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!

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.”

Casino Drive visits with the kids of Anna House, a day care center for backstretch workers (Sarah K. Andrew)

I’m way too tired to do much of any posting (again) tonight, but this one is for Brooklyn Backstretch as she is a tireless supporter of BEST and the Belmont Childcare Association.

According to Sarah, the kids even sang him a good luck song!

Update: here’s another angle from Jessie Holmes.

While not 100% directly related to horse racing, this morning I stumbled across the trailer for a documentary entitled Bigger Stronger Faster.

The film, from the the producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, looks at steroid use in sports and the culture that creates cheating to ask the question, is it still cheating if everyone is doing it?

The opening paragraph of the synopsis says it all:

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size, and above all else: winning at sport, at business, and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs?

It’s good to keep in mind as our discussions and debates about the state of the game unfold, that horse racing is a reflection of a bigger picture. That’s not so say that things can’t or shouldn’t change, it’s just harder to break out of patterns that are ingrained in every aspect of our culture without real incentive and “reward” for doing so.

Closing weekend at Bay Meadows (Dave Ibison)

As usual, there are a lot of great blog posts out there. And, as usual, they tend to align topics across blogs. Here’s a Friday night sampler platter of posts by (mostly) TBA bloggers.

Filed Under “let horses race”, Val at Foolish Pleasure looks at some Endings and Beginnings, and what struck me was a comment that someone made about the number of horses currently running that have won more than 3 G1 races… hint, it’s a low number. Frank at That’s Amore Stables highlights an issue that rarely gets pointed out in one of my favorite overall topics, “we need to create incentives for horses to race past 3”, in his post 30 cents on the dollar.

Also, check out Frank’s take on the Government’s new found interest in racing.

Filed under “nice to see some deserving trainers get some ink”, Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch recounts a lovely evening honoring the lifetime achievements of Allen Jerkins. Over at The Rail, Steve Zorn of Castle Village Farms profiles one of the their trainers, the great Bill Turner.

Filed under “I know there are those who need their Casino Drive fix”, Michael at Thoroughblog compiles the complete and exhaustive Casino Drive video history!

And last but not least, please welcome 3 new members to the TBA. Colin’s Ghost, Equispace and Equine Project… check them out, they’re excellent and welcome additions to our growing alliance!

Big Brown’s little white spot (Charles Pravata)

I think Joe Drape’s sneak peak of the Belmont under card over at The Rail is what did it. Damn, that’s one fine looking under card!

Benny the Bull, Thor’s Echo and Kelly’s landing? Bring it! Not to mention, Thor’s Echo!!! Bayou’s Lassie, Criminologist and Sharp Susan? J Be K and Majestic Warrior? Indian Blessing, Sherine and Zaftig? Einstein, Better Talk Now and pretty much the whole field of the Manhattan? I’m ready to start handicapping now!

As news of all the Belmont contenders trickles in, it’s also hard not to excited about the Belmont as well. Big Brown foot issue is a non-issue, Prado gets the mount on Casino Drive, Garcia gets the mount on Tomcito, Tale of Ekati made Tagg crabby, Denis of Cork is fresh and working incredibly well, Gomez get the mount on Macho Again, Ready’s Echo is in and Anak Nakal is working well.

Last year was my first Belmont as a fan, and as a New Yorker you know I was there! Swifty and I were marveling at how incredible it would be for our first two Belmont’s to be of the historical variety. Since Swifty is the luckiest man alive I think it’s a distinct possibility, I mean let’s forget Big Brown for a moment, it’s really all about Iavarone, Swifty!

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887 (uploaded by 元気の実)

With the news that Congress is going to call hearings on racing, I’m wondering what everyone makes of it. I am not one of those people who watches hours of committee or sub-committee hearings, however I have fond memories of the hearing scenes in Godfather 2!

In the last poll, “Will Big Brown run after the Belmont?”, most of you thought they would retire him right after the Belmont (14), not too far behind with 12, just as many of you of thought he’d be retired due to “mystery injury” as would hope to hell that he continues to race. 4 of you (me included) think (or in my case hope) they’ll go after Curlin while at least 3 of think he won’t be sound enough… and didn’t it look like it earlier in the week. Thankfully, that’s all behind us now… for now.

As always, thanks to all!

Edgar Prado at Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

Prado gets the mount on Casino Drive… now if they’d just put Channing Hill on Tomcito.

Oddly named yet supremely talented G1 winning filly Panty Raid (Sarah K. Andrew)

I can’t claim that headline as my own, Sarah used it first when posting the photo above, but it still applies!

Panty Raid has been retired due to a non-career ending injury!

The injury was not career-ending, but it was decided to retire her anyway. “By the time we would have been able to get her back to the races it might have been this fall,” said John Greathouse. “She was already home.”

Grrrrr. They would have had to wait until the fall? Deprived again of seeing another talented horse.

Feast your eyes in this performance in the Juddmonte Spinster (grrrrrr) where she beat older fillies and mares. She did not go on to run in the Breeders’ Cup, which makes her early retirement even more enervating.

Please, no more bad news!

Nashoba’s Key blowing away the field in the Santa Margarita (Charles Pravata)

You probably already know the bad news by now… and I really don’t have too much to add.

The super creepy part is that just last night when I was making my normal rounds at flickr, I was looking at this photo of Nashoba’s Key and almost posted it just for the hell of it. I’m not liking my new found “I thought of a horse and now something bad to has happened to it” e.s.p.

My favorite Nashoba’s Key moment was in the Clement Hirsch. She and Balance were sitting off two long shots setting the pace. Nashoba’s Key rolls up to Balance and totally turns her to head to give her the eye! Balance’s rider race rides her a bit to keep her boxed in and then she makes her move but Balance doesn’t really go on. Nashoba’s Key finally gets some room and blows by her. Classic. I wish it was on YouTube so I could embed it but it’s up at NTRA.

Rest in Peace.