Johnny Eves and David Flores winning the Malibu (Charles Pravata)

I’m a little bummed that I didn’t handicap the Malibu [DRF], not that I would have hit anything. This was just the kind the kind of race I love to play… a decent sized field with only a couple of favorites and a lot of potential at nice odds. These types of fields are more typical of allowance or claiming races, rarely graded stakes, let alone a G1… let’s hope there’s more of this in 2008!

I threw a little sentimental bet on Great Hunter, I’ll have to watch the replay to see his performance. It looked like he was either a little bottled up or hesitant about pushing his way through, hard to tell. Either way I’m glad he’s back.

I thought Cobalt Blue looked good in the parade and I noticed Johnny Eves ($24) in the parade as well. I was also happy to see Hurry Up Austin get up for 4th, I’ve always liked him for whatever reason.

I love to see a horse step up the way Johnny Eves did. Jay Robbins, his trainer, said in the post race interview that he trains like good horse… good to see him proof it. And let’s hear it for geldings! David Flores is also off with a bang winning 4 on the card.

If you were lucky enough to have the $1 Super, you had a 120,856.50 payday. If you had the $1 trifecta, you had a $8,831.50 payday!

In other payout news, even with 3 races paying out more than $20 per winner, the Pick 6 was hit at Aqueduct!

The results are as follows:

  4th: Wild Garden ($3.50)

  5th: Cherna ($40.40)

  6th: Hunsley Bunsley ($8.70

  7th: Dance Gal Dance ($23.40)

  8th: Beau Dare ($8.10)

  9th: Unbreelievable ($20.40)

$2 Payout: $91,252… congrats to all who hit that ticket! Definitely Ubreelievable.

Malibu race replay at NTRA.

Into Mischief and Victor Espinoza (orange cap) win the Cash Call Futurity (Charles Pravata)

Into Mischief ($29.60) gave his connections a much needed payday in the CashCall Futurity [NTRA].

He sat right off the pace throughout and took the lead by a couple of lengths at the top of the stretch. He held off the fast closing Colonel John & Massive Drama to win a by a length… and he looked good doing it to!

Yowza, I just turned on the OTB channel to learn that Steve Asmussen & Shaun Bridgmohan won 6 races, including all 4 stakes races, on the Fairgrounds card today… that’s what I call a Jockey Trainer combo!!

I was able to watch race 10, the last race of the day, to see if they could make it 7 and they almost did. West Point’s Cadet Gold wired the field setting pretty fast fractions (:21.58, :45.15, :57.85, 1:11.86) and holding off a game Stonestreet Song (Bridgmohan/Asmussen) by a nose. It was an impressive effort for both colts but Cadet Song was the more impressive of the two as he hung tough and paid $16.

Monmouth Park

Mark your calendars, the Derby & Oaks Future Wagers pool dates have been announced!

Pool 1: Feb. 7-10

Pool 2: March 6-9

Pool 3: April 3-6

More info can be found at NTRA.

I can’t wait to get bargain shopping on some of the promising youngsters… we should definitely know at least a little more about them by the first pool. And who knows what kind of talent hasn’t even raced yet!

I’l be doing some catch-up posting (and reading, which leads to more posting) this weekend.

Country Star & Rafael Bejarano show ’em how it’s done in the Starlet (Charles Pravata)

Just now catching up on this weekend’s racing… like Evening Attire out of the gate, I’m a little late to the Country Star party. My esteemed colleagues have already pointed out all that is exciting about this Juvenile Empire Maker filly.

Speaking of Juvenile Empire Maker fillies, how about the sports marketing dream of Mushka vs. Country Star? As sad as I still am about the “Darley Boys” (I’m sure many of you got your Bloodhorse today), the more I of see of these 2 year olds the more I like (even if they’re only going to be around less than a year).

Feast your eyes on this record breaking wide run… she looks pretty professional as she pulls away.

Oh my gawd, 2008 is gonna be like, the best year ev-ah (200 Cigarettes reference).

Street Sense walking back to the barn after the Classic (o_crunk)

When I arrived home tonight I noticed a box in the “mail area” of the apartment. I sort of assumed it was from my mom given that she’s been sending me xmas presents for at least a week now.

