News of super Ladies has been pouring in all day, some good and some not.

Several folks have nice tributes to Genuine Risk, formerly the oldest living Derby winner. I first learned of the “big beautiful chestnut filly” here, when Val did the timely piece that the mainstream media missed (again) by doing a tie in to Rags to Riches’ Belmont win. Rest in peace Genuine Risk.

For those who may have missed it, check out Jessica’s excellent account of the post Alabama scene in the winner’s circle. Great stuff. She also has a nice day after post and Geno has a nice set of shots from what looks to be the perfect Saratoga weekend.

Country Star made her triumphant return with an allowance win on the Turf at the Spa.

And in crazy news, my jaw dropped when my phone buzzed and I read this!

Anyone who pays even moderate attention to racing in New York knows that Linda Rice is the queen of turf sprints but this is almost unbelievable… and it’s not like it was a small field!

And what makes it even more super that you can’t tell from the chart is that the first, second and forth place finishers were fillies and the 3rd place finisher was a colt. Seriously super all the way around. Does anyone know how often a trainer sweeps a super?

And just because I haven’t posted anything since Saturday’s races, GbG horse of interest National Pride showed up and won the 1st on Saturday holding off a hard closing and impressive looking Posse Cat. Thanks to his unfortunate stumble out of the gate last out he paid $8.10, which is you guessed it, super!

Music Note winning the Mother Goose while Proud Spell had a rough trip (EASY GOER)

At approximately 8 am this morning Raceday360 broke reported the news of the decision to run Music Note in the Alabama. Meanwhile I haven’t seen noticed a peep (or is that a tweet?) at any of the usual locations (see additional note below), keep up the good work Jessica!

Originally I was a proponent of Music Note in the Travers, and if the field in the Alabama were different I would stick with that position but I was relieved to find out she’ll be in the Alabama. This is gonna be spectacular race building up to a spectacular fall showdown (that’s going to be relegated to “bait” to promote a much less exciting race on Saturday).

Note: I will try really hard to come up with a new poll tonight!

Additional Note: A concerned GbG reader forwarded me this link at DRF, it seems they reported this news last night. My bad, I scanned the DRF this morning it looked to me be the same story that didn’t have a confirmation… I suppose that I’m a sad contemporary symptom. If it isn’t delivered to my phone and under 160 characters I can’t really pay attention right now.

Noble Truth in the paddock (Sarah K. Andrew)

You know I haven’t been paying attention to the internet when I miss a post like this… my vote so far for the best post of the summer. Not only because it’s funny and from one of my favorite Ohio Valley Girls, but because as J points out in the first comment, “this post should be emailed to every racetrack marketing executive, printed and posted in racetrack office suites across the land”.

I did manage to notice a somewhat similarly themed opinion piece at Bloodhorse posted by a former track executive. Very interesting.

And if that wasn’t enough, this post by Paulick managed to catch my eye too. It seems that fans aren’t the only ones who need to take matters into their own hands! Speaking of owners, 18% of July’s Self Appointed Fan Committee submissions were from Owners!

Wait, how would I know that? Because the reports are done! The new phone book’s here, the new phone book’s here!

That’s right, this evening’s blogging is brought to you by completion of the first round of SAFC reports! Mind you, it’s just a first step… we don’t have any fancy charts or tons of interesting deeper trends discovered but we have a good idea of who made submissions what the submissions were about, statistically speaking. A month and half ago nothing like this existed. One step at a time, or as I like to say, you have to wake up before you can crawl.

In the meantime, enjoy some racing legs! (Tally_21)

The follow up to the hit single “Someday I’ll Blog Again” off of the acclaimed album “I’m busy and lack blogging motivation”.

I haven’t even read any blogs to point to you to! However, I have totally been enjoying Jessica’s reports from Saratoga via twitter at Raceday 360… I have them sent right to my phone. Internet who?

I’ll be back soonish.

Lest you think I’ve been abducted or have run away with the circus I thought I should post a little something.

I’ve been busy over here crunching numbers for SAFC’s first reports and I’m happy to say that it’s going well!

The submissions have been well thought out and well intentioned for the most part with no real smart ass or useless contributions. The effort is definitely off to a great start and I’ll post more about the reports and some of our upcoming plans soon (after I get done with the reports… just visualize me with a digital wheel-barrow taking lots of piles of data from one place to another and then deciding it all should go in 3 separate piles elsewhere to then change my mind again).

A few little things that have jumped out at me recently…

Jess Jackson schools us all on the classy way to trash talk:

I would love to meet Big Brown. It would be great for the industry and the fans. But all we can do is take one race at a time. I don’t know where it would be. I suspect they might retire him before we ever get a chance to meet. (If we do) I prefer it be on dirt and at a mile and a quarter.

