Horse Racing 2011

Ode To Grace

2011-11-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

What is Havre De Grace to this writer, this fan? I believe at this point this filly is pretty much the center of my racing world, and with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic she will be a landslide winner of Horse of the Year and the most talked about horse in training and possibly reach status that only the Black Caviers, Golidkovas, Rachel Alexandras, and Zenyattas were able to achieve. Let’s go back just a bit to get an understanding of the importance that Havre De Grace, we’ll call her Gracie, has had on the game of horse racing as a whole in 2011, on the lives of her connections and fans also.

2010 was a very good year for the filly, stepping into a rivalry with Blind Luck the talented little filly from California started a following of this rivalry that we’ve never seen before, why you might ask. Mostly because we’ve not seen a rivalry of this nature actually takes place on the track here in the United States. Tackling Blind Luck 4 times in 2010, Gracie lost to Blind Luck twice and beat her once, and both lost the Ladies Classic to Unrivaled Belle at Churchill Downs. Being totally honest about things, although I followed her races in 2010, it wasn’t until the news that she was being turned over to Larry Jones and headed to my home track Oaklawn that I really took notice of the filly. After being given ample time to rest and recharge her batteries after her sophomore season, Havre De Grace started her training at Oaklawn in the most bizarre of fashions. You could say very lazily. Her 4 furlong work over the Oaklawn course was slow, quite slow, how slow you might ask, slow enough that Jones worked her again 4 days later. This is the type of training that makes Larry Jones stand out as a true horseman; he doesn’t plug in numbers into a database or spreadsheet to get an indication as to when a horse should work. He looked at how Gracie got nothing at all out of the slow breeze and decided they would not wait another 6 days. This type of thinking is impressive and not seen nowadays, this trainer was going to make sure that his horse was fit going into her prep, even if that meant asking a bit more than what was normal. The rest as they say is history. 6 starts later, 5 wins-3 in Grade 1 races and we are looking at the completion of one of the great campaigns by a filly or mare.

The statement that Gracie had a great deal to do with reviving a year of racing that to many was going to fail miserably when compared to the past few years is an understatement. The outlook was bleak as the defending Horse of the Year and 2009 Horse of the years both fillies or mares were retired in 2010. That left a weak handicap division and still developing 3 year olds with much potential but with very little ability to bring attention to the sport other than the Triple Crown. With the departure of Uncle Mo from the Triple Crown trail that left two horses that would battle it out for supremacy. And in the end the best horse, the horse that was giving time to rest in the correct manner, and the horse that was campaigned as a champion in Gracie is still thriving.

For me personally, Gracie has meant everything and the fact that I have been privileged to enter the winner’s Circle for both of her victories at Oaklawn meant the world to me. It was amazing to be close to her like that, to be in the presence of greatness. Now don’t get me wrong it would take quite the filly, no quite the horse to tear me away from the love of the Greatest filly I’ve every seen in person in Rachel Alexandra. But Havre De Grace is certainly knocking on the door of that type of greatness.

As I get ready to embark on my trip to the Breeders Cup in Louisville in a few hours, I think back to the many wonderful memories of 2011 and what a spectacular year this has been, and I look forward to 2012 with anticipation. First things first though, there is some unfinished business that must be attended to by many of my favorites this weekend, but none more than the Super Star Filly, Havre De Grace. I want to thank her owner Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm for allowing us to fall in love with this filly and even more so for campaigning her in a way that will allow her to show her greatness and class to the world.

Havre De Grace finishes Beldame Preparations

2011-09-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Leading Horse of the Year Candidate, Havre De Grace put the finishing touches on her preparations for Belmont Park's Grade 1 Beldame at Delaware Park this morning. Completing a 5 furlong workout in 1:02.20. The daughter of 2005 Horse of the Year, Saint Liam has won 4 out of 5 races in 2011, previously taking down handicap males in the 2011 edition of the Historic Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
Havre De Grace will carry 123 lbs when facing possible rivals: Royal Delta, Its Tricky, Superespresso, Payton D'oro and 2010 Beldame winner Life at Ten.
Havre De Grace is owned by Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm and Trained by Larry Jones.

Simply Put -Opportunity Missed

2011-08-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

By: Wesley D. White

Will this continue to be the statement made regarding horse racing? Will the leaders that govern the game of horse racing continue to drop the ball? The spectacle that is The Triple Crown, The Breeders Cup, in America at least seem to be so far removed from the reality of the way that this great sport should be treated. Curlin Vs Big Brown, Rachel Alexandra Vs Zenyatta, and now Havre De Grace vs. Blind Luck. Rivalries that either never materialized on the track or while being contested on the track have gone virtually unheard and ignored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The decree from the NTRA and its governing body and many others in the industry is that people are not there in the stands to support the sport. People don’t put their money into the product, but what product are we supplying them. What mainstream publicity & marketing is there to hold on to as fans, and non fans of the sport?

Thinking back to 2008 when Big Brown was making his splash on the national scene, the publicity was horrible for his group of owners, they were viewed as crooks. Then to be trained by a conditioner with a laundry list of violations as long as most convicts rap sheets didn’t help the situation. But a budding rivalry was there for the taking. Curlin the defending HOY and top rated horse in the world was going about his business, as consistent as ever, Big Brown going into the Derby and Preakness undefeated stubbed his toe a bit in the Belmont, but lost nothing in defeat, he was a champion race horse. And what did the NTRA and their governing bodies do to put these two competitors on the national stage & on the track. Absolutely nothing, we know there was plenty of banter as Rick Dutrow talked the talk, remember his statement after the Haskell win, "Curlin couldn't win the Derby, we could, Curlin couldn't win [the Haskell], we could. Curlin got beat [by] a filly. We haven't. Our horse is undefeated on the grass. Curlin isn't. I don't know why people think Curlin is such a good horse. We're way better than Curlin."

Jess Jackson principle owner of Curlin came back in a statement and showed his hand when saying: "I don't know that there is any horse his equal right now and I loved to match Big Brown," said Jess Jackson, owner of Curlin. "I never thought he (Big Brown) was as good but I've always wanted to find out? At the wire you find out. That's when you know what you have."

So the setting was there, the table was set everything was in place for the NTRA to communicate with both sets of connections, set up the race, there were plenty of options and ample time before the Breeders Cup for the two warriors to square off a couple of times before the Cup. The Woodward run at Saratoga and the JCGC run at Belmont were both the most logical spots, and that is where champion horses run. But there was no movement by the NTRA or anyone else for that matter; they both went their separate ways. We all know what happened, as BB suffered an injury and Curlin finished out his career at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

What are we to make of these developments, or the lack there of? Well the industry is suffering, and it seems as if someone is waiting for some miracle to occur that fixes the problem. Instead of being proactive and jumping at the opportunity to put our stars on the front page of the media and engage the general public, those that govern horse racing figure that it should stand on it’s on. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way, and what better way to invigorate the industry than to start with the body that governs horse racing. The game previously was for the older, upper class citizens who would spend their time and money at racetracks across the country. It seems as if this is the demographic of those on the committees making decisions for the ntra. I would see the need for some younger blood or move innovative thinking members to take the reins. Forward thinking, now that’s a concept that we’ve not seen in a very long time, anticipating what might work out much better in the future. Therefore putting a vice grip on the younger audience and those women that have always thought that horse racing was a man’s pastime.

Innovative thinking is what propels great companies to do even greater things in the future. Innovative thinking means making it more attractive to place your horse in a certain race to run against another that would be considered a rival. The NTRA could step in and state that if both Big Brown and Curlin entered the starting gate of the Woodward that: all nomination fees, all shipping fees, all vetting fees and a 50,000 incentive check would go to each set of connections, advertise the race and purchase an hour on a national television station. The buildup would have been amazing. The race would have been something for the ages. More than anything though horse racing would have been center stage on a Saturday night with the two top horses in the world or at least the Unites States running at Saratoga. Is this Missed Opportunity instead of Forward or Innovative thinking?

We won’t rehash the Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta situation. I believe there was some form of ducking and rightfully so coming from each side. The consensus nationwide though especially after Rachel garnered the attention she did by winning the Oaks by 20 and then wheeling back two weeks and defeating males, was that these two super stars needed to meet a couple of times at the very least. Missed opportunity, absolutely, the only races that would have been appropriate for these two would have been the Personal Ensign and the Beldame. Both of these races could have easily been on the schedule of both superstars. There didn’t need to be much forward thinking with this one, it just needed to be common sense and the will power to make it happen. Instead of doing that the powers that be sat on their hands and allowed both fillies to go their way and missed most likely the greatest opportunity and spectacle in the history of the sport. Incredible Kudos to Charles Cella to try to make the super race happen at Oaklawn, unfortunately both stars were not at full steam by Mid April. Is this missed opportunity instead of forward or innovative thinking?

Moving forward to 2011, and coming out of 2010 two fillies, one on the East coast and another on the West coast had met a few times on the track. This rivalry actually took place on the track in 2010 with Blind Luck having a 3-1 edge over all and a 2-1 edge in races which one of the fillies triumphed. It really wouldn’t have taken a great deal in 2011 to get this rivalry budding and on the thoughts and minds of people. The First matchup at Oaklawn Park went by with very little if any fanfare, as Havre De Grace triumphed by almost 4 lengths in the Azeri Stakes. Opportunity Missed, to the fullest, but there was plenty of time left in the year of racing. Going forward the two fillies went their separate way for the next race, prep for the Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park. One would assume with such a colossal clash of the titans ranked #1 and #2 in the NTRA poll that the industry would show by means of publicity and marketing that they wanted to get behind these two great horses prior to this race. Unfortunately not, nowhere in the main stream media was this race made mention of, and what an opportunity lost here as these two dueled with each other double digit lengths in front of the nearest competitor to the finish line with Blind Luck winning by the length of a nose over her rival. Stuff of legends, easily, unfortunately only, and I repeat only die hard race fans were able to witness such a stirring renewal of the rivalry. What makes it worse is the fact that the race was not guaranteed to go off until the weights had been released by the racing secretary and one set of connections received the two pound allowance that was afforded their filly. The Trainer stating in an interview afterwards: “I thought she should get some weight from Havre de Grace,’’ Hollendorfer said. “I wasn’t going to run if they put me at equal weights or gave me a pound. They gave us two pounds. We’re coming into her backyard.’’ This did not deter either side as they both showed up and gave a performance that will go down in history as one of the great female 1 ¼ races in history. Where was the national media, where was ntra with the marketing and promotions and publicity. They were nowhere to be found.

This article is being written on August 9th of 2011, and as of approximately less than a month ago the NTRA released a website promoting the rivalry. I again give a great deal of credit to Bob Ehalt a writer at NTRA who has kept the rivalry on the front page of that website as much as possible, but in viewing the website created for the rivalry, I wonder if there wasn’t a more professional way to put this together, this showcase of the top two runners in America. Is this missed opportunity instead of forward or innovative thinking?

As a lover of the sport of Kings, myself like many others only want what’s best for the game and for the industry as a whole. The problem we are faced with right now is not an insurmountable one; it’s one that needs fixing by means of some shake up at the core or foundation of the entities that govern the sport. As of right now they are doing so in a very passive manner, the sport should have new blood willing to take chances, yes mistakes might be made, but that is going to be considered better than not doing anything at all. Promote big days of racing, and I am referring to more than just the “Summers’ at Saratoga” campaign, although a wonderful program, there are times when racing dates like this just don’t fit the regular mold of what one would consider a marketing bonanza. These two fillies Havre De Grace and Blind Luck, they are your marketing bonanza, there for the older and more experienced race fans, they are there for the young fans or newbies if you will and they are there for the ladies to latch onto, and be diehard fans of both. I would hope that we see change in the future so that the game can progress by means of innovative, forward planning and thinking, why, so that main stream America can know exactly who these superstars on the race track are and therefore giving the game the chance to not only be known as the “sport of kings” but the “Sport of the people”.

Statement on the passing of Jess Jackson

2011-04-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Reading the words "Jess Jackson dead at 81" stopped me in my tracks this morning. As a huge fan of his race horses, his attitude towards the game and the ambitiousness he showed in campaigning his horses to be the best horses on the planet, it hurt to consider the fact that he is no longer with us. My thoughts, very selfish indeed, at first then were diverted to his family, Barbara Banke, his children, friends and acquaintances who knew this man all are in pain due to his passing. Jess Jackson campaigned 2-time Horse of the Year Curlin, and the 2009, 3-year old filly champion and Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra. Many questioned his decisions, but Jackson always put the welfare of his horses and the fans first. Allowing fans at numerous venues to see his horses up front, taking on challenges that included running his horses on turf, and synthetics that they were not accustomed to and even taking Curlin to Dubai, this showed him to be a true sportsman. Taking chances, and enjoying watching his horses develop into champions. This attitude towards competition will be missed.

Rest In Peace Mr. Jess Jackson:

My sincerest condolences go out to Barbara Banke, the rest of the Jackson StoneStreet family, friends and employees of this great man. From the very beginning Mr. Jackson was a throwback to the old school owners that said: “My horse is faster than yours”. The confidence he showed in campaigning his charges to be a champion race horse no matter the gender is something that will never be forgotten and will go down in Horse Racing lore. Imagine a filly taking on males 3 times during the sophomore season. Imagine an owner allowing the fans to vote on the next start for his horse, imagine the owner of a Horse Of the Year bringing the horse back for another year. These things are unfounded, but the norm for such an ambitious, courageous man, who by means of his stature brought fans back to the game like we’ve never seen before. As a horse racing fan, and as a human being, I am very saddened to hear of Mr. Jackson’s passing. And more importantly as a family man, prayers go out to his family due to grieving his passing. You’re sportsmanship and ambitiousness will be sorely missed Mr. Jackson. Rest In Peace.

The Triple Crown Trail/Train Wreck

2011-04-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Normally the trail to the Triple Crown gives us exciting finishes in the top prep races run throughout the early portion of the winter/spring. This years renewal of the preps for the Triple Crown has done just the opposite. Some say that this is the worst crop of 3 year olds since 2008 when Big Brown won the Derby from the 20 post, I would tend to agree that these colts are at least that mediocre, and one of the worst groups of 3 yr olds we’ve seen in quite some time. Some say run a filly in the Derby, their times are very similar, as a matter of fact R Heat Lightening ran her Oaks Prep a full second faster than Dialed In in the Florida Derby 24 hours later. The banter for a filly to run in the Derby is legitimate, and two that I think would stand a fantastic chance of doing well are Zazu and Joyful Victory. Both are horses that relax and rate and would not find much trouble running past this group of Grade III 3 year olds.

Here are a few topics that really matter this time of year when it comes to dealing with those who should be considered as Contenders compared to Pretenders.

“Consider the times” – some people want to throw out times, especially when their favorite horse wins a race in a mediocre time or is just simply a slow horse, Dialed In falls into this category, the fact that Nick Zito is able to sell a dime store horse for a million dollar price to some on these blogs and horse racing fans in general gives indication that more and more are thinking with their hearts and not their heads. Closing the final 1/8th of a mile in almost 14 seconds took me off this horses band wagon, and well actually it should have knocked the wheels off the band wagon. Going forward some thought that Zito would crank the horse to get him ready for the Derby, if the 4f breeze in and uninspiring :49 gives you indication of being cranked, please feel free to lower his odds to 2-1 come post time. The objective handicapper would not take that chance.

“Consider the Conditioning”- humans make mistakes, but underestimating the movement forward of 3 year olds this time of year by Todd Pletcher (oh yeah an eclipse award winning trainer) and running his horse short in the Wood Memorial off a series of slow works that gave no indication of building a foundation, and then the quirky prep schedule that put Uncle MO on target to contest another 8.5f race impressively, well words can’t describe the disappointment of watching this horse struggle home the final ¼ mile in the Wood. The horse was short, that is all there was to it, when breaking the gates did he break like a horse with a GI issue, excuses of that nature don’t fly with me when dealing with horses that are raked with a fine tooth comb almost every day of their lives, can he bounce back, maybe, is that likely, absolutely not, his best bet is to look for 9f races down the line to try to garner 3 year old honors. Right now ArchArchArch leads in that category with at least 2 Graded stakes win.

“Consider the pedigree” The factor ran to his pedigree on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, breaking sharp but being out footed to the lead by a couple of horses that were better out of the gate, he was in trouble early, and he didn’t like taking dirt and he didn’t like have to rate with a hold on him, these things show up when a sprinter with the need to lead type running style has to take back for the first time, he resented other horses being beside and in front of him, when they hit the stretch he ranged up and then he spit the bit, not sure if that signals good things to come for this horse at a route of ground but I would tend to say no. What does he have, he does possess amazing speed that he can carry about a mile or so, and so leave him at that, let him take on Goldikova in the BC Mile, or maybe look at the Met Mile and other prestigious races. Be smart and take care of your horse, take a page from the connections of Turbulent Descent, they recognized that 9f was asking too much of their filly and took her back to sprints, there is nothing at all wrong with that. Some just have the Derby Fever and can’t leave well enough alone.