When I looked at the box it it was from Bloodhorse. “Did my mom get me something from Bloodhorse?” “How would she know to get me something from Bloodhorse?” This confusion went on until I saw the ‘Open Immediately – 2008 Stallion Register enclosed’ (like it might go bad).

First of all, I didn’t know they even published such a thing (remember, green) and second of all I didn’t know they would just send one to all subscribers. I also recently got a fancy Coolmore catalog (why, I’m not sure)… marketing at this level of the game gives Haute Couture a run for it’s money (pun intended).

As I was thumbing through it, noting who I thought was cute (all of them), naturally went I looking for some of my favorites. I was hoping Invasor & Hard Spun would have the standard stately pose in front of an idyllic pasture with a perfectly aged fence (Storm Cat), or in front of a souped up Colonial with Georgian columns (Perfect Soul – IRE), but alas they’re newbies, so they have racing pictures.

Invasor’s pic is from the Breeders’ Cup, natch, while Street Sense’s is from the Derby. It sort of looks like the Yum Brand logo is a cartoon speech bubble coming out of Calvin Borel’s mouth as he reaches towards the sky right after crossing the finish.

Sure, it’s fun to analyze it as a marketing tool while simultaneously disturbing to observe it as an effective cog in a well oiled machine. But the real deal can’t be any more clear than it is on the Street Sense page… “Bred to be a Stallion”. Clearly a selling point and clearly problem number 1 in the long list of problems with thoroughbred horse racing as a sport.

This sentiment was also echoed in something that Alan at Left at the Gate pointed out over the weekend. It would be different in the case of the catalog if this sentiment was confined to the breeding industry, but it’s not… it’s clear that it’s the motivating factor for the majority of decisioning, at least for some… and definitely too many.

I was just walking over to my fav lunch spot. On the way I walked by two guys. As I passed them I noticed they were stylish, I also swear one of them said “Like an exacta, right?”

What are odds of that… at least 20-1, right?

Premium Tap / Allam won again this weekend in Saudi Arabia “despite a mishap“.

50 yards out of the gate his reigns broke and Desormeaux not only held on to one side for the mile and half race, but they but beat his arch rival, Impossible Ski / Radae.

There’s no race detail in the story but the next target for Premium Tap is the King’s Cup, which he won last year, and then on to Dubai, where we’ll actually get to SEE him race!

He gave Invasor a run for his money last year so I’m looking forward to seeing him again this year. Sounds like he’s still on top of his game!

[Bloodhorse]

Ravel, Hello Sunday & Buzzard’s Bay break in the Native Diver. (Charles Pravata)

None of my picks did too well yesterday, although I didn’t handicap the Native Diver or Turf Cup, I just rooting for Ravel. In the Turf Cup I was rooting for Chief Running Bear and Obrigado, but as always, I’m always happy for the winner. Sun River dispelled any notion of being able to run only on firm turf!

I was looking over the PP for the Native Diver this morning trying to see what/if any indication there might have been for Heatseeker. A few things were notable, although I’m not convinced that I would have caught them.

In all of his route efforts except for 1, he was coming on in the final furlong… perhaps not so apparent on it’s own. But looking at Jerry Hollendorfer’s trainer stats, his sprint to route record is .22 and his 2 sprint to route record is .29. He also had a series of endurance building works.

Individually these bits of information aren’t so significant, but anyone who put them all together had a really nice $63 pay day!

On another note, it looked like Ravel got stuck in traffic so I’m not gonna throw in towel on my dreams of him having a kick a$$ 2008.

Evening Attire prior to the 2006 Excelsior Breeders’ Cup at Aqueduct (Sarah K. Andrew)

A very game Evening Attire ran down front running Barcola to win the Queens County Handicap.

The soon to be 10 year old looked astonishingly peppy in the parade, so much so I thought he was gonna wear himself out before the race! After running around like a 2 year old he seemed to take his customary gate nap, walking out as the race started.

He and Hunting sat quite far off the pace set by Barcola. He started to make up ground about half way through the backstretch and by the top of the stretch it was apparent that his pre-race pep was still in full effect. With his odd head bobbing run he poured it on to win by a nose.

I had him boxed with Nkosa Reigns as well as a box of Nkosa Reigns & Martial Asset + a tri box of Nkosa Reigns, Marital Asset and Hunting (who I thought might have done a little better).

What I thought was interesting about the old man is his last ‘2nd off’ start was his last win in addition to being the horse for the course.