Did anyone else think this statement by Paul Pompa was odd:

The Woodward isn’t in our thinking right now,” said Pompa, a 25% owner of Big Brown. “The timing isn’t right for the horse. Mike Iavarone (of co-owner IEAH Stables) and I discussed it, and we’re not going to Saratoga. There is no reason to rush him back. He’s coming off a tough race.

It was a tough race in part because he was coming off a break. That race probably did him a lot of good as he actually fought for his win. Many others have made far more concise and astute readings of this situation than I could so I’ll leave it at that, but that sentiment seemed completely ass backwards to me.

And finally, Lava Man’s 2005 Hollywood Gold Cup recently popped up on YouTube so I added it to my Lava Man post. It’s an incredible race, he really blows them away at something like 6-1 where it seemed obvious he was somewhat disregarded.

Back to the digital wheel-barrow.

Starship Zenyatta crushes her tiny competition (Charles Pravata)

Zenyatta stays undefeated by sitting fairly far behind the pack, going wide around the turn and blowing by field in a hand ride. I consider Mike Smith to be somewhat of an over whipper so the fact that he was all hands in the stretch speaks volumes about her performance.

Long shot Model looked game for second but Tough Tiz’s Sis couldn’t give Zenyatta a run for it today. I reiterate my point about Zenyatta in the Classic.

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I was just over at Ernie’s reading the daily Quickie Cap, which is always a great read and full gems like this one:

Cornelio romped with Pano’s Love (6th, $8.20) and Chief Talkeetna (11th, $6.20 ), but check it: Viscount (third at 9-1), Port Royal (third at 12-1), Torini (second at 48-1!!!!!!), Hangingonaprayer (third at 14-1) and Super Shaper (second at 20-1!!).

Go Cornelio… and Ernie!

GbG horse of interest National Pride took a horrible stumble out of the gate in his return to the states. He trailed the field and came wide into the stretch to come in 7th out of 8th. The good news is that his odds should be reasonable next out! I just hope that stumble doesn’t eventually develop into an early retirement injury. I almost employed the Papa Backstretch betting technique on the winner, West Express ($14.80), based on how he looked but took a pass. Arrrrrrrrrrr.

The WV Derby was a pretty exciting with Web Gem almost stealing the show! Recapture the Glory and Z Fortune did not live up to their names as both were nowhere to be found. Fabulous Strike scratched out of the Harvey Arneault Memorial while Zanjero, winner of last year’s WV Derby, won the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes.

No surprise as Indian Blessing crushed field in the Test but I was a little bummed that Ms. Margaret blew my tri, however she was pretty impressive breaking slowly and coming on well at the end.

Next stop Del Mar… go Zenyatta!

Trainer Bill Mott back in the saddle after his first win at Saratoga (Hen Bros)

Bill Mott finally gets his first win of the meet in the 7th with 4-5 favorite Compromise. Numaany sat off the pace and looked perfectly positioned but didn’t fire. I’m sure there will be some excellent eye witness reports filed later.

I’m still wowed by Viscount in the 2nd, a classy baby race won by Precious Package. Viscount broke a la Evening Attire and was so far behind the field that he wasn’t even in the frame. He rallied with a nice inside trip to almost nip an unimpressive Spaniard on the wire for second, which hurt because I would have had the exacta.

Nonetheless, I’ll be keeping an eye on both Precious Package and Viscount. Zito’s Nowhere to Hide turned in a good first effort and seems to be worth watching on his next out. Good lord, I can’t believe all of a sudden I’ve become so interested in 2 year olds! What’s next, talented horses having 4 and 5 year old campaigns? Fingers crossed!

Hanginonaprayer, the filly who broke through the gate, dumped her rider and ran an excellent race all by herself to the delight of the crowd last Sunday just closed very well to show in the 8th. Well done Hanginonaprayer!

Congrats to Bill Mott, glad to see him back in action!

As usual, Ernie was right. Last night I asked for ideas for a new poll and this morning this item turns up indicating that Music Note is under consideration for the Travers. Although I can’t be too hard on myself as I did I pick Music Note for the Travers in Geno’s Saratoga Contest.

My other around the way track pals have differing opinions. While we all think the Alabama will be one helluva race with Music Note, Railbird finds the prospect of Music Note in the Travers very interesting. On the other hand Brooklyn Backstretch correctly points out that a win in the Travers is no more significant or impressive than a win in the Alabama.

I commented at BB that each win comes a different set of bragging rights… to quote myself:

…the competition will be tougher in the Alabama and if she runs there it will certainly be the best race of the meet but beating a bunch of colts has it’s bragging rights too…

Here’s her Mother Goose:

Here’s her Coaching Club Oaks:

What do you think? Travers or Alabama?

In our last poll, which had a whopping 102 votes(!), 68 wanted to see Lava Man become the west coast Funny Cide by going out on an easy win and then becoming a stable pony. 15 folks wanted to see him turned out, 14 wanted to see him drop into softer competition and keep running and 4 folks wanted to see him try again at the same level. We can still keep our fingers crossed that he’ll be a stable pony!