Lastly “Consider the Excuse or Excuses” There are plenty of them out there, what will you do when your horse loses. Find a vet that will validate (1) a small health concern, don’t step up to the plate and say in all honesty “I had him short today”, (2) he’s not cranked, that was the excuse for Dialed In running so slow in the Fl Derby, (3) Equipment Change, anyone ever heard of “If it aint broke don’t fix it” adding blinkers, removing blinkers, figure Eight, I mean what else would we need to do to see if we can’t get the horse to run faster. Resorting to these measures says that something isn’t right, but then when the horse resents it and throws in a clunker you want to go back to square 1, for what reason, I guess because you want a result like the one you received in the Gotham when a horse like Stay Thirsty wins by 4 lengths. “Displaced Palate” – probably legitimate, but you never know, saving face with that one in terms of The Factor is certainly not needed, he’s respected and always will be so hopefully they will get that fixed and Garcia will not be “Grabbing a hold of the horse” in the future so he can run his race. (4) Injuries have taken their toll on the Graded Earnings list. Tapizar, Clubhouse Ride, Permier Pegasus, Author’s Tale, boys of Tosconova , there are others I may be missing but these things happen, for some reason over half mentioned on this list come from California, why is that, why can’t they get their track right to stop the injuries. Hopefully there will be a fix soon, but the Derby Trail is affected by defections like this and its sad to see for these connections.

The Derby being wide open is an understatement, never before have we seen it like this, with such a group of inconsistent, sometimes slow horses, hopefully someone will emerge, and I see that horse being Nehro. Sleep on him if you want. He wants 10f and will get it on May 7. You heard it here.

2011 Apple Blossom Champion - Havre De Grace

2011-04-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

http://s1129.photobucket.com/albums/m506/dubby300/

Turning for home, things hadnt panned out as the connections of Fox Hill Farm had quite expected. Pacesetter Absinthe Minded doddled through timid fractions of 23.90 seconds for the opening quarter, 47.92 for the half-mile, and 1:11.99 for six furlongs. Havre de Grace began to advance approaching the final turn, moved to third in the upper stretch, then put in a determined bid to catch Switch, who had taken the lead an eighth of a mile from home. The fillies finished fast, with Havre de Grace, who was ridden by Ramon Dominguez, covering the mile and a sixteenth in a strong 1:42.19. The fury of her finishing kick can be summed up in one word, "Amazing" closing her final 1/16th of a mile in under 6 seconds as stated by Larry Jones during the winners circle presentation, even Jones himself was surprised and amazing by his fillies' ability to run down dual Grade 1 winner Switch, Havre de Grace closed with a fury—sprinting the last 1/16 in 5.94 seconds. "The first part was a little slower that I thought maybe it would be," said Larry Jones, who trains Havre de Grace for Fox Hill Farm. "The only concern I had was maybe they weren't going fast enough with the lengths she had to make up. "She had to make up four on Switch and that's something you don't like to give away. She's not an easy horse to run down. I watched Zenyatta almost not run her down last year. But she responded and went well and Ramon said she galloped out real well." The win was a significant one for Havre de Grace, who had placed in a handful of Grade 1 races last year. The year-end goal for her is a return trip to the Breeders' Cup, said Jones. Last year, she ran third in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. In her first start since that race, Havre de Grace won last month's Grade 3 Azeri at Oaklawn with a Beyer Figure of 105. Jones said one other probable objective for Havre de Grace is the Delaware Handicap, but that the filly would dictate if they were to target that race after such an impressive performance at the Hot Springs, Ar oval today.. She has now won 5 of 10 starts and $1,263,175. Prior ito the Apple Blossom, her biggest win had come in the Grade 2 Fitz Dixon Cotillion at Parx Racing, when she edged eventual champion Blind Luck. Havre de Grace staked her place atop the older female division a division stocked full of highly regarded fillies and mares, including Blind Luck, Switch, Unrivaled Belle and Life at Ten. The matchups that are likely for the duration of the year should make for some interesting showdowns. Oaklawn's Racing Festival of the South The racing festival of the south ends tomorrow at Oaklawn Park with the running of the 75th Arkansas Derby the marquee race of the Oaklawn meet. The Factor is expected to be a major factor on the final day of Oaklawn Park’s 49-day live season. The Factor was installed as the 7-5 program favorite Wednesday morning for Saturday’s $1 million Grade I Arkansas Derby at 1 1/8 miles. Probable post time for the 75th Arkansas Derby, the 11th of 12 live races, is 5:58 p.m. Racing will begin at noon Saturday, with the infield scheduled to be open. The Factor, a gray speedster based in Southern California with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, is scheduled to break from post 3 under Martin Garcia and carry equal top weight of 122 pounds underallowance conditions of the Arkansas Derby. All nonstakes winners will carry 118 pounds. As expected, 13 horses were entered Wednesday. The Factor, who arrived Tuesday morning on a flight originating from southern California, will try to become the eighth program favorite since 2000 to win the Arkansas Derby. The race should set up to be quite speedy on the front end with the Todd Pletcher Rabbit, Dance City breaking from the 9 post, Said Todd Pletcher: “He’s kind of a free-running horse with natural speed and we’ll let him place himself forwardly,” said the horse’s trainer, Todd Pletcher. “We don’t plan to let The Factor walk the dog.” In other words for those that dont get what Pletcher is saying, Dance City will be the rabbit that goes with the Factor to keep him honest on the front end to set things up for Brethren and the other closers that will be coming. This will be a stern test for the Factor to see if he can carry that speed under pressure 9 furlongs against legitimate competition. With the loss of Uncle Mo in the Wood a win by the Factor would assure Baffert of Morning Line favortism going forward to the Kentucky Derby.

Havre De Grace

2011-03-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

The 2011 debut of Havre de Grace was one to remember for a very long time. The filly put on a show and set a stakes record in route to a 4 length victory over 2011 3 year old champion Blind Luck. The filly looks to be primed to put in a stellar campaign. Gracie as she is known around the barn sat 4th off of legitimate fractions set by Absenthe Minded, turning for home Gracie made her winning move on the far turn and came home under a virtual handride by Ramon Dominguez in 1:42.02. In speaking with larry jones afterwards the conditioner for Fox Hill Farm and Rick Porter, Jones was surprised by the stakes record. But when looking at the way in which the filly dispatched of her work mate Payton D'oro in a work out last week, Jones knew the filly would be ready to fire her best effort.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60873756@N03/

The Truth about HOY - it may shock you Pt. 1

2010-12-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

Let me get this straight, I am being called a hater because I state facts (which I believe is part of my constitutional right as a citizen) that some of you tend to ignore. Sorry but up until Sunday Zenyatta had beaten Zero Grade 1 winners in a race in which she won. Fact, if it hurts your feelings that the horse actually has weaknesses, well grow up and deal with it, they are there for all to see, 1 more fact, she never won a race in grade 1 competition against males on dirt. Fact not an opinion. Fact she never faced a competitive field of runners - plural in a race from January to October of the year. fact, she stepped up in class 2 out of 20 races and lost one of those. I apologize for not currently having my head so far up her A** that I can find objectivity. No one can argue for her HOY selection due to what occurred on the race track. Here is what you want to talk about: Drum Roll for the Top Ten reasons Zenyatta is HOY:
10. She drew fans to the game - that’s opinion
9. Her dance is cute - opinion
8. She has such personality – opinion
7. She won 19 races in a row - HOY is a 1 year award
6. Broke the all time money earning record for f/m- HOY 1 year award
5. She really deserves it so give it to her – LOL
4. She spotted the field many lengths in the BCC and almost won - well Blame was tactical and did win.
3 She would have won the big 4 races in Cali and other prestigious races had she entered - The ducked those races
2. She defeated Switch who won a grade 1 - Yes in a sprint and for someone to feel the need to post an article about that touting the 3 year old switch as her claim to fame in 2010, well that’s embarrassing.
#1 - Jerry Moss really wants the award so just give it to him - Well other connections actually campaign their horses as if they are champion horses and not to beat allowance quality fillies in the lowest quality races to be found in Cali while ducking every race of insignificance along the way in an effort to take down "Pepper's Pride".

If stating facts and mentioning weaknesses in her resume for 2010 that others, including paid writers for horse racing publications seem to want ot brush aside is hating, put me down as a hater, "Of Her Connections" the cowards that push the buttons, but don’t try to make me out to be a villain with regards to the horse. She ran at my home track back in 08 in the Apple blossom (way before the vast majority of you band wagon jumpers got on board) I was there that day and taunted her as possibly the second coming. Blame (no pun intended) Jerry Moss and his trainer for Lowering the bar for this mare and making her run against the Emmy Darlings of the world over and over again. (Lets make it clear when someone says that a man that has 14 wins in the year 2010 and ranks 31st on the money earnings list should be voted eclipse award winning trainer, there is something wrong with that picture) And when a horse faces 159 horses and only 23 of them are Grade 1 quality well You do the math I’m just saying.
Part 2 will be released 12/29/2010 at 7:00 pm

My Vote For Horse of the Year - BLAME

2010-11-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Who deserves Horse of the Year?

There are 3 horses that would be in the discussion for Horse of the year in my view.
Goldikova 5 out of 6 wins in 2010 all Group 1 and mostly against males BC Mile winner
Uncle Mo - 3 for 3, 2 Grade 1 wins and BC Juvi winner
Blame - 4 out of 5 wins, 3 Grade 1 and Breeders Cup Classic winner

What words do you use to describe Goldikova - Magnificent, Awesome, incredible, stunning, unbelievable, wonderful, astounding, awe-inspiring, brilliant, excellent, fabulous, fantastic, outstanding, phenomenal, remarkable, sensational, stupendous, super, superb, terrific, tremendous, wondrous.
In an article written by Alan Shuback, in the drf, he goes on to list her 2010 accomplishments, in her four Group 1 victories in Europe and her Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile triumph, Goldikova was beating 16 winners of 37 Group or Grade 1 races. The overall Group/Grade 1 record of her competition in those five races is 157-37-25-19. In the Mile, she was beating four winners of nine Group or Grade 1 races at a mile on turf. When you think about what it means for a filly to continuously face male after male and defeat them handily without ever really being all out in her races that shows the type of athlete that Goldikova is, she is simply AMAZING.
The fact that she only raced once in the U.S. is considered reason to not give her consideration for Horse of the Year, but if Conduit can come over and win the BC Turf and get an award in 2008 at the eclipse then Goldikova should get consideration also.
Uncle Mo is a most appealing choice for Horse of the Year consideration due to being one of the few undefeated horses in training right now after facing stiff competition throughout the year, winning the Champagne and the Breeders Cup Classic is stuff of legends as a two year old, both prestigious races and at the top of the heap for 2 year old colts. Facing and defeating 5 grade 1 winners in the BC Juvi validates this horse as a very impressive colt and he dispatched of these colts with ease. He is clearly a viable candidate for HOY, but unfortunately will not get a large number of votes.
Blame is the most likely winner of the Horse of the Year award, by merit of wins in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster, the Whitney Handicap and a runner up finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and winning the Breeders cup Classic. His 4 for 5 record and winning of 3 Grade 1 races in Open company and at the Highest possible level of horse racing is an amazing record when facing horses like Quality Road, Looking at Lucky, Haynesfield and Paddy O'Prado. Blame was place in difficult spot after difficult spot in 2010 and took on all comers and kept winning Grade 1 races that actually meant something on the National Scene. His record stands for itself and he should win the Horse of the Year award hands down without any issue. Without any emotion being added due to the fact that one horse is more popular Blame will be an easy winner of the Award, but unfortunately each voter will have his or her own view of the award. Winning the biggest race of the year is important as the connections of a number of horses view the Breeders Cup as the beginning and the end of the racing season and therefore winning the Classic is the highest honor other than winning the Kentucky Derby. . The horses that were all considered in contention for Horse of the Year did nothing to separate themselves from the pack up until Nov 6th when Blame hit the wire first in the Breeders Cup Classic. Some argued that winning insignificant races in 2009 up until the Breeders Cup would guarantee a horse the Horse of the Year vote, unfortunately that was an incorrect view and thankfully the voters voted for the horse that has the most ambitious year of racing and won the most important races in the calendar year. In 2010 how do you not award a horse that won significant races all year long, at Churchill and Saratoga and then the Breeders Cup Classic and he doesn’t deserve Horse of the Year. That’s called hypocritical and thankfully those with votes have time to take a look at the full year and be objective about the vote.
When the connections of one horse state that they are not going to “chase Horse of the year” and show it by an uninspiring, unimaginative campaign then why on earth would anyone want to “Give” Horse of the year to the connections that make such a statement. Then to do an about face in October and beg for the award after doing nothing all year long to garner the award seems very unsportsmanlike. But that’s what you can expect from those that put all their eggs in one basket and then lose. Again taking all things into account you can easily see that Blame alone stands out as Horse of the Year.

John Sheriffs points fingers - but who are "THEY"

2010-10-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

John Sheriffs finally sat down and took questions from a group of reporters at a media room at Keeneland race course, I wanted to take a moment to focus on a couple of questions and answers that he gave regarding his horse and decisions that were made with regards to her career and campaign.

On Zenyatta’s 2010 campaign, which was different than the one the Mosses talked about when they decided to keep her in training: “I think (the Mosses’ comments) were a little bit misinterpreted because we race in California, which is on the other side of the Rockies. So it’s a little different shipping around California than it is on the East Coast. We wanted to have the opportunity to let other people see her; which was obviously one of the reasons we went to Oaklawn Park with her. But when you have to decide where to go again, it’s tough to turn down a grade I race and take her somewhere else when California supports her and stables her and takes care of her.”

On whether he had second thoughts at scratching her from the Louisville Distaff (gr. II) last year at Churchill because of rain: “No, I didn’t have any second thoughts. It was a tough decision to make. I didn’t feel I should make the decision on my own. So at 10 o’clock that morning I went out there myself and I said if they open the track just a little bit I’d run her. But they went out and left it sealed and I didn’t know if they were exactly concerned about the horses because they just wanted to make sure the track is fast. All they had to do was just run the harrows over it a little bit to let a little air in it and I would have run her.”
It is amazing to see this man take a shot at Churchill downs like that, I believe this is classless and bush league in the best sense of the word. There are a number of trainers out there that if they had made this observation would have been berated, but i've seen people on blogs and message boards look at this comment and make statements like they respect him even more. To imply that the track is not looking out for the best interest of the horse, and those connections that ran their horses on the sealed track were not looking out for the best interest of their horse is a real slap in the face, but what seemingly is an immature person.

Let me say this, Mr. Sheriffs mentions they, and unfortunately there is a "They" that people should be pointing fingers at and the they would be the connections of this mare, viewed as overrated by many, and the second coming of Secretariat by others, the problem though is that not many people know of her, and even less care about her or horse racing or anything going on with or affiliated with the sport. Her connections are Cowards, and with the cowardice campaigning of the mare, put themselves and the industry as you say in this position. She had a chance to be main stream by racing against Rachel but they ran from Rachel in 2009 like the plague. In June on the day of the Mother Goose Moss was quoted as saying they were shipping Zenyatta east, unfortunately after seeing Rachel demolish that field in record fashion twice over, Moss ducked tail and decided the very next day to announce that they would stay in Cali. Her fans, her detractors, the media, everyone begged and pleaded with Mr. Moss to ship her to run in venues that would allow others to see her, they passed on races at Saratoga, Belmont, Monmouth, & Churchill and also turned down an invitation to go run on her favorite synthetic surface in Dubai. So the "They" would be Jerry Moss and John Sheriffs that caused this "Missed Opportunity". Listen carefully, "It was more important to the connections of this great mare to chase Pepper's Pride's win streak record" that is and was the one and only motivation when she hit 12 or 13 wins. HOY was secondary, they in 08 and 09 begged for the award but didn't deserve it by means of the campaign, and in 2010 have done the same thing, run an allowance quality campaign, and then stand in front of the media and say no matter what she should get HOY for her career accomplishments. Sad, and lacking of class in the worst way, taking shots at Churchill downs management and track staff because they wouldn't follow Sheriffs directions about how to deal with their track. Classless. And let me also chime in "Kudos" to the management or whomever it was that Sheriffs called at NYRA and asked about the stall application process, from what I hear he was advised that the application was online, to download and print it and mail it in. Wonderful to hear, the West Coast Hype horse and her connections want preferential treatment at all times, and have done nothing for the industry, or east coast racing. Moss has turned his nose and flipped the one finger salute to everything going on east of the Mississippi, therefore let the same thing occur when you want to be treated like you are better than everyone else. You can't ship your horse why, well one day you make a statement that Zenyatta ships perfectly, but when a race comes up that she can run in the excuse is that she gets dehydrated when she ships. WOW really now.

