It was a gorgeous warm day at Belmont. Swifty & I got there in record time. He didn’t get a chance to handicap so getting there an hour before the first race really helped.

Usually our routine is that we talk through the horses, watch the parade, go to the windows and then have the “what did you do?” chat back at the seats. We rarely go to the windows together. After putting in our bets for the first race he said “The clerk at my window said to me ‘I like your glasses and shirt, classy and classic’.” It’s good to be back at Belmont!

It seemed to be more crowded than usual, which is always good to see, although it also seemed like the crowd thinned out considerably before the Man o’ War… those people missed a great race! It also seemed like the payouts for the 3 stakes races were a little higher than I expected so perhaps there was more attendance than normal.

Some notable moments included:

4th Race – $35k Claiming

There were quite a few class drops and older horses, Gigli, a 9yo owned and trained by Bobby Frankel is both. 7yo Unigold was also dropping in class and 6yo Noah A was the horse for the course. Gigli is a beauty and looked great in the parade, she ran about 7 lengths from the leaders and closed impressively on the inside to beat Noah A by a half a length with Unigold not too far behind.

5th Race – $52k Maiden Special Weigh for 2yo Fillies

Catmosphere ($22.80) pulled off a nice win with Madam Bling ($12) also running an impressive race for place. The exacta paid $336, it was just like being at Saratoga! Swifty had Catmosphere to win… Storm Cat is her sire and her trainer Alan Goldberg is clearly a turf (22%) and maiden (20%) specialist. All things I chose to overlook in favor of going for jockey/trainer combos. I had WPS bets on Prairie Melody & Gulchstream.

Of the 3 G1s, the Garden City and Man o’ War were the stand outs. We both skipped wagering on the Ruffian, good thing because we both liked Take D’ Tour.

We also both tried our hands at the guaranteed Pick 4 but were out of it in the first race when Alexander Tango pulled a mild yet not surprising upset. She looked INCREDIBLE in the parade, Missvinski also looked good. We both had Missvinski & Rutherienne.

As for the race itself, I liked a lot of them, Missvinski, Rutherienne, Sharp Susan, Bit of Whimsy & Valbenny. I had various exactas including all of them but my problem was I had Rutherienne in all of them. They were all boxes because I expected her to be off her form a bit, but not come in last! It was a really, really slow pace. I also neglected to factor in (ignored) that not only had Alexander Tango placed in G2 to colts, but the winner of that race placed in the Epsom Derby.

Thankfully I did well in the Man o’ War. I had a decent wager on the winning the exacta, I also had exactas of Sunriver and Dr. Dino with Trippi’s Storm plus a win bet on Trippi’s Storm. Dr. Dino and Sunriver looked great! I did manage to factor in that they both do well on firm turf… the turf is definitely firm at Belmont right now!

Besides a great day of racing, it was good to be “home”. Saratoga is a gorgeous getaway but I love Belmont. I love the layout, the grandstand and the definite 1970’s flair of the surroundings. I’m hoping to get out there early one day and take some photos, there are a lot of stellar visual details. At one point the Billy Joel song “Just the way you are” popped into my head. Given the reports on the new PID, I sincerely hope the new NYRA deal doesn’t mess up our beloved Belmont… Classy and a Classic, in it’s own way of course.

Well, at least from my own self-torture. When Swifty and I were at Saratoga, Thorn Song was running in the 3rd race that Saturday, a 68000N1X on the inner turf. We both really liked him and had discussed him in the handicapping torture chamber the night before the race.

I’m still not entirely sure how it happened, but I didn’t include him in any of my bets. It was a great race, he pressed the pace from the backstretch to the turn and made his move pulling ahead in the stretch and then held on to win over a closing Codeword by a neck paying 31.80.

To make matters worse (at least for my ego), Swifty had $5 on him across the board. I felt like a total moron was completely pissed at myself for the better part of an hour… and it bothered me for the rest of the day.

