Carol Cedeño at Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

Jock night started off like any other night… I was over at flickr, looking photos from my contacts, commenting on some photos from the Preakness and looking at some amazing jockey portraits going on over at Raymond’s.

Then I was over at fellow TBA-er Superfecta’s, reading about how there’s still more work to be done before any grand proclamations should be made. The topic of Casino Drive came up, natch, and more specifically the topic of his jock.

At first it seemed like he would get Japanese superstar Yutaka Take, but then another report indicated that they’d actually prefer an American jock.

Nobutaka Tada, the representative for Yamamoto, said he was leaning toward an American-based rider.

“A mile and a half, you need to understand the pace,” Tada said. “American jockeys have an advantage here.”

This made me start to think about who’d I’d like to see on Casino Drive, or on any of them, for that matter. Kent D, who had the mount last out, is clearly spoken for and Denis of Cork is switching from Borel to Albarado.

Denis of Cork, owned by William Warren, worked five furlongs in 1:01 on Monday at Churchill Downs. In the Belmont, he will be ridden by Robby Albarado, replacing Calvin Borel, who rode Denis of Cork to a third-place finish in the Derby.

“I have no issue with Calvin – he has two wins on him and a third in the Kentucky Derby,” said David Carroll, who trains Denis of Cork. “Mr. Warren felt like Robby Albarado’s success at Belmont Park and winning nine Grade 1s there is the way he wanted to go. He wants to give [Denis of Cork] every opportunity and was very adamant that if Robby was available, then that was the way he wanted to go.”

Here’s a run down of the last rider for each of the other known contenders:

Macho Again – Leparoux

Tale of Ekati – Coa / Prado

Anak Nakal – Bejarano

Tomcito – Cornelio

Behindathebar – David Flores

Ready’s Echo – Johnny V

Spark Candle – Chavez

Also from the article:

Top riders yet to commit to a Belmont mount include Garrett Gomez, Edgar Prado, and John Velazquez.

So I guess Ready’s Echo is not spoken for and maybe Coa is on Tale of Ekati.

In no particular order my fav riders are Albarado, Prado, Bejarano, Cornelio, Castellano, Coa, Alan Garcia, Channing Hill and Carol Cedeño. It’s tough to pick one, I can’t get Castellano’s ride on Pays to Dream in the Dixie out of my head but I also loved Prado’s ride on Tale of Ekati in the Wood, which is closer to Casino Drive’s running style.

Damn, is it too early to make a new poll? Who would you like see on Casino Drive?

Update: for the current jock assignments, check DRF.

Unimaginative, I know… but I needed a new poll and I’m wondering what you think!

He’s insured for $50 million and Dutrow/IEAH are making the calls with regard to his retirement date… after the Belmont do they call it quits, go after Curlin, will he even hang in there?

It was a tough long battle for the biggest problem in racing with Drugs and All of the above tied at 17 each. Breeding rang in with 10 votes, Lack of Centralization with 6, Greed with 4 and Apathy and Track Surfaces with 2. As always, thanks!

Racecar Rhapsody and the rest of the pack head down the stretch in the Preakness (wendyu)

Big Brown blah, blah, blah… here’s how the rest of them came out of the race.

The good news is everyone came away in good order, although there was no mention of Yankee Bravo and Tres Borrachos.

Update: Here’s what some of the jocks had to say about their trips.

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.