The only "They" that needs to be blamed is Moss and Sheriffs, they ducked and dodged races that would have put her on the map nationally. If they had run in races worthy of national attention maybe the viewing of the BC in 09 wouldn't have been an all time low of a .68 share, now compare that to the 17 share for the Preakness Rachel won. Pathetic, but they brought it upon themselves, remember the quotes earlier this year "we cant fly over the rockies, we can't climb the highest mountain, we have to play at home once in a while, and the best of all, she has nothing left to prove." I guess racing at home 17/19 times was once in a while and they went overboard with it, that's why again people in other parts of the country don't know her and really don't care. Mr. Moss and Mr. Sheriffs You, and you alone are the "Theys", maybe you should have shown faith and confidence in your great horse, enough to allow her the opportunity to prove herself from January - October, or maybe you shouldnt have ducked races at her preferred distance run on the same day as a race you entered her in that was very much shorter than her best trip, or maybe you'll learn from all your mistakes with your next big horse, and maybe one day actually be deserving of Horse of the Year and not have to beg for it. :)

Breeders Cup Breakdown

2010-10-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Breakdown of the BC Juvenile

1. Uncle Mo- Pedigree:Indian Charlie - Playa Maya by Arch
Maiden - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zS2VihuZS8
Champagne- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UdzmuG8moI
Full Profile and Race videos - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Uncle_Mo

2. Boys of Tosconova - Pedigree Officer - Little Bonnet by Coronado's Quest
Maiden - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNBMCJnT1CM
Hopeful - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww8abRzZ7W0&feature=related
Full profile and Race videos - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Boys_At_Tosconova

3. Jaycito - Pedigree Victory Gallop - Night Edition by Ascot Knight
Norfolk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIgGWAEp90
Full Profile and Race videos - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Jaycito

4. J P's Gusto - pedigree Successful Appeal - Call Her Magic by Caller I D
Del Mar Futurity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYRw7xnIJQA
Full Profile and Race videos - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/J_Ps_Gusto

5. Stay Thirsty - Pedigree Bernardini - Marozia by Storm Bird
http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Stay_Thirsty

6. Pathfork - Pedigree - Distorted Humor - Visions Of Clarity by Sadler's Wells
Full Profile and Race Videos - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Pathfork

7. Wine Police - Pedigree - Speightstown - Deputy Cures Blues by War Deputy
Full Profile and race Video - http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Wine_Police

Rachel, The Breeders Cup, Zenyatta and East & West Coast Peace

2010-10-08T11:49:00.001-07:00

We only have a month left in this racing season that means something, yes the clark is later in the year but who really cares about that. Some people are objective and real lovers of the game of horse racing and the athletes that provide us the thrills that we see all year long and certainly what we'll see in November.
I for one will be there in my Rachel gear, but rooting on all of my Favs, Looking at Lucky, Quality Road, Blame, and yes although she's not my absolute fav horse, Zenyatta, because they will be doing what they love most and thats running. If Zenyatta wins there will be debate, if she loses there will be debate. I have been sucked into the constant bickering and going back and forth about the two great horses, both with different owners, both campaigned quite differently, but the major problem is that they never met, which honestly bodes well or better for both sides, no one has the upper hand in an one on one meeting.
Some say Raitch would have won, Some say Zen would have won, no one knows that.
We do know for a fact Raitch is the 2009 HOY, we know that Zen is undefeated, we know they both have beaten the best males of their generation that were running at some point.
What we need to do now is take a step back, be objective about one thing, thats the next few weeks and hoping that everyone is able to come out of their works and their travels to Kentucky Safely. All the rest of it doesnt matter at this point. When they turn for home I will root for my favs, but I'll also root for Zen to do something historic, because I like to be present during history making events. Thats why i was there for the Woodward, because that was history, I will be there on BC day both days to witness the coronation of a worthy BC Classic winner, not on a false questioned surface that has been down for 5 years or less, but on a legit surface that plays to all of the horses strengths, QR's Speed and pure brilliance, Looking at Lucky's pure grit determination and brilliance, Blames strong closing kick and brilliance, and Zen's even stronger closing kick and Brilliance from probably even further back.
Nothing that happens now or happened this year could change the love and admiration that I feel towards Rachel Alexandra, Nothing that can or does happen can change the respect that I have and we should all have towards the undefeated record of Zenyatta, who has defeated every horse that her connections has entered her to run against. Could that route have been different, yes certainly, thats not for debate because no one but Jerry Moss wrote that 60,000 check to pay for a mare that has skin issues that no one else seemed to want.
Loving horse racing is about the horse, not who is right and wrong, or better at handicapping, no one cares about that because no one affects the amount of money going in the others bank accts, but what we can agree on is that the BC is going to be an exciting event, one that will be remembered for a very long time for a strong field of competitors from the first gate break to the hitting of the wire in the Classic. There will be some history made, some horses going for history and some horses looking to make a name. Instead of bickering and arguing and making up stories and scenerios, lets now focus on the positives, Zen still running, Blame still running, QR and L@L still running, Goldikova coming, and possibly Work Force, lets embrace these things as a horse racing world and forget the East Coast West Coast battles and wars for a while and enjoy our favs, root for them and be respectful of horse, connections and ever horse racing lover, and try to find a way to enjoy and relish every moment that we have left in 2010, right around the corner we'll have a major lull with No grade 1 races or anything of mention going on.
I hope we can find a way to turn the page and go forward.
Just some things to ponder.

Zenyatta Overrated, Watch this Video

2010-08-17T15:43:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/v/qGlrdnD_A0A?fs=1&hl=en_US

I happen to agree, I hate to say it but it is what it is. Listen to this guy and let me know what you think.

If you'll recall i posted an article back in Nov 08. Please re read the article

Does the level of competition have an effect on Horse of the Year voting?

There has been a great deal of debate about the level of competition that both Horse of the Year candidates faced. The body of work is very important when trying to understand the criteria that a voter should use to place a vote for Horse of the Year. Lets Break down the level of competition for each of the candidates: Zenyatta raced 7 times this year. 3 times in Grade 2 races, and 4 times in Grade 1 level races. In the El Elcino Stakes, a Grade 2 race, she faced 1 Grade 1 horse, Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Romance is Diane, Dawn after Dawn, Indescribable, and Fleet Caroline. In the Apple Blossom she faced 1 Grade 1 horse, Ginger Punch. The rest of the field was made up of Brownie Points, Lemon Drop Mom, Clever Strike, and Kettleoneup. In the Milady H, Zenyatta raced against Santa Teresita, Kris’ Sis, Romance is Diane & Double Trouble. In this Grade 2 race there were no grade 1 stakes winners. In the Vanity H, she faced 1 Grade 1 horse again in Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Silver Swallow Silver Z, Sealy Hill, Fleetheart and andmoreagain. In the Clement L. Hirsch Zenyatta faced 1 Grade 1 winner again in Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Model, Romance is Diane West Coast Swing, Silver Swallow, Silver Z, and Dawn after Dawn. In the Lady’s Secret, Zenyatta faced 1 Grade 1 winner in Hystericalady. The rest of the field included Santa Teresita and Super Freaky. And in the Ladies Classic, Zenyatta faced 5 Grade 1 winners, Cocoa Beach, Music Note, Carriage Trail, Hystericalady and Ginger Punch. The rest of the field included Santa Teresita and Bear now. So in 7 races Zenyatta faced 37 other mares of which 6 were grade 1 winners. Curlin raced 7 times this year. 6 Times in Grade 1 level races. In the Jaguar Trophy he faced no grade 1 winners. In the Dubai World Cup Curlin faced 5 Grade 1 winners in Great Hunter, Happy Boy, Premium Tap, Vermillion and Well Armed. The rest of the field included Gloria De Campeao, Sway Yed, Lucky Find, Jalil and Kocab. In the Stephen Foster Curlin faced 2 Grade 1 winners in Einstein and Brass Hat. The rest of the field included Barcola, Grasshopper, Jonesboro, Delightful Kiss, Sam P High Blues and Red Rock Creek. In the Man O’ War Curlin faced 3 Grade 1 winners in Red Rocks, Better Talk Now and Grand Couturier. The other starters were Mission Approved, True Cause, and Sudan. In the Woodward Curlin faced 1 Grade 1 winner in Divine Park, the rest of the field included Past the Point, Wandering Boy, A.P.Arrow, Loose Leaf, and Out of Control. In the JCGC he faced no Grade 1 winners in a field that included 7 others. And in the B.C. Classic Curlin faced 7 Grade 1 winners. The other starters were Smooth Air, Fairbanks and Casino Drive. Curlin faced 55 horses this year of which 18 of these horses were Grade 1 quality. So to keep it quite short, if the body of work does have anything to do with Horse of the year voting and I believe it does this category goes directly to Curlin, hands down, he faced far better competition. Just a point to keep in mind.

Goldikova Loses, Yet more impressive than "ANY" Zenyatta Win

2010-08-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

In all seriousness, as a true fan of horse racing, and a fan of watching a true champion give effort in a race, having to watch Goldikova lose her race today at Deauville was very conflicting. You never want to see a champion lose a race, but when that champion faces the best there is to offer after running in a supremely impressive and competitive campaign thus far, you have to smile and think to yourself, “This is what defines a Champion race horse”, not a race mare, but a race horse.

Goldikova came into this race on August 15th, with a pretty quick turnaround from her last race which she ran on August 1st. Fact is Goldikova was up against it today, and I am sure this caused her connections to think twice about running, but when you are confident in your charge, in the fact that she is a champion proven over and over again there was no doubt that she would represent herself well. In this race she was up against it on a number of different accounts, the going was softer than she prefers, one of her competitors was very fresh, and she was coming back off less than 2 weeks rest. All of these things makes her performance so spectacular, hitting the top of the stretch Goldikova’s normal acceleration didn’t show up in all its regular routine glory, she quickened but it just wasn’t the Goldi we were or are used to, Makfi & Paco Boy both went by the mare, who decided at that time to really show her championship resolve, beaten and with every right to slow down, what did Goldi do, she quickened again, made up ground on Paco Boy and ran a fabulous final furlong to nab 2nd place.Yes Makfi was the best horse on the day, the connections made no excuses, as classy connections don’t, but although disappointed, Goldikova fans have even more reason to love this mare ever more.

Watching her get passed in the stretch is not something that many of us are accustomed to seeing, a normal horse, even a very good horse would usually take that last 1/8th of a mile easy, but Goldikova dug deep and put forth the effort needed to get her second place finish. This is what makes and defines a champion, facing a number of Group 1 or Grade 1 winners, and giving her “ALL” in a race defines what a champion race horse is. Her connections don’t duck competition and place her in filly and mare events. They don’t take on horses that previously ran in the optional claimer ranks, grade III allowance races, to be assured of an easy win “with her ears pricked” this is not what her connections want to see as they are true sports man, they help to define what championship horse racing is.Sadly on our west coast we have a horse that is undefeated with plenty of *** by the name of that horse, plenty of debate about even how “good” the horse really is considering the path of the absolute least resistance that her connections are consistently pointing her to. This mare has not in her career faced the adversity that Goldi faced in just this one race. Never ran on a off surface that she didn’t prefer due to weather conditions, never faced a competitor at the Grade 1 level that had an obvious advantage of being a fresher horse, and NEVER EVER would this mare be run back in less than a 30 day span.What are we to take away from this. There is a vast difference in the two mares and how they are campaigned? One horse is a “Proven” consistently beating grade or group 1 horses in grade or group 1 company or competition. Never ducking and never scratching due to rain, a horse that doesn’t run to the filly and mare division to hide from competition in the majority of her races. These traits can be attributed to the connections yes. But there is a huge difference in what the fans of these two mares can say.

For Goldi, there should be no doubters or people questioning her campaign, for the other mare, the questions will persist basically forever. How good could she have been if tested during the season of racing alas just 1 race? That does not a champion prove, imagine Goldi taking on fillies and mares all year long and coming over and winning the BC, people would say it’s unfair due to the fact that she was so much better than her division and should have stepped up. Does this sound familiar, no hatred towards either horse or any horse for that matter, but the connections are who cripple the horse, I am sure if they could speak they would say, let me run against the best, the *** are not what they would want to see by their race names, they are thoroughbreds and competitive. It’s very sad that an undefeated record could ruin the state of competition during the season of horse racing and try to elevate the BC to status that is undeserving.Let me end by saying that I applaud the connections of Rail Trip, Looking At Lucky, Blind Luck and others that have come East to run in races that are nationally significant. Kudos to the connections of Quality Road and Blame, Devil May Care and Blind Luck Again. But also double kudos to the connections of Blind Luck, shipping her for the 4th time this year for the Alabama to have a face off of the monsters in the 3yr old filly and mare division. Coming to Arkansas, Kentucky, Delaware and now New York, shows you that any excuses that other connections make are futile. Excuses like the horse doesn’t ship well, the Rocky Mountains are too high, the horse lost weight last time he or she shipped, all of these are embarrassing.
All horses’ ship and all horses are affected in one way or another, some more than others, therefore you allow the horse to acclimate to these issues. First and foremost though it helps to not be so conservative with the horse in the first place to never ship the horse out of its home state for the first two years of its career. Again it is sad that the horse will always be questioned no matter the results of the BCClassic. Another year of soft cream puff competition to come into 1 race the freshest is something that we call “Cowardice”. I implore the connections in the industry going forward to keep the BC in perspective, yes it’s wonderful to win the big race but there are other big races that take place at the Grade 1 level each year nationally.

It is official, Rachel to try 10 Panels in the Aug 29th, Personal Ensign

2010-07-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

Jess Jackson co owner of the four year old Rachel Alexandra has confirmed that the 2009 Horse of the Year and winner of the prestegious Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course will contest the 1 1/4 mile Personal Ensign.

Jackson said in a press release that: "Rachel feels very much at home amoung the great Saratoga fans, its a historic race, named after a great champion. The timing is right for Rachel. She's been coming back into her stride and this will help her prepare for the rest of her campaign and the Breeders' Cup later this year."

Rachel will be making her first start at 1 1/4 miles in the Personal Ensign. The longest race Rachel Alexandra most recently competed in was the 1 3/16 mile BlackBerry Preakness Stakes, which she won by 1 length. She will be returning to the scene of her season ending triumph over older males in the Woodward Stakes last September.

*As reported by Thoroughbredtimes*

Rachel has Rolled into Monmouth Park

2010-07-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

Following an early morning departure from Saratoga, Rachel Alexandra arrived by van at around 9 a.m. Tuesday at Monmouth Park, where she is to run in Saturday's $400,000 Lady's Secret Stakes.
Trainer Steve Asmussen, who was at Saratoga Tuesday, said he is following the "same routine" he used last summer when Rachel Alexandra won the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth. She had her final workout at Saratoga before shipping to Monmouth. On Monday, Rachel Alexandra breezed four furlongs in 49.60 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.
"She left on Tuesday after her work on Monday, it worked out for her really well," said Asmussen, who plans to leave for Monmouth following Friday's opening-day card at the Spa.
Rachel Alexandra was accompanied by assistant trainer Scott Blasi, who said the reigning Horse of the Year shipped in fine.
Asmussen said Rachel Alexandra would school in the Monmouth Park paddock sometime during Friday's races.
Post positions for the Lady's Secret will be drawn on Wednesday. A field of five or six is expected.

The Forgotten Filly & Mare

2010-05-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Rachel and Zenyatta, Zenyatta and Rachel, some all Rachel, some all Zenyatta. It makes no matter who your favorite lady is there are other ladies out there that are training forwardly and looking forward to the rest of the year. The attention that both of the superstars get is well deserved but the connections of these other fillies and mares are looking forward to doing some spoiling and making a name for their fillies also.

These fillies and mares are the Forgotten Horses.

The forgotten horses right now are Careless Jewel & St. Trinians, thinking back to the last time we saw Careless Jewel on the track she was finishing up at the quarter pole after clicking off some fast fractions in the Ladies Classic at Santa Anita Park back in November during the running of the Breeders Cup.
The last time we saw St. Trinians she was running a respectable 6th in the Santa Anita Handicap considering the trip and the way she was pinched during the running of the race. What are these horses up to right now though you might ask? St. Trinians has been working consistently at Hollywood Park, she was given some time off after the Big Cap and has recorded works of
4/5 - 4f-51.20,
4/12 - 5f 1.03.80,
4/19 - 4f-50.80.
4/26 - 5f-1:02.20
5/3 - 5f-1:01.80
5/14 - 6f-1:13.60
5/24 -6f-1:13.40

Careless Jewel on the other hand had been working like a monster since being shipped from Palm Meadows to Keeneland her works since Feb 1st have been.
2/27 - 4f :50
3/5 - 5f 1:01.20
3/11 - 5f 1:01.40
3/19 - 5f 5f 1:00.60
4/1 – 6f 1.12.40
4/9 – 6f 1.11.00
4/17 – 5f 57.80
5/2 - 5f :58.80
5/9 - 1:11.20
She had seemed to be breathing fire and looking to do something serious here pretty soon, unfortunately she has run into a couple of set backs that caused her to miss the La Troinne and now the shuvee, I am hoping both come back to the track and run huge for the rest of the year.

It will be interesting to see the schedules that are planned out for the rest of the year for these contenders, these are very impressive horses who in any other year would be the focus on the horse racing world, unfortunately for the horse and the connections many feel that these don’t breath the same air as Rachel and Zenyatta . There are a number of races that could possibly be on the horizon:
La Troienne S.
Stephen Foster H.
Ogden Phipps H.
Ruffian H.
Whitney H.
Personal Ensign S.
Woodward S.