I think it was a combination of not paying attention, not doing a good job of indicating that I really liked him in my notes and plain old stupidity. It was an awful a feeling, and one I hope to never relive again. I’ve actually since modified my notes system a little to safeguard against this kind of sloppy oversight.

Fast forward to today… I was working from home, for a number of reasons, most notably because my dog has severe separation anxiety and The Lady (who works from home) was out of town for a long weekend (he’s whimpering while I type, poor thing). I also had a late afternoon doctor’s appointment. I watched the second race at Saratoga over lunch and turned off the TV, lest I not get any work done.

I was having a snack in preparation for the long, long wait that was to be my late afternoon (I was there for 3 and half hours) and I again turned on the TV. It was the 6th race and Jason Blewitt was discussing the entrants. He gets to the 4th horse, it was Thorn Song!!! I couldn’t believe it, and he looked great too!

I fired up the extremely sloooow YouBet and threw $10 on him to win. Mind you, I hadn’t handicapped it and didn’t have a clue who the other horses were… I just knew he was a nice horse who looked good that I forgotten last time out, and I was not gonna do it again.

He broke awkwardly but took the lead pretty quickly. He was under pressure the entire race and was never ahead by much but held on again to win by a neck… wire to wire! Sweet vindication! He paid $16.40 to win, and while it’s not the 31.80 I missed last time out, at least I had him!

He’s actually doing really well, he’s won 3 in row off of breaking his maiden. It took him 7 tries to break his maiden and he’s been through a few trainers, but it looks like Dale Romans is on to something with him.

Another horse from that day, 47-1 winner Fresh Episode, pictured in my Saratoga visit post, won the first race today and payed $34.20. Perhaps he’s not a fluke after all.

Smarty Jones at Three Chimneys Farm (Alonzo80).

Jason Shandler’s blog entry at NTRA touched on something I had been thinking about earlier in the week. It’s about visiting Three Chimneys Farm to see Smarty Jones and Point Given.

I can be socially awkward at times, I’m not the kind of person who can strike-up chit chat about anything. I find the social capital necessary for this behavior to be very draining and while I wish I had the small talk super power, I just don’t.

When I am in these situations, which is not often because I’m pretty good at avoiding them, my strategy is try to interject a topic that I find engaging (selfish, I know… that or my other tactic is the “interview” technique). This situation usually arises for me in the work arena, so when possible I bring up horse racing. Next thing you know I’m holding forth, talking on and on… and without fail I’ve found that every time I’ve done it that the majority of the people in the group are casual fans.

There are two types of casual fans I’ve encountered, the Derby Fans and the Occasional Track Goer. Both types of fans definitely have the potential to be converted.

The Derby Fan:

Without fail, when I encounter a Derby Fan I hear things like “Whatever happened to Smarty Jones or Funny Cide?”. When I explain that star horses are usually retired after their 3 year old campaign they say things like “Oh, that’s too bad” and then tune out a little.

Smarty’s continued popularity is mentioned in the blog post as the Three Chimneys employee giving the tour points out the following:

According to Hayes, Three Chimneys used to average about 10,000 visitors per year, prior to 2006. Since the arrival of Smarty, that number has increased to 25,000. In addition, she said that the farm still gets about 50 pieces of mail per week about Smarty, from kids and adults alike, from all around the world. She said his popularity is still off the charts and he is easily the most popular living horse in the world.

My own “research” (searching Smarty Jones on Flickr) turned up a number of pictures taken of fans with Smary!

http://flickr.com/photos/46652722@N00/184926245/

http://flickr.com/photos/running_like_an_antelope/161762655/

http://flickr.com/photos/lori_greig/456924025/

http://flickr.com/photos/elise111/371085478/

http://flickr.com/photos/cmag/802749395/

In my mind, this makes another compelling argument for star horses racing past their 3 year old campaign. Fans who don’t follow racing (yet!) are STILL interested in Smarty Jones, and if we can keep those people engaged for longer than a year, we stand of chance of keeping them.

