if I had more time to analyze the data. I didn’t even realize at that point that I could actually get the past performances ahead of time! Our pal Joan sent sent us the BC past performances on that that Thursday and the rest was history!

Thor’s Echo and Miesque’s Approval were my two picks of the day, both long shots. Swifty has bragging rights to Invasor. I think the best part was that we spent the day at the Yankee Clipper sitting with a large table of investment bankers who were college pals of one of our friends. Swifty and I, the two newbies kicked their a$$es on the day… not to mention that they seemed a bit crestfallen to be outdone by a Lady.

Unfortunately there’s a dearth of Thor’s Echo replays on YouTube, the BC sprint is there but it’s really choppy and pretty much unwatchable so I’ll point you to his few replays on NTRA.

The BC Sprint was followed by a win in the De Francis Dash, which locked up his win of the 2006 Eclipse Sprinter of the Year award.

According to NTRA:

2006 Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Sprinter. Purchased privately by the Maktoum family for an undisclosed price at the beginning of the year. After two losing efforts in Dubai, he returned to Doug O’Neill’s Hollywood Park barn in May. Following surgery in August to remove a bone chip in a hind ankle, will be given time off and will point toward an ’08 campaign.

So here he is, back for his 2008 campaign in the True North on the Belmont under card. His works have been solid, and although they’ve been over the cushion track at Hollywood, he’s beyond proven on conventional dirt.

Welcome back Thor’s Echo, what a nice surprise!

Did You Know About This?

Casino Drive hiding in plain sight, just like the official Belmont Stakes site! (Sarah K. Andrew)

So, I’m catching up on my reading and I’m looking at this article from Sunday’s Daily News by Jerry Bossert. I, like Steve Davidowitz (see the comments), think it’s dead on.

As I’m reading the comments, I learn something that I didn’t know about the internet…

Commenter dlydbbl1 says:

Absolutely right on. NYRA is clueless. I went to the Derby a few years ago and the whole week is one big promotion/party

Commenter Ribot says:

This writer has no idea what he is talking about or is too old to use the internet. NYRA has had the Belmont Stakes website up for over a month. The site has videos, information on the days race and activities and a history of the Belmont stakes. Here is a link to it. You would think a newspaper writer who works on a computer all day would know how to use the internet or is this just a slander piece by a bad handicapper? http://www.nyra.com/BelmontStakes2008.html

What? NYRA has a Belmont Stakes website and it’s been up for a month? Apparently I’m too old and don’t know how to use the internet!

So, I click on over to NYRA to investigate. I notice the blue header graphic touting the Belmont Stakes on the top of the page but don’t think anything of it because they always have a graphic there. Not seeing anything that stands out as a link to the “site”, I click the graphic (not that there’s any indication that I should) and behold, I’m am transported to the Official Belmont Stakes site… a gigantic slow loading static graphic file with an audio file that auto plays in the background with no volume control or way to pause or turn it off.

The audio itself sounds like what I imagine a NYRA commercial for the Belmont Stakes would sound like, do they have one of those running? The audio definitely had a much higher production value than the “site” (I use the apostrophes because it’s a page buried within the NYRA site, kentuckyderby.com is a site).

Let’s review the pluses and minuses:

Pluses:

– Links to a list of all the prior Belmont winners

– Links to a VERY comprehensive archive of Belmont race replays

Minuses:

– It’s not exactly well promoted or easy to find

– It’s a giant graphic that doesn’t really add any value with the links on the bottom

– The two informational links point to pdfs instead of pages

– The audio is without controls

– Does that slick audio go with a commercial? Let’s see it!

How about some more content, Durkin’s favorite Belmont’s, stream the press conferences, clocker’s reports, pictures from morning work outs, videos of morning work outs, a list of contenders!

Well, at least they’re trying… I would suggest registering belmontstakes.com and hiring some internet professionals to create a site next year, not that anyone from NYRA makes their way over here, as GbG is not a venue of “significant coverage.”