Hopefully we will see competitive races with the super stars taking steps up in class to possibly face males, and here's hoping that the 2 time eclipse winning mare out in Cali will be allowed to removed her head from the synthetic sand out there in Cali and run in a champion ship campaign.

2010 Apple Blossom Invitational

2010-02-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

Its is somewhat official that Oaklawn Park has been able to put together a match up pitting the 2009 Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra and the 2009 Champion Older Mare and undefeated Zenyatta in the 2010 edition of the Apple Blossom Invitational.

Charles Cella the President of Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, AR has verified that the connections of both mares have confirmed that they will meet for the first time on April 9th. The purse for the race has been increased from $500,000 to $5,000,000, and the length of the race has been increased from 1 1/16th mile to 1 1/8th mile.

The race was previously set up to be run on its original date of April 3rd, but the connections of Rachel Alexandra did not feel comfortable bringing her back with 3 weeks rest after her first races of the year. We have now received confirmation that Rachel Alexandra will make her 4 year old debut in the March 13th New Orleans Ladies at the Fairgrounds Race course in New Orleans Louisiana. The New Orleans Ladies is for fillies and mares at 1 1/16th on the main track.

The major question I have is why is Jackson allowing her to prep in a race that is non-graded and Zenyatta will race in a Grade 1 as her prep. Not the best decision in my opinion, as the Azeri at Oaklawn would be the perfect prep for her at Oaklawn and a Grade III event.

But as long as they make it to the starting gate together on April 9th, none of that makes any matter. Stay tuned for more updates in the future.

2010 Could we see a Rachel vs Zenyatta matchup after all?

2010-01-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

2010 could be a year that we wont soon forget. As reported by the Daily Racing Form, Zenyatta has had three recorded workouts since her win in the Breeders Cup Classic, her owner Jerry Moss was asked about her status and would not go on record as saying that she was officially retired at this moment.

Where could the two Horse of the Year candidates possibly meet, in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. This could be exciting folks. Stay tuned.

Saying farewell to an historic 2009, and Hello to what could be in 2010

2009-12-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

Saying farewell to an historic 2009, and Hello to what could be in 2010

By: Wesley D. White

What could you say about the year in horse racing that we have seen in 2009, from top to bottom, from the beginning to the end, we have seen some performances and some yearlong achievements that are second to none in this truly magnificent sport. First let me start by saying that in this post I will not weigh in on the HOY debate, as I do not have a vote and even if I did have a vote it would be a vote that I made privately due to the incredibly intense nature of the HOY voting between the horses that are in contention for this honor. Next let me say to the connections of the winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic, congratulations are in order, the owners stepped up on this championship day venue and placed their horses in ambitious spots and were rewarded with the types of races that will not soon be forgotten. Special kudos goes out to Zenyatta and Life is Sweet for putting on an absolute show, and putting their names down in the history books. Never to be forgotten are the trainer, John Sheriffs, and the Jockeys, Mike Smith & Garrett Gomez for great rides on both of these mares. The classic victory by Zenyatta is one for the ages, to beat the boys the way she did it was a remarkable feat and it really showed how classy a lady she really is.

Next let me say to the connections of Rachel Alexandra her owner, trainer and jockey. Thank You, Thank you for again for the 3^rd year in a row allowing your horse to prove its mettle on the track and not just once, but over and over again. In this age of paper races and imaginary fictitious races, I have to say that I am utterly impressed with the way that Mr. Jess Jackson handles his horses. He doesn’t allow his horses to be handled with the proverbial kid gloves, Mr. Jackson could have plotted out a course similar to that of other fillies and mares that run, and placed Rachel strategically in races like the Mother Goose, Alabama, Coaching Club American, Personal Ensign and then the Beldame, but that would have been boring, it would have been nice to see that she could beat the same fillies over and over and over again, but unless one of the fillies were to jump up and beat her and the type of rivalry developed that we had between Proud Spell and Music Note, Jackson would have been criticized for continuing to run in the same boring races throughout the year. Instead he took chances, he took chances that have never been taken before, and had the sense to realize that due to the fact that the filly had been running since February it was important to stop on her. Looking back at the last 12 months for Rachel running 10 times during that time took its toll and would have taken its toll on any horse male or female. I understand that some feel that he should have just continued to run her into the ground by going to the Breeders Cup. But the truth is extending her season another 2 months would have most likely been detrimental to her health. I enjoy that Jess Jackson challenges his horses I can only compare his sporting actions to those of the Europeans who run their fillies and mares against top tier male competition all year long. This is not seen in the U.S. as the many grade 1 races out there allow for the connections to pick and choose the easiest spots or the path of least resistance. Sad but true, and then at the end of the year there is a big push and marketing scheme by the connections and race tracks to lobby for these Eclipse votes. That does not impress and unfortunately leads to an award becoming political. So to the connections out there with competitive horses, please follow the lead of people like Rick Porter the Owner of Fox Hill Farm, Jess Jackson of Stone Street Stables, these men realize that a champion is made on the track, all year long, not by means of a piece of paper or an award.

Let’s not forget the other spectacular performances that we saw that day from Goldikova, Conduit, and Informed decision. First when you think about Goldikova and how this mare is being compared to Miesque, it really gives you an indication that she is something truly special, the way that she wins her races is something that leaves you astonished, because her closing kick is something we’ve not seen in quite a while, now I say that keeping in mind that I am not taking Zarkava into consideration. The reason well because we didn’t see Zarkava up front and personal; in my humble opinion, and I’ll only weigh in on this because for some reason in the horse racing circles, every horse that comes along and is undefeated or very impressive has to be compared to horses of the past. The problem I have with that is with regards to the fact that the respect that Zarkava was given was short lived. The very next year across the pond a colt by the name of Sea of Stars comes along and wins a number of Group 1 events and all of a sudden he is compared to the best, not the best in the last couple of years but the best ever. Now I watched both of these horses win the event, both Zarkava and Sea of Stars, but there is one difference, Zarkava brought such electricity to the race that I was up early watching the running of the race, bright eyed and bushy tailed, this year not so much, I watched the race hours later on YouTube. A filly running by colts from the back of the pack, a filly who faltered in the gate and broke extremely slow, a filly who because of the break was shuffled back to last at the start of the race and was pinned down on the rail the whole time and had to make an amazing run within the last 2 furlongs to win the race comfortably. There is not any amount of words that you can use to describe Zarkava, I for one wish that the Aga Khan would send her to Santa Anita last year. The problem again though is that the way that the Breeders Cup is view by the Europeans, they view the B.C. as second rate or lower tier. They feel that American horses do not deserve to be on the same turf as their horses. And they prove that every year by skipping the Breeders Cup.

Going back and considering the number of stellar performances by the fillies and mares that raced this year, what can you say? Rachel Alexandra, Ventura, Zenyatta, Goldikova, and now to hear that Vodka beat the boys in the Japan Cup. It really shows that there are some outstanding females out there showing they are champion caliber on the track. The connections again are to be applauded for allowing these ladies to do what they love to do most. Whenever these connections have stepped up and thought outside the box they did so with fillies and mares that were able to handle the stresses of facing males but doing so without putting them in races that might take too much out of them. No one wants to see a repeat of the Rags to Riches saga. Her performance against Curlin on Belmont day in 07 was magnificent, but if Pletcher could go back and see what that 12 furlongs took out of Rags to Riches and the rest of her career, maybe, just maybe he makes a different decision about that race. You do not want to put a horse’s career on the line to win or run in one race.

Let’s not forget the performances of the Birds, both Mine that Bird and Summer Bird did some things that will not be soon forgotten. Mine that Bird skimming the rail with Calvin Borel up is one of the most exciting memories to take from 2009. Going into the race no one even knew of the horse, but afterwards he would always be known as a champion, a champion of the Kentucky Derby, a gutsy little colt that reminds me so much of Afleet Alex by stature the way that he accelerates in the final 3/16^th of the race is truly amazing. There were some questionable decisions made by the connections but we all know that Chip Woolley and the owners were doing so in the best interest of the horse. Here’s hoping for a wonderful 2010 season for this little guy. As for Summer Bird he is a big, robust son of Birdstone who has all the talent in the world, when you think about how this guy was ridden early in his career coming from way off the pace because that’s what his father did, and then later in the year being so much closer to the pace, that is extraordinary. You don’t see changes made like that often and certainly not mid season, after a 3^rd place finish in the Arkansas Derby, Summer Bird went on the Win the Belmont, Travers & Jockey Club Gold Cup. This is a stellar resume and I would be quick to say that in many other years Summer Bird and his connections could be looking at HOY honors. Incredibly this year he has been trumped the Ladies. I was saddened to hear that Summer Bird injured himself while training for the Japan Dirt Cup, there are a lot of ways to view this injury, it is possible that he may have injured himself during the running of the Breeders Cup and the injury didn’t show up until now, he may be injured due to a long campaign and it is just now taking its toll. Most important though is that he is able to have successful surgery and enjoy a normal life, I know the owners are stating that he might run again, but that is not going to be the focus going forward. The focus going forward should be on him being able to be comfortable and rehabbing for whatever lies in front of him.

We are led into 2010 with so much anticipation and so much eagerness to get things started. We would be wise to temper our keenness due to the fact that it is possible we may never see another year like 2009 again. The Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown hype has already begun, with horses like Buddy’s Saint, and Super Saver winning big races, Vale of York and Looking at Lucky and of course one of my favorites Dublin. This is one intriguing horse going forward to 2010, while at Saratoga for the Woodward I caught up with D.Wayne Lukas, we talked for a few moments about Dublin and where he intended to winter the horse, and it looks as if he will be coming through Arkansas to achieve his major goals. I would anticipate a run in the Southwest, the Rebel and the Arkansas Derby is all goes well with him. He seems to be a big horse that has not quite grown into his body, I believe the next time we see this big fella he will be more filled out, and much bigger.

The Oaklawn meet is coming upon us pretty quickly and with the quality of horses that are wintering at Fairgrounds those of us close to Oaklawn feel that there could be some incredibly important graded stakes races run during the 56 day meet. The Apple Blossom could potentially include a horse that we all want to know where she will run next, Rachel Alexandra. With Jess Jackson doing the smart thing an allowing her plenty of time off to rest, she is being pointed towards a return in March or April of ’10 and that could possibly mean a run at the Grade 1 Apple Blossom. With the hopeful return of Summer Bird who could run in the Oaklawn Handicap, that leaves the imagination running wild about what we could potentially see that day at Oaklawn, maybe a record crowd of upwards of 80,000. I am excited about the prospect, and to hear that the Arkansas Derby has been upgraded like it rightfully should have been years ago to Grade 1 status.

2009 will go down as one of the most exciting and thrilling years in the history of horse racing, but we need to move forward and look optimistically to 2010 to solidify the game of horse racing, it needs new fans and a new following to be able to get back to the status it had in its glory years. We are now in the age of what have you done for me lately, and what we have lately is an impressive product, one that the ntra and other bodies needs to make sure stays in a positive light. The safety of the equine athletes is most important, the measures being taken to verify that the tracks are in the best shape possible are important in this regard. I will say this Horse Racing is here to stay, the product that is being put out on the track right now is impressive and people are coming back to the sport, we need to keep it that way and continue to enjoy the beauty of these magnificent creatures and the joy they bring to us as they do what they love to do most and that’s “Run like the wind”.

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WoodWard Weekend Part II

2009-09-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

WoodWard Weekend Part II
As I made my way to my seat, I began to realize where I really was again; I had just walked into the historic Saratoga Racecourse, the “Graveyard of Champions”. Thinking back on some of the most memorable performances that I can recall made me very aware of why this track is so historic. Thinking back to the 2008 Travers Stakes, and the incredible stretch drive when Colonel John and Mambo In Seattle hooked up. The 2008 Woodward as Curlin ran down Past the Point, and the most thrilling race to date that I’ve seen was the Alabama as Proud Spell and Music Note hooked up in this 1 ¼ mile classic distance event. The race set up perfectly for both fillies as Proud Spell sat stalking and Music Note was allowed to sit back in a closing position, as they turned for home they locked horns and ran together the length of the stretch, with Proud Spell winning by a head over Music Notes. These are the things I remember and passing through the gates of Saratoga the historic impact hit me like a ton of bricks.
Florence Griffith Joyner, Veronica Campbell, Dannica Patrick, these women are considered the speedsters of the world. Only one though has put herself in a position where she would face her male counter parts on a regular basis, the feat that Jess Jackson is going to ask his filly to accomplish today is something not unprecedented but it has not been accomplished in the history of horse racing. Seeing the horses come out for the first race was an incredible thing to see. The horses prancing around in the paddock, and the thought in the back of my head that Rachel Alexandra was back in her stall, most likely about to be awakened to get ready for her run with destiny. The first race was won by a horse with a fitting name, Starforaday, it was a nice ride by Rajiv Maragh that got Starforaday up for the win in the Starter Handicap.
The 4th race was one to focus on due to a horse that I was told would run well named Mother Russia, looking at my program and having my buddy pick out some horses was fun, he missed the superfecta by 1 horse in the first race. Beginner’s luck is something that is so amazing in horse racing. It was great to talk to the guys from trackchampion.com, they were very much handicappers and serious handicappers. We talked about every subject under the sun, Ruffian, Barclay Tagg and his comments about Rachel A, Todd Pletcher and his running of horses into the ground. We even spoke of Quality Roads run in the sloppy Travers and how Zenyatta would fare if she were running at Saratoga. The next few races are a blur due to the time spent walking around the grounds and taking in the scenery and also waiting to see the running of the 7th race. Mr. Rick Porter the owner of Fox Hill Farm has a horse running in this race. His name is Gun Rock and you can believe that this horse will be ready to go; the Fox Hill Farm horses don’t just go out on the track for a workout. Fox Hill Farm horses are quality horses and win a large number of races. Gun Rock does his job for Mr. Porter today and wins the 7th race, I picked the superfecta in the 7th race, not the largest payout but it was a nice confidence builder.
The 8th race came and went, and I was looking forward to the running of the Forego Stakes, another of Fox Hill Farm horses is running in this race, Kodiak Kowboy is a nice sprinter, a horse that doesn’t need to go to the front like the majority of the sprinters that you find out there today, Kodiak allows them to go out and fight each other through testing fractions and then pick up the pieces. Gabriel Saez is the jockey up, the first call for Larry Jones, and speaking of Jones, he is in the process of moving his horses to other barns. This is a very difficult time for all involved to see Mr. Jones step away from the game. Kodiak Kowboy starts slowly today, a bit slower than normal, he’s covered up through the first ½ mile and then he is presented by Saez, he makes a nice run but is beaten today by Pyro. Pyro, wow does anyone remember Pyro, the horse with the extremely quick turn of foot that we saw down at the Fairgrounds in Louisiana. Yes that same Pyro, came charging off the turn, and when he turned it on he was able to out quick Kodiak Kowboy to the wire, he wins by a ½ length. Nice run by the son of Pulpit as he has come back from being given time off to impress.
Rachel the RockStar – Believe me when I say that I’ve seen my fair share of impressive horses, I have seen the likes of Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron, Borrego, Curlin, Eight Belles, Proud Spell, Flower Alley, Invasor, Bernardini, and others. I have seen how the crowds react and respond to horses of this nature, Grade 1 winner, impressive horses that prove themselves over and over again. Some of these horses could be considered rock stars on a small level, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw as the 9th race ended and the 10th race was preparing to begin. The crowd begins to swell and I am thankful that I am able to be on a rail or gate which leads the horses down the path and to the paddock and walking ring. One by One, they are led down the path, Da’ Tara, Cool Coal Man, Bullsbay, Asiatic Boy, It’s a Bird, Past the Point, Macho Again, and then someone yells, “There she is, Here she comes” and then there is the first moment we’ve all been waiting for. In her usual casual yet very professional style, Rachel Alexandra led by Scott Blasi is led down the path past thousands, and I literally mean thousands of her adoring fans. She’s used to this and its nothing new to her. But it was new to all of us to see a horse that has taken the heart of horse racing and to allow her connections to place that heart directly on her back and say no matter what I am going to impress and I am going to be a champion of champions no matter what Is thrown in front of me.
The Post parade – What a site to see the horses led out to the track and the look of confidence on Calvin Borel’s face, the thought raced through my mind as I made my way back to my seat that we could see a number of different things but the way I approached the race was the same as every race that Curlin ran in. I wanted to see my favorite break well, be allowed to stretch her legs a bit early and get a clear run down the stretch. There was worry in the crowd about race riding and these big boys boxing her in, but my thought was you can’t box what you can’t find. The question is how fast would the early fractions be and how much would that take out of her closing punch, or would Borel want to take a chance and allow her to rate. Its been playing over in my head for days after the post positions were announced. We will see how it plays out and then I hear a gasp from the crowd and Tom Durkin says: “Oh Rachel Alexandra has thrown Calvin Borel off, many thoughts ran through my mind, was she loose how far did she run off or was she the Rachel that I know and did she just stand there and wait for Calvin to climb back into the irons. It’s a great thing that she is as professional as she is because she just stood there and waited for Calvin.
One disaster averted – Calvin Borel is back aboard his filly, she looks like she’s calmed down and is collected again, such a beautiful athlete she is lean but powerful and she is on her toes and she’s ready to go, I am very calm and focused and anticipating the break and now they are finally loaded in the gate.