The Occasional Track Goer:

There’s a reason why things are they way the are… marketing (propaganda) works. Think: Iraq war, the need for a new car every year and our strange obsession with unnaturally white teeth to name a few. All triumphs of marketing.

Most if not all of the Occasional Track Goer’s that I’ve met are also sports fans. What are all sports fan interested in? Athletes and rivalries.

There’s a long Derby prep season… this was my first year of following it. I LOVED it… I thought about it all the time, it was the first time ever I had a genuine sports obsession. There’s a lot of room for improvement in hyping the Derby by way of the prep season.

Swifty and I were lucky enough to catch a documentary called The First Saturday in May at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. The filmmakers followed 6 horses and their connections through the 2006 Derby preps precisely to uncover the “mystery” of how horses make it to the Derby.

It was an amazing film! Seeing the back story, getting to know the trainers, grooms, jocks and their families was both incredibly fun and frequently touching. Not only were Michael Matz and Barbaro featured, but seeing the ups and downs in general and how much these folks put into their work brings a lot of perspective.

In professional sports, it’s not just your job, it’s your entire LIFE… the dedication and sacrifice is incredible, and people LOVE to see that. Don’t we all wish our own lives had more meaning than just going to our jobs?

Building up the rivalries during the prep season by way of better, more cohesive coverage, is one way to get the Occasional Track Goer more into the game. And having the film The First Saturday in May in rotation on TV during the Derby hype time frame is one way to (in addition to keeping the stars around longer) to help get both the Derby Fans and the Occasional Track Goer more engaged.

47-1 Fresh Episode pulling an upset at Saratoga (Sarah K. Andrew).

When we first arrived in the hotel room I exclaimed “Ah, the handicapping palace!”. By the second day we were joking that it felt like cramming for exam week. On the third day we were calling it the handicapping torture chamber.

Neither of us had handicapped full cards more than one day in a row so we were a bit surprised by how draining it was. Surprised isn’t exactly right, we were so excited that we just didn’t factor it in. By Saturday night I couldn’t look at a menu and make a decision… I had been making decisions for 2 days straight, just put some food in front of me!

We quickly started to take a pass on some 20K claimers and a few allowance races… those 2 year old races were so much quicker to get through! “Races for horse at least 7 years old who haven’t won a race other than a maiden and run every other week” Swifty joked.

There were points when we got so over tired and giddy that Swifty asked, “when did we smoke a dube?”. Of particular interest was how the trouble lines, when read with the right inflection, could be narration for high school dates. Did I mention we’re in our (early) 40s?

Back to the races. We both really liked Sharp Susan in the Lake George. I had her boxed with Good Mood & Red Birkin in addition to Dashes & Dots & Miss Tizzynow across the board. I also liked Lady Attack (not to mention how much I like her name, insert giddy laughter) and Rutherienne. This is the second time I didn’t incorporate her only to have her run a really strong race. Perhaps next time.

At this point the Saturday Breeder’s Cup challenge races seem like a blur of races where I didn’t cash any tickets. As expected, I liked Papi Chullo in the Whitney. I’m still trying to figure out what happened. The track report of “Papi Chullo saved ground to no avail” seemed particularly spare to me, mind you I think those guys do a great job and I’m extremely grateful for their write-ups. I also had him tri boxed with Flashy Bull & Diamond Stripes in addition to having Wanderin’ Boy across the board (one of the precious few tickets I cashed). I’ve always liked Wanderin’ Boy and was glad to see him step up. Lawyer Ron really kicked it in the end and it was thrilling to see him (now offically) “DEE-MOLISH the track record” (a la Tom Durkin).

Joan made a great point about Lawyer Ron being yet another compelling argument for racing past 3 years old. Compare his 3 year old and 4 year old campaign. He’s maturing very nicely and it seems like the best might be yet to come. More than likely I’ll make an entire post about this but couldn’t wait to point it out.