The race call: Say’s Tom Durkin: “Andddddddddddddddd they’re Off”, good, good I think to myself she didn’t bobble out of the gates like Rags to Riches, she didn’t stand there like I want Revenge, and she got a nice even start, Past the Point wants to do it on the lead again huh, oh wait there is Da’ Tara also, Darn that Nick Zito, his rabbits are in there to do a job, I wonder where Cool Coal Man is, I am sure I’ll hear about him on the lead at some point right. Around the first turn, did Durkin say “Duel” that’s not what I want I want to see her sit second and get that outside 3 wide spot but, yep there he is Cool Coal Man, who would have guessed that. It’s a bird, Bullsbay and Macho Again back there waiting, bidding their time to make a run at the filly, what is that first quarter up in.
The First Quarter went up in, OMG, are you serious, 22 4/5, I put my hands on my head and I think to myself this is what her detractors wanted to see, Rachel on the front being pressed against older horses and folding late, there were smiles im sure by some, but the majority of us in attendance there were some frustrated people. People watching a filly be asked to run the first quarter mile faster than most horses will ever run a ¼ mile in their careers. Now here are my thoughts as they are going down the back stretch, she just put up a 22.85 with pressure the whole way, I see Calvin keep his wits about him, I also see her ears are pricked and she’s going along without effort, not stressing at all, fast enough naturally to put up a first quarter in 22 and change but this tactic is going to play into the boys hands if we don’t slow the pace down some. Now a breather to most horses is a: 24 4/5 or: 25 2/5 quarter mile, but to a horse with the talent of Rachel, I knew that she would get the breather she needed with a flat :24 and that’s what Calvin needed to do, take a slight hold, not cut off her air, but try to nurse out a couple of :24 second quarter mile splits. Da’ Tara still there with her and Past The Point looks like he’s gotten a second quarter breather he’s 1 ½ lengths off her and Cool Coal Man is still there. The next quarter mile split is up, “Yes Calvin, that’s what im talking about” I yell out loud, he milked a :23.56 quarter there to the half mile pole, lets slow it down just a bit more for the 3rd quarter. With just a half mile to go she has a length lead and im comfortable. The third quarter is up, “Yes, Hell yes” I yell :24.13, and she’s relaxed and not fighting and at this point I realize that these boys better have their tap dancing shoes on because with the last two quarter miles that she was able to get a slight and I do mean ever so slight breather, she’s going to be hard to catch in the stretch.
The Dramatic Stretch Drive – Yes, Yes, Yes they are turning for home and I look around and notice that the crowd, everyone in the crowd is on their feet and they realize that we are about to witness something incredible. The closers are coming, the closers are coming, no this is not a war fought with weapons, it’s a war fought with heart and talent and determination, and we will get to see what these older horses are made of, but more importantly what this Super Filly is all about. I see Asiatic Boy and Macho Again, but Bullsbay is coming first, I feel good looking at Calvin he hasn’t asked her yet, oh yeah that’s a good sign. Now they are straightening out, and Calvin asks finally, and wow did Rachel respond, she repelled Bullsbay, he’s hung abit now, maybe due to be told no by the filly. Macho Again, who, oh yeah the son of Macho Uno, yeah I knew he’d be coming, he was 8 lengths off her all the way around, well guess what he’s the fresh horse, and Rachel has had to make every step of the way. My response to Macho Again was bring it on big boy. Rachel must have felt the same way, she could see someone coming, I am not sure who she thought it was, maybe they had a bit of conversation in the paddock or in the starting gate but she was not dismayed. Calvin is asking Rachel and she is responding, she’s put Bullsbay away with ease, but this Macho horse he’s decided he’s going to make her earn it today. Macho Again took a shot, no dice she’s stepping away from him, oh wait he’s coming again, this time he’s not hanging he’s actually making up ground on the filly. Its going to be very very close, I can see she’s tired but she’s laying it down and her stride is lengthening. “Here’s the wire” says Tom Durkin.
Rachel Alexandra wins – Rachel Alexandra the Great, that’s what she will be called now, the final time 1:48:29, that’s and incredible time for a horse that made every call. Dealt with basically a shot from every horse, and won with something left, as she rebroke after the wire and Macho Again never went by her. OMG this place is electric, I can’t feel my hands, and I can’t feel any sensation, people are crying, people are yelling and everyone is celebrating as if they won the race themselves, high fives all around hugs and kisses. This is monumental, the results have been made official, and Calvin Borel has turned the filly around and is bringing her back to the Winner’s Circle. I have to take a moment to collect my thoughts people are grabbing me and jumping up and down and I just have to sit for a moment. Emotion overcomes me, I think back to standing in Oaklawn Park arguing with a guy who wanted to tell me that Stardom Bound was a better horse than Rachel. I think back to posting that winning the Martha Washington and Fair Ground Oaks, and Fantasy without effort means that there is something more to her engine than we’ve ever seen before. I think back to the Oaks where she wins by 20 lengths just in an open gallop. Beating the boys in the Preakness and Romping in the Mother Goose and the Haskell, Are you serious, did this filly actually just beat older horses in this race. I just witnessed history, I put my head in my hands and think to myself, she is amazing, and I’m glad to just be a part of this historic event.
The Appreciation of the crown as Rachel is brought back to the winners circle is something out of a Hollywood story. No one has even thought about leaving the grand stand area or the standing room only area. Please Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdNdk4AYwSQ. These people are still 10 or 15 deep trying to show their respect for Rachel and what she has just accomplished. The applause and cheers is amazing, she is truly a RockStar. She has shown the heart of a true champion, she has shown she belongs in the conversation of all time great horses, not fillies. She has stepped up to the plate and she swung for the fences and the ball never had a chance. She is Rachel Alexandra, no she is Rachel Alexandra the Great!!!

The 2009 WoodWard Trip - Part I

2009-09-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

WoodWard Weekend Thoughts - Part I

What will this weekend be like I thought to myself as I boarded the plane, heading from Little Rock to O'hare in Chicago, looking at all of the travelers who were making their way from terminal to terminal boarding flights to destinations. All of these people were probably heading to holiday destinations and have had their trips planned out for months. The flight from Chicago to Albany didn't take that long, but a nice interesting conversation began with a woman who was from Saratoga Springs and had seen a number of the running’s of the Travers and the WoodWard Stakes. "Why are you heading to New York", I was asked over and over again by a number of passengers, "To see history made in the Woodward Stakes at historic Saratoga Race Course", wow was the response from about 5 or 6 patrons on the plane, they all looked as if they knew I wasn’t just coming to see a horse race or two. “Isn’t that girl horse running against the boys?” “Yes”, I replied, as one of the ladies told me that she was from the Saratoga area and that I needed to take in all of the sights and sounds of Saratoga Springs. She stated that her father had taken her to see the running of the Travers and Woodward ever since she was 12. She knew exactly where I was going and why, I knew that this was going to be a special weekend.

The Morning Of. – The morning of the Woodward came very quickly, into the shower and then dressing for the day, there was this excitement that was pulsing through my veins. It has been a very long time since I felt like that. Walking out the door and down the corridor to the elevator people were talking about “Rachel”. “Rachel Who” I asked jokingly, they looked at me and said: “The filly running today, it’s going to be special,” riding through the country side in New York and seeing the sign that said Saratoga Springs led me to think back to the very first time I stepped into a race track. My hometown Oaklawn Park, known for developing Champion 3 year olds that go on to become darlings of the horse racing world.

At Old Saratoga – The sign said Saratoga Springs, and I could feel how close I was to such a historic venue, I thought back to my great grandfather who introduced me to the sport, I thought about all of the people who had a hand in giving us the opportunity to watch these majestic creatures strut their stuff. I thought about the legendary race track known as the “Graveyard of Champions”. Could that possibly have an effect on Rachel’s career, would she leave today known as a Champion Race Horse, or as another horse that couldn’t quite get it done due to a number of different factors. What I thought about most was one thing “Rachel being able to walk back to her barn after the race, and enjoy the accolades of a wonderful historic win, or a very well respected effort on the track.” Either way the only thing that stood out to me at that time was the fact that we were pulling into the parking area of Saratoga Race Course.

Union Avenue- As we exited the vehicle, we could see down a path, a path of barns, and it felt so surreal to be so close to the living quarters of these champion race horses. We walked the path down a dirt road and came to a security guard, and asked how close we were to Steve Asmussen’s barn. The guard advised that we were not far from Asmussen’s barn but that we would need credentials to be able to visit the area. Then it hit me that I was on Union Avenue as we came to a clearing, at that point I looked to my left and there was the most handsome horse heading to training at the main track. He walked slowly past us and all traffic stopped as they allowed for the horses to have the right of way. He pranced slowly across the street and was led into the track area, we stopped for a moment to take in the sounds of the horses that were already mid flight and in full gallop around the main track. What a sound that was to hear the power of these animals as they went about their business doing something they love so very much.

The Saratoga Entrance & Rachel Pins – Looking up at the entrance to the track, I realized and it set in that I was here, a place that I had watched plenty of times in the past on television, I recalled in my memory the sound of Tom Durkin’s race calls and thought to myself, in not but a few hours I will hear this legendary announcer call a live race. I walked up to the gate and paid my general admission fee and I received my pin. My friend walked through and paid and received his also, I turned around and thought about all of my message board friends and thought some of them might want to partake or have a little piece of something, a day that is going to go down in history as a legendary day for the world of horse racing. Politely I walked back to the admissions window and stooped down low and asked the man, “How much for me to get, let’s say 15 of the Rachel pins”, he looked at me and said “what, what do you have going on”, I said “message board friends”, he said “how many do you want”, I said “15”, he pulled a hand full out of the bag and gave them to me. I felt so good that I would be able to share this special day with my friends. Both from http://www.rockportharbor.com/ and also http://www.horseracingmania.com/in-loving-memory-of-eight-belles-t172.html. I walked into the gate and it was time to get focused.

Training Ends – The last horses that were out during training hours were wrapping up their workouts and gallops. The jockeys brought the horses close to the rail and the gate to allow onlookers to be able to see the horses up close and be able to see what it’s like to deal with these large individuals. Families are there early, its only 11 a.m. and children are running around enjoying the vast expanse of the standing room only area. People were walking in with their breakfast food and finding their seats. The sun was out in full glory and it was a beautiful day, we found our seats and watched the videos of some of the greats that have run at Saratoga.
Famous fillies on display in the video were: Davona Dale, Lady’s Secret, Shuvee, Personal Ensign, Go For Wand, Azeri, and at the end of the video every race of Rachel’s current Win Streak was shown on the big screen. It was great to see all of the all-time great fillies and mares that had run at Saratoga that they were featuring. To see the mystique of such incredible champions all of the female version, and to realize that the filly “Rachel Alexandra The Great” was the reason we were all there.

Rachel Alexandra - Do people really still doubt her?

2009-08-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Horse Racing Pundits – Are there any out there that still doubt the extreme talents of the Super Filly, Rachel Alexandra. After going 7 for 7 in 2009 and winning those races by over 60 combined lengths, beating the colts twice quite convincingly, and setting track records, I have to be of the opinion of the trainer of Summer Bird, Tim Ice gave his opinion about those few detractors that she still has when he said: "I ask you, what do you want her to beat?" Ice said. "What does she have to prove? She's beaten everybody that they've put in the race with her, so to say that she hasn't beaten anything would be a knock against thoroughbred racing because she's beaten the Kentucky Derby winner (and) she's beaten the Belmont winner.
"People don't understand. If they're going to say she hasn't beaten anything, these are all horses that are Grade 1 winners. And to say she hasn't beaten anything, to me, it makes no sense.
"Rachel Alexandra is what she is - she does it so easy, that maybe it just seems like she hasn't beaten anything, but the horses that she's beaten are top-notch horses. I think it's a shame that people have that idea that she hasn't beaten anything."
In some ways you can look at many of the detractors that are left and realize that they have a bad taste in their mouths about how Jess Jackson handles his horses. When I hear the criticism that Mr. Jackson gets, like how he should announce where Rachel will run sooner, or she should run in certain races, I think that he might have opened that can of worms upon himself due to his www.gocurlin.com website, as you remember when he was trying to choose Curlin’s next race after his loss in the Man O’ War he asked the public where they thought Curlin should go. Sadly in this world of ignorance, you can’t leave decisions of this nature to a public who collectively struggles to understand the fundamentals of horse racing.
Then you have those that are or seem very jealous of her accomplishments due to the comparisons she draws to Ruffian and Personal Ensign, and the other greats, some people seem to get their feelings hurt due to comparisons to such historic fillies and mares. It’s sad though that she gets run down by these ones, they say she hasn’t beaten the same company that Ruffian and others beat, but really who did they beat, races were run differently back then and there is no way to compare the competition.
On the other hand though when dealing with the comparisons that are drawn between Rachel and Zenyatta there is ample evidence that one horses’ connections is looking for the most difficult spots that will allow for greatness to be defined and the others is looking for the easiest spot to make sure that the horse stays undefeated. But what does undefeated really mean when there is lower quality or competition in the gates. I wonder out loud sometimes what Zenyatta’s record would be if she ran prominently in the East Coast. It seems very feasible to think that if she ran in Grade 1 races predominantly she would most likely have a record of 12 start 9 wins 2 place and 1 show finish. That would be more respectable in consistent Grade 1 competition in comparison with an undefeated record in a few grade 1 and a number of grade 2 races that is not considered running at the top level of horse racing. I feel remorseful for those that feel that due to one person being a fan of Rachel they have to tear her down. Here is one of the most immature quotes I believe I have ever come across. This was posted on a message board: “some get so frakkin know-it-all arrogant, that I actually hope RA loses just so they will shut up. I don't like rooting against horses (esp. when they are obviously talented) but NO horse is perfect. ALL of them have limits, and they need to realize that. Pundits of all type will say what is on their minds. For ever article they post saying that RA is unbeatable, I could find one that said she's vulnerable facing older males. Just wake up and realize that she is a living creature in the hands of humans and that she has limitations, whether they want to admit it or not. “

Seems like a bitter very sad person who has no ability to love horse racing for what it is.
Here are some comments from other bloggers regarding the schedule that Zenyatta has run in: “And not to pick on Zenyatta, who I dearly love and greatly admire, but she has made three starts this year and all of them have been in California. C'mon!! Is she that fragile? Talk about picking spots carefully to keep a perfect record intact...yet that is not up for public debate because it's good management.”
“Anyone would question Zenyatta's greatness just because she never raced "outside of the box."
You must not follow this particular blog, because to date about 7,146,887 posters have done just that, and repeatedly! They say they regret that we will never know just how great Zenyatta might have been, because she just kept beating up on the same bunch of overmatched females again and again. Personally, I agree with them (though I love Zenyatta).
Judging from the postings of the knowledgeable racing fans on this blog, I'm concluding that many others also will question Zenyatta's greatness because of how her campaigns were handled, especially in 2009. In fact, I think it is likely to come up whenever her name is mentioned in the future.”
“Zenyatta is great, I won't deny her that. But she isn't better than Rachel is. NYRA has eliminated the detention barn for the Beldame. They are increasing the purse if Rachel & Zenyatta both show up. The Mosses have stated that the reason they won't go to Belmont is because of the detention barn. What reason will they come up with now that the detention barn is gone for why they won't come to the Beldame? Because really & truly, they are doing nothing more with Zenyatta than ducking Rachel. She has her 12 win streak because they have so carefully mapped her races into ones where there is NO competition for her and she is all but guaranteed a win. She barely pulled it off in her last race. Her jockey is so over confident that he will cause her to be beaten. Her final kick is good, but she is aging fast (she's 5 now) and that kick isn't going to be enough to come from 12 lengths from the leader in the Breeders’ Cup races. Her race performances are declining, while Rachel's are improving each time out. Rachel is better at 3 than Zenyatta was at 4 (which is why Zenyatta never faced the boys). At this point, in my opinion, there is no comparison between the two horses.”
This upcoming weekend is going to be very exciting as we’ll get to see the highly touted Quality Road go up against a number of quality colts. He has a lot that needs to be proven, others want to prove they belong, I believe that Warrior’s Reward and Summer Bird may take a step forward, the question is what type of race will Summer Bird run, I believe his run was compromised due to being so close to the lead last time out. I guess the race will unfold however it does.

Rachel Alexandra – Her next start, the 2009 Woodward

2009-08-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

Rachel to the WoodWard - History in the making!!!!

As the 2009 racing season began, there were many expectations for a number of top horses. Out west the Pamplemousse and Pioneer of the Nile were highly talked about. On the East coast Quality Road and Captain Candyman Can, Dunkirk was all the talk, and in the mid west, Old Fashioned and Friesan Fire were high on everyone’s buzz list. There was a filly though that made quite an impression in the running of the Martha Washington Stakes, her name is Rachel Alexandra and if you haven’t heard of her by now, you would need to wake up from the trance or coma you are in because her name is synonymous with Horse Racing on a level not seen since the likes of Barbaro or Smarty Jones.
Many were very disappointed due to the announcement that she would bypass the Travers and head to the Woodward, some of her detractor’s state this is an easier spot. I for one using sound reasoning do not feel that way at all. Comparing horses like Quality Road with 2 starts in 4 months to horses like Macho Again, BullsBay and the other possible showing up on Woodward day means that this won’t likely be an easy route. I don’t feel that she will be headed but I think that it will come down to her high cruising speed and the ability to turn it on in the final turn after straightening out. Rachel is a pleasure to watch in everything she does from her races, to her workouts, to her prancing around in the paddock down to her taking baths in the morning after going to the track. I love the fact that she prepped in Arkansas at Oaklawn Park. And I will enjoy even more so making my first trip to Saratoga Race course to watch the running of the Woodward. Stating the obvious is unneeded but this will be a great experience and one I won’t soon forget.
Will Rachel Win, most likely but she may have to work next Saturday to get into the winners circle. Who will provide her the most difficulty, sadly whomever sends their horse will be compromised, looking at the list of nominations, I see that Jonesboro is a possible, so is It’s a bird, Da’Tara, Bullsbay and possibly Bribon. The front is where they would want to be watching because if the fractions are too slow she will go straight to the lead and most likely prance away with the victory. But this is a field of competitors that Rachel has not seen before and we will get a chance to see what she is really made of. I hope everyone enjoys the day of racing on Travers Day and also the Woodward weekend, it should be exciting.

The pursuit of Perfection or the pursuit of Greatness

2009-08-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Perfection or Greatness?

By “AfleetAlexForever”
8/14/2009

Perfection is defined as the state or quality of being or becoming perfect, the highest degree of proficiency, skill or excellence, a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence.
Greatness is defined as being notable, remarkable, exceptionally outstanding, important, highly significant or consequential, distinguished, of noble or lofty character.
Both of these attributes are impressive and there are times when one prevailing quality outshines the other, which one would be foremost, I have no idea they both have their positives and there would seem to be no negatives. Well then we get to the topic of horse racing, there are a number of qualities that could be used to quantify what we are seeing on the race track this year. We are all lucky enough to be able to experience the incredible talents of two equine stars that are as impressive as any 2 stars running at one time in the history of the sport.
One of these stars resides on the West Coast and another resides on the East Coast. They are owned by connections who take extreme care to make sure that they put the health of their stable star first but there are some differences in the way that the connections have campaigned these two stars. Zenyatta is a 5 year old mare; she races in California and has a perfect race record of 12 starts and 12 wins. She Is trained by John Shirreffs who is based in California, and owned by Mr. Jerry and Ann Moss. The Moss’s have campaigned 2005 Kentucky Derby Champion Giacomo and B.C. third place finisher Tiago. Thus far Zenyatta has bankrolled 2.5 million dollars in her career; she has won races like the Apple Blossom Handicap, the Clement L. Hirsch and the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic. The 12 for 12 undefeated records pretty much sums up what her career has been about. The Moss’s have come under fire due to the path that they have taken to allow Zenyatta to keep her perfect race record. This has caused there to be question about her place in history even if she finishes out her career with a perfect record. Her connections realize that they have a very special mare, but in the process of trying to keep a perfect record some question the quality of competition that she has met in her career, It appears that her connections are doing what they can to protect her perfect record, get her to the Breeder's Cup and win and therefore keep that record intact, and retire her. Some might argue that this Is taking the path of least resistance, but others would tend to say different. During Zenyatta’s 12 race career to this point she has faced 8 grade 1 winners. This on the outside looking in would give indication of greatness due to the quality of the competition. When you look closer though it would appear quite a bit different. In the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic alone Zenyatta faced 5 of her Grade 1 foes. That would leave 11 races where she faced a total of 3 other grade 1 horses, some of these races included the same horse over and over again. In comparison, Ginger Punch the 2007 Breeders Cup Ladies Classic Champion faced close to 20 Grade 1 winners in her career. So the big question is does the quality of competition make a difference. Quality over Quantity, some might make an argument for both sides. Remember though no matter what that undefeated is still undefeated and Zenyatta is a true Champion.
Does the pursuit of perfection leave the door open for another to slide in and achieve the standard of greatness? On the East coast stands the embodiment of Greatness in the eyes of many. It has been a long time since a 3 year old filly caused the connections of so many horses to wait to make decisions about every race that is being run until they know where her connection are pointing. In Rachel Alexandra there is so much potential, potential seen and still unseen. Rachel Alexandra is a 3 year old filly out of sire Medaglia d’Oro she is owned by Stonestreet Stables & Harold T. McCormick, with Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson Winery holding controlling interest. They purchased the filly after her Kentucky Oaks victory from her original owners: breeder Dolphus Morrison and partner Michael Lauffer. Initially she was trained by Hal Wiggins, after new ownership she has been turned over to Steve Asmussen. Rachel has raced 13 times with 10 wins out of those races, she is currently on an 8 race winning streak and has won those 8 races by a combined 69 ¼ lengths. She has lost races therefore she is not being pampered to continue on an undefeated path. She at this point has no competition on the 3 year old level, and is most likely going forward to either open competition or will run against older females for the first time. She has emphatically beat both 3 year old fillies and colts and now has caused the connections of older male horses to await decisions before making a decision about the next race. One likely race for her is the Woodward Stakes, and the connections of the Whitney Winner, Bullsbay has stated that they do not want to run against Rachel Alexandra and will await the announcement from her owner. Her owner Jess Jackson is a wine mogul from California, he is a sporting man who wants his horse to achieve the most possible. This can be seen by the ambitious schedule that Rachel has taken on since being purchased in May. So while perfection is not in the scheme of things, her greatness and incredible legacy will be without question.
So again the question you have to ask yourself is Perfection or Greatness, if you had to choose one which would it be.

AfleetAlexForever

Alexandra The Great - Yes Rachel

2009-08-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

“One for the Ages”, this is one of the phrases that was used to describe the dazzling performance of the Brilliant Rachel Alexandra in the running of today’s Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey this afternoon. The crowd was electric and anticipated Rachel Alexandra’s appearance in the 13th race of a 14 race card. With the same grace as a beautiful princess, with the same presence of a professional athlete who is about to tangle with other elite athletes; Rachel Alexandra pranced out onto the wet, soggy, Monmouth Park track. It took the super filly and approximately 1:47 1/5 seconds; this is the time that was needed to stamp her name in the history books as one of the greatest fillies to ever step foot on a racetrack. For the second time in as many tried Rachel beat the boys, this time though there was little doubt about the outcome. Rachel for the first time in her career bobbled slightly out of the gates, but was still athletic enough to right herself and secure a nice stalking position in the 3 path going into the first turn. This time there was no race riding by jockeys trying to take Rachel out of her comfort zone, by pushing her out 4 or 5 paths out into the race track. There was however an incredibly hot pace with a quarter mile in 22.99 seconds and a half mile in 46:43 seconds. The fractions were very similar to what she was forced to do in the Preakness, but this time she sat tracking kindly behind the leaders, and her connections were actually able to train her properly for this race. Down the backside something appeared on the inside rail that only true horse racing enthusiasts would find out of sorts, and that was Summer Bird going up to take the second position behind Munnings. As the field rounded the far turn the question was what would take place in the last 4 furlongs. Munnings looked strong, Summer Bird looked primed for a big finish, and then there was Rachel. Rachel was the lone filly in the field of 7 and when she was called upon, she spurted away from the colts. In the blink of an eye, Rachel Alexandra straightened away and she began to open up on the field. The crowd began to sense that they were witnessing something great, something special, and something historic. The filly was on cruise control in the last 1/16th of a mile, and just like that the Haskell Invitational was in the book. The record books that is, and it was something truly that will be talked about for years to come.
I for one must say that watching the progression of Rachel Alexandra’s career has been something special. The fact that this special filly has such heart and such desire and such talent, she is something extra special. Rachel Alexandra has made a believer out of those that she’s faced and for a trainer like Tim Ice she has now garnered all of his respect. When asked if he would want a rematch with Rachel he is stated as saying: “We'll take a look at the Travers," he said. "If she's in there, she's in there. I'm not going to invite her." The 116 Beyer speed figure that Rachel achieved in this race was impressive but her jockey Calvin Borel feels that she’s run better than this race: "Nah, she run a better race than that," he said. "I thought the Preakness was a top performance coming out of the 13 hole and knowing going in that she wasn't 100 [percent] she still laid it down for me. She run today, but I knew she'd win today and I come in with so much confidence today it was unbelievable. Till the day they hook me and give her the eye I don t know how good she is."
We are without a doubt witnessing history in the making with this brilliant filly, she is conquering worlds and the hearts of people that once seemed unimaginable. It will now be a privilege to see where and when this superstar filly is pointed to her next race. We will all be on the edge of our seats to see how things develop.

Monmouth Park's 2009 Haskell Invitational

2009-07-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Haskell Invitational Grade 1 August 2, 2009

Its official – as is his customary way Jess Jackson loves to keep everyone on the edge of their seats, awaiting the announcement. Then he steps to the podium, and then comes the announcement:
“Rachel Alexandra is to face colts in the 2009 renewal of the Haskell Invitational”.

The announcement makes for huge ovations and applause in the conference room where the management of Monmouth Park has awaited the announcement.
At this point in her 3 year old season there is really no other decision to make, why you might ask. First, the last two times that Rachel Alexandra has stepped out onto the track against her own gender she has won by a combined 39.5 total combined lengths. For those that don’t know during her stretch of 7 straight victories her margin of victory in these races is 63 ¼ lengths. So the question is who really wants to run against her. Apparently not the connections of Big Drama who have deferred to the West Virginia Derby, not the connections of Papa Clem, and can you believe that even the connections of the great Zenyatta does not want to test the abilities of Rachel Alexandra. Watching the interviews of some of the great trainers of our day, and trying to put Rachel Alexandra’s accomplishments into perspective, there are a number of adjectives that are used to describe her. Beating the likes of Pioneer of the Nile, Mine That Bird, Papa Clem, Musket Man, General Quarters. You can understand why Kieran McLaughlin would call Rachel Alexandra a “Superstar”, he says he at no point wants to have to run against this filly.
I recall the discussion that I had with a man at Oaklawn Park who told me that Stardom Bound would run down Rachel Alexandra, and with all due respect to Stardom Bound’s race record and the wonderful decision to give her some time off from racing to freshen up, I would have to say that Rachel is on a totally different planet compared to the other fillies and mares that are out there training right now. If you listen to Larry Jones you’d get an understanding of how incredibly impressive this filly is.
“Only the Lord knows how fast Rachel Alexandra is,” said Larry Jones, who plans to start Friesan Fire in the Preakness Stakes (G1). “Anytime you have a horse as fast as her, the only chance anyone has to beat her is with the boys. “We chased her earlier this year with two fillies and finished 19 and 11 3/4 lengths behind her, but all of the sudden that didn’t seem so bad after she won the Oaks by 20 [1/4 lengths].”
“I don’t know that we can beat her based on talent or physically, but maybe we can beat her mentally,” said Gary Stute, Papa Clem's trainer. “She’s had a clear run in most of her races, so maybe if she gets pinned inside she won’t like that very much.”
“She may not even know she’s running against boys,” Jones said. “She’ll go to the front and just think there’s a bunch of girls chasing after her.”
What was the result; Rachel Alexandra stormed to a clear length victory in the Preakness which we know is now well documented. But what of the Haskell field, as of right now with the possible defection of Papa Clem and Big Drama, there will be only 6 entrants in this race, thus far. , The Haskell lineup at the moment also includes Belmont winner Summer Bird, Munnings, Atomic Rain, Bunker Hill, and Duke of Mischief.
There will be some speed in the race, and it looks like that could set up perfectly for both Summer Bird and Rachel Alexandra. No one would expect Rachel to have to go to the front unless she is coming from the outside, but that would be in a full field, in a field this small this would most likely be a stalking trip for Rachel. Summer Bird though is an interesting entrant into this race with Monmouth Park known for such tight turns and with the shorter distance here not really being the best for Summer Bird. Summer Bird is known as being a plodder, a steady horse but has never really shown much of a turn of foot which will be needed in this race, but he is training beautifully according to his trainer Tim Ice. "He was perfect again," said trainer Tim Ice, referring to his Sunday morning breeze. "Everything is exactly on schedule. He'll have his final breeze next Sunday. Kent Desormeaux will be here for that." "He was perfect again," said trainer Tim Ice. "Everything is exactly on schedule. He'll have his final breeze next Sunday. Kent Desormeaux will be here for that."
This filly is something special and when you see a filly begin to turn colts and geldings towards a plan B, that’s saying something. She has their respect and they are paying attention to what she is doing. But its not only the boys that are taking notice, looking at the way that the connections of Acoma looked at running against R.A. gave indication that she has everyone’s attention. According to David Carroll he would run Acoma in the Delaware Handicap if the situation was right. He said: "If Rachel goes, we're not going to run.” It says a lot when the connections of a 5 year old mare don’t want to run against a 3 year old filly. But this is not the first time this has happened if you recall this was the interview that Jerry Moss gave on 6.27.2009. Saturday morning, in an interview on the "Down the Stretch" radio show on Sirius XM radio, Jerry Moss, the owner of Zenyatta, said "there's a good chance" Zenyatta would leave Southern California to race this year and that he "would very much like" to see his mare face Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra.
Moss said no decision on Zenyatta's schedule would be made until after trainer John Shirreffs assesses how the mare comes out of Saturday's Grade 1 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Zenyatta scored her 11th victory in as many career starts in the Vanity. Rachel Alexandra posted her seventh straight victory with a romp in Saturday's Grade 1 Mother Goose at Belmont Park.
"Obviously, we take it race to race," Moss said. "[Shirreffs] is going to need a week to see how she's come through this . . . then maybe we'll say something about where our next start will be, and it could be out of the state for certain."
"If the two horses are ready and at the top of their form, I would very much like to see a race between the two of them," Moss said. This was before the running of the Mother Goose, then after seeing both horses run that day Mr. Moss came back on 6.28.2009, and changed his mind. Stating that the detention barns would cause Zenyatta problems just as it did Tiago and Giacomo. Is it really the detention barns that caused these two horses’ issues or the fact that they were not the highest quality of horse?
I would think that in Zenyatta’s case there would be no reason to worry about that due to her being undefeated and of such high quality stock. Hopefully we’ll see these two clash. That is still in the air, as for right now we have one horse working towards a Horse of the Year campaign and another horse working towards Horse of California Campaign, very similar to Lava Man. Stay tuned the Haskell should be exciting.

Rachel Alexandra Vs Zenyatta, Just tell me where!!!

2009-07-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

In one corner stands the up and coming challenger - Rachel Alexandra - winner of 7 straight by a combined 63 1/4 lengths. Winner of the Fantasy Stakes, the Kentucky Oaks, the Preakness Stakes (A Triple Crown Race) and the winner of the Mother Goose Stakes in devastating fashion. Are there any more superlatives that can be used to describe this filly.

In the other corner stands the Champion - Zenyatta - Ultra consistent, she always makes her run and guess what she always wins, She has won the Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn Park, and the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic against a top notch field that included reigning Eclipse award winner Ginger Punch, Grade 1 winners Cocoa Beach, Music Note, Hystericalady and Carriage Trail.

The stage is set, the competitors are warmed up as can be confirmed by their practice rounds in the Mother Goose and the Vanity. So the question is when will this showdown take place. I hate to disappoint everyone but "IT WONT".

The owner of Zenyatta stated that he would wasn't afraid to run Zenyatta against R.A. outside of California during the summer, which would leave plenty of time for Zenyatta to be ready for the Breeders Cup. Well that statement was made on Saturday morning, hours before the running of the Mother Goose at Belmont Park. After watching both competitors do in their weary foes, it looked as if we were primed for the marketing explosion and awaiting the venue and the race that these two great mares would run in. Whoops, it seems as if Jerry Moss watched the replay of the Mother Goose a few too many times. On Tuesday not more than 72 hours after announcing in an article in DRF that he would ship Zenyatta to face Rachel Alexandra, Mr. Moss had a change of heart. I would guess that watching the Mother Goose and the ease of which Rachel Alexandra won that race gave him indication that this would be one horse that his super mare could not catch having to go five wide on the final turn. I must honestly say that I don't blame him. I do find it very cowardice that he would go back on something that could be so instrumental to the well being of horse racing. But every owner has to make his own decision about things of this nature and it seems that the thought process is the preserving of her perfect record is most important to Mr. Moss and the synthetic legacy that Zenyatta will no doubt be labeled with.