Did I mention the huge payouts? They made playing trifectas hard to resist. As I mentioned before some folks behind us hit a $2000+ tri playing their hotel room number. I love to play exactas and occasionally play tris but I stepped it up with the tris. Every time I played a tri instead of boxing all of my picks some other horse got in the mix. Ah Saratoga… how you kicked my horses ass.

I also did a lot of WPS bets on long shots, however did not have the pictured long shot of Fresh Episode. I liked the other Freud offspring, Pressing Issue a little better and was gonna do a Freudian box with them because I loved their names, however Pressing Issue scratched. Another good name was Second Marriage by Not for Love out of Impulse Shopper… well done!

As for biases… stalkers crushed on Saturday winning 9 out of 11 races!! The combo of Clemente & Gomez won 2 on Friday, while Gomez had 4 wins total. Saturday saw 2 wins for the combo of Klesaris and Pino, while Mott had two wins as did both Cornelio & John Velasquez & Eddie Castro. Sunday was even for trainers and jocks but still favoring stalkers.

Regardless of our performance at windows (Swifty was doing well for a while, up a couple of hundred bucks), we both gave ourselves points for money management. Neither of us had to do the walk of shame to the ATM and we both literally spent our last buck on the Jim Dandy. In full disclosure I was fully prepared to go the ATM because I wanted to do a $20 exacta of Street Sense over Tiz Wonderful but only had $11. The fates were with me that the ATMs weren’t working (however that seemed a little… I don’t know, unprofessional?) so I did an $10 exacta and tipped the lady in the restroom my final dollar.

Thank you Saratoga, for a long fun weekend that kicked my ass… in a good way! I’ll be back.

Street Sense being escorted back to the barn after winning the Jim Dandy

Saratoga is beautiful. It feels like a town that exists solely for horse racing. The gorgeous Victorian houses and stunningly tall pines are wildly idyllic, and just what this city dweller needed.

It was a totally analog weekend… no posting, no email, no phone, ALL handicapping. I finally got a chance to meet Joan (can’t wait to meet up for lunch at the Playwright!), but did not meet up with Trodder (definitely next time!). All & all we had a great time!

I’m still way too tired to do a full write up. In the interim here’s the short, list style wrap-up to be followed with a more well crafted, witty twirl full of insightful lessons and funny moments (while under the influence of caffeine and in command of my wits).

Friday:

1. Went to Siro’s Cup
2. Went to the Racing Museum
3. Wandered around a lot trying to figure out how to get to grandstand only to find out that it’s not like Belmont and you have to pay extra for grandstand seating, paying $2 at every turn to get into each area only to find out there wasn’t “free” seating
4. Finally procured grandstand seating
5. Cashed 1 ticket in ticket in the 4th, WPS on longshot Golden Horseshoe, who placed

Saturday:

1. Went to Siro’s Cup
2. Went back to the Racing Museum because the Hall of Fame was closed for an event when we were there on Friday
3. Swifty cashed a lot of tickets!
4. I cashed 2 tickets, a WPS on long shot Holla Bend who placed in the 5th (my pick of the day!) and a WPS on Wanderin’ Boy in the Whitney
5. Some people sitting behind us cashed a $2000+ trifecta ticket that they picked based on their hotel room number
6. Tried not to get demoralized by the hotel room number strategy doing better than my late night handicapping

Sunday:

1. Morning handicapping
2. Did the room number strategy for a few races with no luck
3. Room number was the exacta in the 8th race, didn’t have it
4. Cashed no tickets, unless you count the refund I got for a late scratch (I don’t)
5. Took a detour on the way back to the city and had a lovely dinner in Rhinebeck

   More to come…

War Emblem in his stall at Shadai (Deena in Tokyo).

Could this be proof that being on stud duty is actually boring for some of these horses? I hope he comes back to the US in good order and finds a home that’s a bit more engaging for him.

[Bloodhorse]

Swifty’s birthday outing to Belmont was a smashing success, with the exception of Defrizz (the 7th horse in the 7th race), who de-stunk.

Of our group there were a few first timers, a few who have joined us before, a few who went to the track as kids and are now reconnecting with the sport, a precocious 11 year old who had some fantastic picks and a Latvian mom who spoke little English but seemed to have a great time!

A few notable moments where that quite a few folks in the group (including Ted, the child) picked longshot Dance Away Capote (Capote) in the 5th. An interesting note about Capote, his progeny Ticket to Seattle ran well in the Prioress to place 4th at 40-1.

One of our party members, Rebecca, used to go to the track with her dad as a kid. She had recently started going again by chance. Her “job” as a kid was to go to the paddock and make sure the horse(s) her dad liked “looked sound” (as she described it). That practice payed off because she was one of the attendees who picked Dance Away Capote based on a visit to the paddock.

Another great moment was Junkanoo Party’s win. Steve had been to Belmont in May and won with Junkanoo Party (because he liked the name) and bet him again. He came in at 15-1, and is now Steve’s favorite horse (and potential middle name for his first child… well, just Junkanoo).

I did alright… I had a few good picks and several almost exotics. Basically I was trifecta boxing when I should have been exacta boxing and visa versa. I did have Owner’s Manual in the 3rd at 8-1. I liked that his new trainer is Frankel and that Garcia was the rider… coming back from a break didn’t bother me and he looked in the parade. Garcia has been doing quite well this meet as have Coa & Desormeaux.

I also had the exacta in the Prioress. I really liked Graeme Six… if Tom Amoss (31%!) is shipping a horse to this race, there must be a damn good reason. I figured it would be hard to beat Dream Rush but not impossible so I boxed them. I also boxed Dream Rush with Silver Knockers (should have tri-boxed those 3!) and Her Majesty. I thought Her Majesty was the other live longshot here, but apparently she didn’t get enough cobra venom because she came in last. In fairness she stumbled out of the gate. Perhaps Biancone should try eye of newt next time.

On the train ride out, Swifty gave his ‘Intro to reading The Form’ class. The students were all willing and his Socratic method worked well (and is pretty funny to watch). A highlight was when he was explaining running style and race distance and a light went off for Ilona in terms of being able to tell if a horse might do well at a distance it has not run before. It was great to see people excited about learning something that I love so much.

Next stop, July 21st for the Coaching Club American Oaks (and return of Rags to Riches!)… which will be my and Swifty’s one year anniversary of going to the track!!

Program Note: I really like how Valerie at Foolish Pleasure bolds the horses names in her posts, so I’m going to start doing it too… ease of use y’all.

Lava Man at Santa Anita (Charles Pravata).

There are several good articles on Lava Man at the moment. They all seem (I haven’t completely read all of them yet) to boil down to the same sentiment… so what if he doesn’t travel well and is probably a little off of his best game, we should “simply savor the rich meal he has served” in the words of Jay Hovdey. Clearly what we’ve lost in Invasor, we’ve gained in the ability to appreciate the horses that are running.

Long Live California’s King – Jay Hovdey [DRF+]

Lava Man, A Treasure to be Shared – Steve Haskin [Bloodhorse]

Another Nail Bitter – Randy Moss [NTRA]

And a special nod to Superfecta for her headline:

Geldings Gone Wild – Superfecta Blog

Lava Man (right) winning his 3rd consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup (Charles Pravata).

Lava Man ties Native Diver’s record of 3 consecutive wins of the Hollywood Gold Cup in a thrilling stretch battle with A.P. Xcellent and a fast closing long shot Big Booster (pictured on the left)!

In an interview on ESPN, one of the three owners said they would not race him outside of Cali again (we’ll see about that). A.P Xcellent stepped up nicely, perhaps we’ll see more great stuff from him. Molengao tired in the stretch, he made a nice move about half way through the back stretch and was coming on at the top of the stretch but had run 3 or 4 wide. I think Big Booster closed from pretty far back, I’ll have to watch the replay but he came on strong.

What a great way to end the racing day!

If you read one story about the Belmont and Rags to Riches, let it be this one. Fantastic recap by Steve Haskin of Bloodhorse.