When I think back to Zenyatta's 2008 and 2009 campaign, I like most writers and horse racing fans will think back to the four Grade II events that Zenyatta ran in for no apparent reason other than the fact that this was the softest most convenient schedule ever run in by a horse that was considered to be the best mare in racing at the time. Zenyatta's connections have allowed her to be disgraced by running in lesser known grade 2 events against horses that have just barely broken their maidens. Then because of her running style she wins those races not in a romp or convincingly, but by a few lengths. What does this mean for her legacy? Well she'll be known as the champion that beat a number of allowance company and faced very little legitimate competition. And for the naive West Coasters that talk about how she faced such a stellar field in the B.C. Ladies Classic, well she did but on a synthetic surface. A surface a number of these horses had never raced on. So was the playing field even, no by no means.

Lets also talk about the stupidity of the Breeders Cup for first hosting the Breeders Cup dirt races on a Synthetic surface, and then having the nerve to do so two years in a row. The best way to put it, like many out west who try to make excuses for dirt horses running bad out west, CLASSLESS. Listening to message board members who talk about how Curlin was over the top by the Breeders Cup or the same excuse for Ginger Punch. This is ridiculous, and very much shows a lack of knowledge with regard to the game of horse racing. That same excuse can not be used for every dirt horse that struggled last year on the synthetics. Lets run down that list.
Curlin - numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt - 4th in the classic on synthetics. - Career worst
Cocoa Beach numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt 2nd in the L.C.
Music Note-numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt 3rd in the L.C.
Hystericalady -numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt 5th in the L.C.
Ginger Punch -numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt 6th in the L.C. - Career Worst
Fabulous Strike - numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt 5th in the Sprint
Black Seventeen - Grade 1 winner on dirt 7th in the Sprint
First Defence - Grade 1 winner on dirt last in the Sprint - Career Worst
Munnings - Graded stakes winner ran 10th in the Juvi
Mine That Bird - Kentucky Derby Winner Ran dead last - Career Worst
Be Smart - Graded placed - Career Worst
Doremifasollatido - Graded stakes winner on dirt - career worst
Pyro Graded stakes winner on dirt - career worst
Lewis Michael - Grade 1 winner on dirt - career worst
Indian Blessing - numerous Grade 1 wins on dirt - had never fired on synthetics.
Intangaroo - Grade 1 winner on dirt
Dearest Trickski Graded Stakes placed
Dream Rush Graded Stakes placed

So this is the list, I would love to hear the excuses that the west coasters can make for the
18 horses on this list that were all over the top or whatever excuse you'd like to use. Please ask Bob Baffert to verify the reason why Indian Blessing will not run on the west coast for the rest of her career. Well this would give indication that synthetic surfaces play differently than dirt and the difference between dirt and synthetics horses is large. So the nonsense that is spoken by some about Jess Jackson's decision to skip the Breeders Cup is not going to be the first announcement of this nature. This can be expected more and more as we get closer to the running of the Breeders Cup. Attendance will be down and the handle at the track will be down, all things that I personally could care less about due to the fact that the Breeders Cup and California has disgraced horse racing by taking a championship such as the Breeders Cup and put it on a synthetic surface. Could you imagine the Kentucky Derby on a synthetic surface, NO, not possible because it is a dirt race and has been for hundreds of years. People don't understand what tradition means. This does not mean changing something that has been in place for years on a whim.

Back to the match up that will not happen. Lets look at the thoughts of some who realize the truth behind the balking of the connections of Zenyatta. Some just plain and simple want to see Zenyatta challenged, not by horses that have run in optional claiming races, or allowance races or even Grade III events. Something has to be done to allow her to prove her greatness because as of right now that is in question. When you continue to beat up on the same horses continually and not impressively let me point out, that means that either you are afraid your horse will lose to decent competition or you just don't care about the legacy that she will be remembered for. If you look at the resume of Pepper's Pride 19 for 19 she was impressive because she beat horses that were of comparable quality. Therefore she towered over these, Zenyatta is beating horses that no doubt are no where close to her ability. This would mean you step up and actually face some competition. Zenyatta due to her connections handling of her will not be known with Personal Ensign, Zarkava, Azeri, Indian Blessing, Eight Belles or Rachel Alexandra or many other outstanding fillies or mares. Why because these stepped outside their comfort zones because their connections felt that they were the very best and wanted to challenge that theory. The Moss's know that Zenyatta can beat inferior fields on synthetics and they are happy doing that, if that's how they feel then let that be, but please don't start the talk about Horse of the Year. Right now Rachel Alexandra, Mine That Bird, Einstein, Well Armed, Precious Passion. All of these horse have more right to Horse of the Year honors, with R.A. being at the top of the list due to her impressive wins in the most prestigious of races that are being run at this time. Does Zenyatta's race record match up with a Grade II Milady and Grade I Vanity win. Not even close. Do her connections seem to care. It seems as if they don't and I understand that but I don't understand why they would be afraid to face a 3 year old up and coming star in Rachel Alexandra. Show that you have confidence in your charge and let this match up happen.

Is zenyatta overrated, absolutely not, she is a very good race mare. Will she be able to show her true greatness, unlikely, she will always be remembered as the horse that faced and beat very little whose connections were petty and classless and begged for HOY votes.

Here's to the connections of Rachel Alexandra for allowing us to see the greatest thing running today, and campaigning her as if they want her to win Horse Of The Year. Kudos Jess Jackson and Steve Asmussen. Thumbs down to the connections of Zenyatta for being cowards and hiding out west. Thumbs down to the West Coast lovers who get to watch lower tier horse racing and connections. Now we all understand why the state of horse racing is as it is out West.

Rachel Alexandra - The Grade 1 Mother Goose

2009-06-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Rachel Alexandra, Rachel Alexandra, Rachel Alexandra! She is the absolute darling of the horse racing world, and for the connections of fillies & colts & yes even for that monster out West, let me give all of you a clue about what is going on. "She is Still Learning", lets quickly break down the Mother Goose and see what actually transpired. Rachel A, broke very alertly and she ran the first quarter in approximately 23:37 seconds and then she followed with a 2nd quarter of 22:09 with a 3rd quarter breather of 24.20. These are extraordinary splits for a horse that is able to hit the Belmont straight and win by almost 20 lengths. Most horses would be gased after these type of fractions. Rachel Alexandra was hardly breathing in the winner's circle. Calvin Borel is quoted as saying: "She's Not Normal", I would tend to agree in every way shape form and fashion. Borel made an impressive request to his filly on the turn, and he split horses and urged the filly a few times to go on, and then the race was over. Just like a future hall of famer, Borel put his stick on the filly’s shoulder blade a couple of time to allow her to get something out of the race and that is where her public workout began. She was able to run what would seem to be 1/16th of a mile and then he put the brakes on her. She begin to slow up and when she stopped the timer it read 1:46.33. Pretty good time huh, well not if you are up on the history of the race, the time was .25 faster than the race run by Lakeway in 1994, and less than a second slower than the track record set by Secretariat. The margin of victory bested the previous record by more than 6 lengths. And again I state that Rachel Alexandra didn’t break a sweat in this race.
Lets break down the competition that Rachel Alexandra faced, in the filly Malibu Prayer she faced a Allowance horse that previously won an allowance race by 7 ¼ lengths in a time of 1:44 and change. In the filly Flashing, she faced a graded stakes winner who has won 4 races and has shown a great deal of ability. Enough ability that people actually wagered on her and thought there was a chance that she could upset Rachel Alexandra. It wasn’t in the cards for Flashing that day. Now in comparison Zenyatta was out west beating up on an allowance and optional claiming field of horses that have not come close to winning a graded stakes event, Zenyatta struggled to get past the field as Mike Smith had to vigorously go to the whip on Zenyatta . Did the weight have something to do with the lackadaisical effort, its very possible? Could it be that Zenyatta is just not the same horse, I really don’t know, she is still very impressive but has no credentials for Horse of the Year thus far.

Where should Rachel race next, at this point all plans to run her against the boys should be scrapped until a meeting with Zenyatta. How many people realize that if she is asked to extend herself as she did in the Preakness, let’s say in the Haskell or Travers, then that would set up a vulnerable Rachel Alexandra. The next stop on The Rachel Alexandra tour should be in the Coaching Club American Oaks on 7/25/2009 at 1 ¼ mile, and then possibly the Alabama on 8/22/2009 at 1 1/8th mile, this would set her up perfectly to meet Zenyatta with 6 weeks rest until the Beldame which is on 10/3/2009 and at 9 furlongs which is a distance both connections want to race their mares. Here is the catch though, Rachel would seem to get a bit of a breather at some point this summer again, the freshener that she received after the Preakness did her good, she seems very ready to put together a nice summer run, and that would be the real question for Jess Jackson to answer. Are you really not going to send her to the Breeders Cup, if so there is absolutely no reason to race her after her meeting with Zenyatta on October 3rd. That would be the end of her season and she could rest and get the winter off, come back to Oaklawn Park, and prep and get ready to run in the Apple Blossom. And then take off from there and try to possibly repeat HOY honors depending on what the rest of the year holds.

Comparing the 2 Champions – This is a touchy subject for some, there are certain members of certain message boards that feel that California racing is just as competitive and has the same quality of racing as the East Coast. Your heart may try to tell that because you are naive or just ignorant of the fact that California racing has been invalidated by the synthetics, but when a Grade 1 winner and defending Eclipse award winning mare runs against a field of optional Claimers, well facts are facts. California racing means very little in the overall scheme of things as verified by HOY voting in 2008. A horse winning meaningless races doesn’t have a shot at winning HOY and my statement is validated by what Mr. Jerry Moss had to say earlier today. As mentioned in the newly posted DRF: “"We can't do what we did last year," Moss said. "We have to find a bit of a variety. She ships very well and we wouldn't mind shipping. "If you're going to run against the boys, you might as well do it in the big one," Shirreffs said. "The Breeders' Cup is at Santa Anita."
At this point there is no reason for debate as to who the best horse is, we’ll let them figure that out on the track but at this point my thoughts go back to the class of competition that has been kept thus far by the 2 mares. Zenyatta has run against 1 Grade 1 winning horse thus far in 2009. Thus far Rachel Alexandra has faced 1 filly that is a grade 1 winner, a grade 3 winner, 3 Grade 2 winning and a number of Grade 1 winning males. The current record in 2009 Zenyatta 2-0 1 G1, 1G2. R.A. 6-0, 3 Grade 1, 2 Grade 2 races. And so I ask you thus far who is the front runner for HOY. That one is easy, but apparently not so much for those on the msnbc horse racing board. If the horse they enjoy has not won a race you can catch an argument for that horse and its HOY credentials. Sad but true. I enjoy being away from the California Queen of editing, but she doesn’t know anything about horse racing, you know who you are, I enjoy not having to deal with the hatred by the board follower, sad that your jealousy of Jess Jackson causes you to be such an idiot. And last I must say that I enjoy not having to deal with the meaningless that never really say much but want to chime in to the come to the defense of others. Please take some classes to try to learn and understand horse racing because you continue to embarrass yourselves with your idiotic statements. How far off were you with your HOY thoughts last year, amazing how the naive can keep that feeling as if they actually know something. Well you don't. You don't know much at all, there are some sites out there that can help the amateurs. View them, learn something. It may help you in the future, and yes that goes for you also Mrs. "I do bet on racing and have followed it for many decades." Rank Amateur at best is where you rank. As for the other member of the board that feels that they need to continue to mention my absence, it makes me feel good to see how bitter some menial people are. If by some chance you had business of your own Mrs. "thanks to the absence of a certain board member we can all enjoy these fillies in peace" maybe you wouldn't have to worry so much about what I do. Its great to see that you have not progressed much more than your usual rants about how great west coast racing is and how one horse is better than the other. Its lovely to see the credit I get for all of the immature statements made on the board within the last year or so during the Curlin vs BB saga. All my fault, sure, I'll take that but at the same time I'll take to the bank the fact that I have an opinion that I'll share at any and all times. You on the other hand, you are basically like the previous follower mentioned, a degenerate, someone who likes to hear a statement, certainly not an original thought of your own, but any statement and run with it as if it were yours. Some of you are sad people, hold your grudges, as long as u need to. But remember that just causes stress and a long hard life for people like you.

Rachel Alexandra HOY - Already? YES!

2009-06-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yes you heard it here, she's done more against more and will continue to do more than any horse out there in the country, and no its not about running against and beating a nice set of sophomores in the Preakness Stakes. Its about a legacy, a challenge, and sportsmanship, things that have led Jess Jackson to be voted the most influential figure in the Sport of Kings. Owners and trainers the likes of Rick Porter, Mary Lou Whitney, Maggi Moss and others trainers like Larry Jones, Tim Ritchey, Steve Asmussen, Todd Pletcher, who will show sportsmanship and race their horses against the very best, these are people that can be respected. The same superlatives that Jerry Moss and John Sheriffs know nothing about, which naturally would lead them to receive absolutely no votes for such a prestigious award. That word chimes very loudly in the back of many people's minds eye. Why, because important or prestigious (DIRT & TURF) races define champions, they make a horse, whether a mare or colt, what they really are. What does ducking competition, scratching out of races when the weather and track surface are perfect, and hiding in California to run on a synthetic surface while beating up on fields or 3 or 4 horses that have accomplished little more than allowance company wins do for a horse and its connections. In my opinion it ranks your horse right up there with the likes of a Pepper's Pride, undefeated is what they want, but when you beat no one you wont be remembered.
What everyone will remember is the whining that Sherrifs did after his horse was embarrassed in HOY voting in 2008. Let's look at one interview where Sherrifs was quoted. The question: "The debate has already begun as far as Horse of the Year honors. It seems it may come down to a two-horse race between Zenyatta and Curlin. Make your case for Zenyatta."
The Answer:"The debate has already begun as far as Horse of the Year honors. It seems it may come down to a two-horse race between Zenyatta and Curlin. Make your case for Zenyatta."
It seems to me that John Sherrifs would have a marvelous career as a politician, as he spews as much crap as the big timers on Capital Hill. Seriously John, beating the likes of Dawn after Dawn, Double Trouble, Fleetheart Silver Z, Kris' Sis and Silver Swallow over and over again was a challenge for your horse. I am not sure I understand the dynamics of that statement. Beating a champion like Ginger Punch in the Apple Blossom now that was impressive and she received a great deal of respect from me for that win, as I was there live to watch her run her race. But then it was back to Cali to bury our heads in the sand I mean the Synthetics, and race against allowance competition fields for the most part for the rest of the 6 race campaign. Its incredible to think that Sherriffs feels that people with common sense are naive enough to believe that it was difficult for Zenyatta to beat allowance fields. And if that is the case then I would guess that he is saying that she is not that great a horse after all. I would love to be able to delve more into that statement but, lets not, it was a ridiculous statement by a man lobbying for votes for a horse that won 3 Grade II races. Just the fact that this horse, such a great horse was allowed to run and compete at the grade II level, says one of two things to me. Either she really isn't as good as advertised and they have to find the softest spots for her to run in all year long so they have a rested horse for the B.C. (which in my opinion is a debacle due to being run on synthetics) or the connections are so worried about keeping her race record perfect that it seemed better to continue to win Grade II races in comparison with the losses that Curlin suffered while being allowed to face new and exciting challenges. Oh by the way, Remember Curlin 2007 & 2008 Horse of the year by landslide votes each time. Jess Jackson is a man that impresses, he always does what is right by his horse and allows them time to recover from a race before jumping the gun and asking too much of his charge. He is a brilliant man who knows that to win championships that are deserved you have to step out of your comfort zone (he lives in Cali) and allow your horse to show what a truly great champion he or she is. How was he rewarded for that type of sportsman ship, do we all remember the final HOY tally. Curlin 153, Zenyatta 69, Big Brown 13. I would have voted B.B. HOY before I would have voted for Zenyatta as his campaign was stronger, and he faced much better competition. The same will hold true for Rachel Alexandra this year, she has already 2 Grade II and 2 Grade 1 wins under her belt, one a historic win that we mentioned in the Preakness against males. She will go forward in the Mother Goose a race with historic significance at Belmont Park next Saturday, and I am sure the connections of Zenyatta will continue to look on and wonder what could have been if they decided to ever ship their horse to a venue with the intent of actually racing her on dirt against other Great horses. Don't get me wrong, I hold no ill-will towards Zenyatta, I love the mare, again, I was privileged to watch her race live at Oaklawn Park. I question what the connections are doing, trying to develop a legacy, maybe someone should explain that having another Pepper's Pride does nothing for the game of Horse Racing, running only in your own state against claimers is 1 and I do mean 1 step above what the connections of Pepper's Pride did, but they did it even better as she is 19-19. I really hate it that she will never get to strut her stuff on the biggest stages on a true championship surface. Because the synthetics will never cut it. And I will again give a big Wet Willy Thumbs down to the Breeders Cup and their board members for allowing the B.C. to be held in California period on a synthetic surface for dirt horses but for allowing it to come back to California 2 years in a row, its as if children are running the show in the front office of the Breeders Cup, an embarrassment to horse racing in general. Put the championships back on Dirt where they belong, so we can really find out who the best are.

Alexandra The Great - How Good is this Filly? Hmm

2009-05-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

I've watched this race a number of times and I don’t believe that R.A. in any way ever changed leads, what im saying is that all of the superlatives that you can use to understand what type of engine this filly has don’t really give you a true understanding of her potential. 1. She's winning races at the same distance as the colts in faster times without ever being asked, she looks as if her pedigree and her training is going to allow her to go as far as they want to take her, (the 1 1/2 mile Belmont is well within her scope) her times in the last few races:
1 1/8 Oaks: 1:48.87
1 1/16 Fantasy: 1:43.35
1 1/16 F.G. Oaks: 1:43.55
1 Mile Martha Washington: 1:36.40 (beat stakes record by 2 full seconds)

Comparing F.F. races
1 1/16 L.A. Derby 1:43.46
1 1/16 Risen Star 1:45.11
1 Mile Lecomte 1:37.67

Faster times accomplished with no asking of her jockey, F.F. was at the least all out in 2 out of 3 of these races, and although he won the L.A. Derby by daylight the jockey was asking at certain points down the lane.

I wanted to make sure to point out what type of greatness we are possibly looking at, and how even with a bounce from her 108 Beyer in the Oaks if she runs a strong 102 or 103, it’s possible that she could trounce this field, she is going to be close to the lead and with that long stride I don’t believe that any of these colts will close in, Papa Clem, Pioneer of the Nile and F.F will get a piece and if Big Drama is in decent form coming off of this layoff he could be included somewhere, but it seems as if these horses are all running for Second, now take into consideration all of these connections know this, and they also know she'll be carrying 5 lbs less just like Rags against the Belmont Field 2 years ago, this is going to be intriguing until they turn for home and she starts to open up on this field of horses, I think with all these considered here we are looking at a Possible Horse of the Year candidate in Rachel Alexandra.

Rachel Alexandra - The Preakness Conspiracy

2009-05-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely the most ridiculous situation I've ever come across during my time of being a horse racing fan. Here is the summation from thoroughbred.com:

"The owners of Mine That Bird and Pioneerof the Nile began the day on Sunday by revealing that they were going to do what they could to keep Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Rachel Alexandra out of the Preakness Stakes (G1). By the end of the day, after hours of controversy and hand-wringing by Thoroughbred racing officials and fans alike, both parties decided they would do no such thing and would not try to prevent the Kentucky Oaks winner from taking on the boys in the middle leg of the Triple Crown.
Since Rachel Alexandra was not nominated to the Triple Crown, she would have to be supplemented to the Preakness for $100,000 by new owner Jess Jackson, and she could not take the place of a nominated horse if the race draws more than the maximum of 14 starters. Mark Allen, the co-owner of Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Mine That Bird, said early on Sunday that he planned to enter a nominated maiden named Indy Express in the Preakness. Ahmed Zayat, the owner and breeder of Derby runner-up Pioneerof the Nile, also said on Sunday morning that he planned to enter at least one additional horse. Zayat led all owners with 22 nominees to the Triple Crown.
Both Allen and Zayat acknowledged that they wanted Rachel Alexandra to be excluded. “I just want my rider back,” said Allen, referring to jockey Calvin Borel’s decision to ride Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness rather than Mine That Bird. Borel piloted the Medaglia d’Oro filly to a dominant 20 ¼ victory in the Oaks (video).
Zayat originally said he had both business and personal reasons for wanting to avoid Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness.
“I want my chance for revenge with Mine That Bird,” Zayat said. “It’s also a business decision.”
Zayat said he had received numerous calls from owners and breeders encouraging him to use the power that he has to bump Rachel Alexandra. “People are concerned that it would not be for the good of the sport,” Zayat said. “Nobody wants a situation like we had last year with Eight Belles.” Zayat also received a call on Sunday morning from Allen, urging him to help push the filly out. Allen said he did not think fillies should race against colts at this stage of their careers. He also said entering the maiden, who is winless in nine starts, was a business decision. Allen said the colt would not be scratched and would run in the Preakness.
“He’s a good colt; I can tell you one thing, he won’t be last,” Allen said of the A.P. Indy colt trained by Joe Merrick. Zayat also indicated that he would scratch any horses he entered other than Pioneerof the Nile.
As the drama continued throughout the afternoon, industry professionals and racing fans made their feelings known.
"If that’s what we’ve come to, it’s a sad state of affairs," Maryland Racing Commisision Chairman John Franzone said. "If you’re doing it to prohibit this horse from being in, it’s just not good. The point is, if you truly think you have the best horse, you take on all comers, you don’t try to manipulate it so there’s an advantage."
Franzone did, however, admit that there was not much Maryland Jockey Club officials could do in the event that Zayat and Allen did try to keep Rachel Alexandra from the field.
"What if the Maryland Jockey Club just said, no, this is bad for our event? They’d be sued," he said. "Somebody would probably come to the racing commission and ask for an immediate decision. I can’t sit here and quote all the regulations, but I don’t think we have the wherewithal to stop someone from entering an open race."
Several hours later, both Zayat and Allen had backpedaled and dramatically changed their tunes.
Late Sunday afternoon, Zayat—who said he received a call from The Jockey Club—told Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas that he intended to enter only Pioneerof the Nile.
In an interview later in the afternoon on Television Games Network (TVG), Zayat said he would do what was best for the fans of the sport.
“Her former owner’s original plan was not to run in the Preakness. He said he had respect for the industry, and that the Triple Crown was to showcase the three-year-old colts and future stallions. I have never heard of a jockey moving from a Kentucky Derby winner to ride another horse. I find it disrespectful for America’s most coveted race. Considering all these factors, along with what I heard from other owners and breeders, I decided I would do what was in the best interest for all of us. To be honest with you, I’m not playing saint and am not above everything else. I have a vested interest; it was a business decision.
“One other criteria for me, I like playing by the rules. All these colts from the very beginning have had to compete and go through the regimen and tough scheduling and go from one race to another to get graded earnings, and that puts a lot of stress on them. And in all fairness, she did not have to go through all that, and her previous owners did not even bother to nominate her to the Triple Crown, and then someone else comes in and tries to change the name of the game and the rules in the middle of the game and I think that is unfair. I’m not against the filly running against the boys. Who am I to say that? But I am questioning the two-week interval. Why not give her a freshening and run her in the Belmont? Two weeks for a filly. Does our sport need another Eight Belles? We all know what happened to Rags to Riches after her race in the Belmont. We all know what happened to Ruffian. I did not want to have that part of it on my watch.
“Nevertheless, after getting off the phone from the president of The Jockey Club, who told me what he had been hearing, I have decided I don’t want to be viewed as not being a sportsman, so I am happy not to block her for the good of the game. Please understand this is not about me; this is about the industry, and although what is right is not very clear to me, I am happy to reconsider my decision for the fans.”
Later in the day, Mark Allen also retracted his earlier plans to block Rachel Alexandra from the race.
"I was thinking about entering a maiden in the Preakness to get Calvin back and to keep that filly out of the race," Allen told Sports Illustrated. "But that ain't right. I ain't gonna do it. It just ain't the right thing to do.
"I was hanging out with my girlfriend and riding my Harley around and I got to thinking about it. It just ain't right. And when you do things that ain't right, it'll come back on you.
"She might kick our butts, but she deserves a shot. Myself, I wouldn't run her against the boys. I'd go for the filly Triple Crown. But she ain't my filly. She may outrun us and she may not. But I ain't gonna stop her from running."
Jackson, who along with Harold T. McCormick purchased Rachel Alexandra earlier in the week, said through all of the controversy that he still planned to enter the filly in the Preakness.
"Rachel Alexandra had an impressive workout today, and she is ready to run in the Preakness," Jackson said. "Since it's Mother's Day, I wish I could announce to all mothers everywhere that this incredible filly is entered to take on the boys, but Triple Crown rules may prevent us from sending her to Pimlico. I want the fans to know we are prepared to enter her, and I am hopeful that her entry will be accepted. I know we all want the thrill of seeing Rachel Alexandra race next weekend."
Zayat said he also had been encouraged by a representative of Marylou Whitney, the owner of Mine That Bird’s sire, Birdstone. Whitney plans to start Luv Gov, who won a maiden race on Derby undercard (video), in the Preakness.
Luv Gov's trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said the colt's presence would have nothing to do with Rachel Alexandra. “We think he has a legitimate chance,” Lukas said. “It has nothing to do with keeping the filly out. When I called [Maryland Jockey Club stakes coordinator Coleman Blind] I asked him how many they had and he said 13. It has nothing to do with Rachel Alexandra. We want to run.”

As a fan of the sport, and a lover of thoroughbreds, let me just chime in and this is outrageous, this is as bad for the game of horse racing as Manny Ramirez's suspension from baseball for doping. Bad sportsmanship is not something that should be tolerated and just the fact that the owners would make a statement of this nature should lead to suspensions and huge fines. I don't like this for the game of horse racing and I hate this for the connections of the filly. I guess we will see what develops.

Arkansas Derby

2009-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

The Arkansas Derby is one of the most prestigous races Kentucky Derby prep races on the schedule each year. This year again the Arkansas Derby will have a large field of very accomplished 3 year olds that will go to the post looking for the winner's share of the $1Million purse. This year the prohibitive favorite is Old Fashioned, the charge trained by Larry Jones and owned by Fox Hill Farm, owner Rick Porter has a great deal of confidence in his horse even after losing the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in March. Win Willy the 56-1 upset winner of the Rebel is back to give an indication as to wheather that race was a fluke or if he is a true contender looking to go forward after that career best Grade II stakes win. Papa Clem a southern California shipper is looking to upset this field and show that the west coast horses are legitimate. Danger to Society is a Rick Dutrow horse that is coming in to try to steal some of the thunder from the other horses that have been on the grounds. 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin won this race in 2007 as a 3-year-old. This is the Post Position Draw for the Running of the Arkansas Derby 2009.

Arkansas Derby
Grade: II Purse: $1 million Distance: 9 Furlongs Age: 3-Year-Olds
Track: Oaklawn Park TV: Click to view image Saturday, April 11, 2009 @ 6:00 PM ET
1. Captain Cherokee 20/1
2. Papa Clem 6/1
3. Flat Out 10/1
4. Poltergeist 20/1
5. Ziegfield 12/1
6. Flying Private 6/1
7. Summer Bird 30/1
8. Old Fashioned 9/5
9. Win Willy 7/2
10. Danger to Society 6/1

AAF Update - 3.8.2009

2009-03-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Proud Spell the Winner of the Kentucky Oaks, and the Alabama Stakes has been pointed to a 1 1/16 allowance optional claiming race on March 12, 2009 @ Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Owned by ex Kentucky Governor Breton Jones, Proud Spell a 4 year old filly out of Proud Citizen has been putting in impressive works since starting to be cranked up by her trainer Larry Jones early in February. The last official workout was timed at 1:00.00 flat on March 5th, Jones had previously stated that she would work up to the Apple Blossom Stakes or possibly have a simulated race in the morning has opted for an actual race that will tighten the screws for the champion filly. According to the Daily Racing Form, Proud Spell will break from the 6 hole and face 6 other fillies. 1. Superior Storm, 2. Kathleens Reel, 3. Holistic, 4. Day of Victory, 5. Devil House, and 7. Grace Happens.
Another in Larry Jones' barn Old Fashioned a top Kentucky Derby contender put in his final prep for a running in the 2nd leg of the Arkansas Kentucky Derby Prep Schedule when he was put through a 5 panel work with Terry Thompson aboard. Old Fashioned was given the bullet designation for his work this morning going in splits of 11.60 and 23.20 for the opening quarter and then 35.60 for 3 panels and 47.20 for the half mile before finishing the work in .59 flat. He galloped out 6 panels in 1:12. Ramon Dominguez will be aboard Old Fashioned in the 1 1/16 Rebel to be run at Oaklawn Park on Saturday March 14th. The race will feature the 1-2 finishers from the Southwest stakes a race that Old Fashioned won by almost 4 lengths over Silver City who will ship back from Fair Grounds Race course in New Orleans to contest the Grade II Race.

Top 5 Derby Contenders

2009-02-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

When I look at my Top 5 Derby horses I am looking for the pedigree that tells me that the horse can get the Classic Distance, and then on top of that the past performance for the horse that shows he can negotiate two turns. I need to see connections that will allow for the horse to develop as the horse needs to without being pushed too much in his preps and a trainer who’s not going to burn the shoes off the horse in the morning for no reason. The last thing I look at is the way the horse is handled in his preps and where he is prepping, I agree that some horses out west are really good, but none would or will ever be on my list without a dirt prep to see if they can handle the kickback and way that dirt racing is handled. All of these things are taken into consideration; I will start with my top choice.
1. Old Fashioned – This horse is by Unbridled Song, this tells me that the distance is not going to be an issue what so ever. He’s won at 6 panels up to 9 panels, all within himself. He’s shown the ability to blow out fields when he is fully cranked and still win with daylight when he’s not cranked at all as he did in the Southwest Stakes. He took the 1 1/8 mile Remsen with so much in reserve that it looked like he could have run another mile. I enjoyed the fact that this horse was acting as if he had jogged around the Oaklawn oval as they led him into the Winner’s Circle on President’s Day. This horse is in a position to do nothing but advance and move forward.
2. I want Revenge – This horse has been knocking heads with the best out west and incredibly and to the credit of the connections they have decided to put him in a dirt race to see what he’s able to do on the real surface. He’s been in the money in both graded stakes that he’s performed in both at 1 1/16 mile. So distance should not be an issue. He’s out of an A.P. Indy colt Stephen Got Even. He’s got a good up and coming jockey in Joe Talamo, who if patient can allow the horse to run his race every time.
3. Friesan Fire – This horse has done nothing wrong but be a stable mate to Old Fashioned, he is experienced and seasoned and if there is anything that you want in a Derby horse this horse should be your cup of tea. He’s won the two big Derby preps at Fairgrounds impressively and his pedigree shows that as the races get longer, well you know the old saying he’s going to Love the added distance. The only thing that is a detractor for this horse is that he’s going to need a slight break before the Derby which should help him but we’ll have to wait and see if Jones can let him down and get him cranked for the Derby.
4. Desert Party – This colt made Vineyard’s Haven look like an allowance horse last time out over in Dubai, as the way it was described by many is that he thrashed V.H. Desert Party sat chilly on the rail for Frankie Dettori and pounced and kept going as he won by almost 5 lengths. The pedigree of this horse says that he’s not going to have a problem dealing with the Classic distance and he seems to be nice and content doing just what the jockey asks of him at all calls.
5. Dunkirk – Well there’s not much to be said about this horse, just like his half brother everyone knows who he is, the only difference is that people seem to see a wow factor about this horse and how he’s devastated his overmatched foes. His pedigree is impeccable, and he’s bred to stay for as long as the race is run. We’ll see how it turns out but you can’t leave him out of your top five.

SouthWest Stakes Day - An "Old Fashioned Romp"

2009-02-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

An "Old Fashioned Romp"

As I watched the 44th running of the SouthWest stakes, I realized that we may be watching something special in a horse named Old Fashioned. This horse is owned and trained by the same connections of Eight Belles. This horse has the same Sire and the same desire and determination to win. Whats most impressive is how he does everything with ease. Larry Jones, Old Fashioned's trainer has said "This horse is truly blessed,". "He stays fit. We weren't looking to go out in :45, but he showed he was a lot fitter than we thought. He is a gift and we will play it day by day. With a horse like this you don't want to take any chances."
"After a two and a half month layoff, Larry Jones couldn't have prepared Old Fashioned any better for his 2009 debut," owner Rick Porter noted on his website. "He settled in nicely for Ramon chasing tough fractions, but showed his stuff when he turned for home. He did everything Larry wanted."

Old Fashioned is the second registered foal from Collect Call, whose first foal, Kauai Calls (Fusaichi Pegasus), is a two-time winner at six furlongs. Collect Call ranked among the prominent three-year-old fillies early in 2001. Because of his pedigree there are some questions about his ability to get the Classic Distance of the Kentucky Derby, but the ease of which he ran the 1 1/8 mile Remsen gives an indication there are no issues with his ability to get two turns.

Old Fashioned will continue to train and prep in Arkansas and take the same route as Champions Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron & Curlin. He will run next in the March 14th Rebel Stakes, and then in the April 11th Arkansas Derby.

Photos from the SouthWest Stakes can be found at : http://photobucket.com/afleetalexforever

Eclipse Awards Thoughts & Horse of the Year

2009-01-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

As expected The Eclipse awards brought out the who's who of the Horse Racing industry. Its just too bad everyone couldnt bring their animals. I am sure that the likes of Curlin and Zenyatta and Big Brown would have loved to give their own acceptance speeches. Curlin earned Horse of the Year for a second consecutive year, the first horse to do so since Cigar won a second Eclipse during 1995-1996. Curlin also earned Champion Older Male, and his trainer, Steve Asmussen earned Champion trainer. Curlin has now retired to stud for a first year fee of $75,000 at Lane's End in Versailles. But with every obstacle Curlin faced, his connections reminded everyone that the goal for the son of Smart Strike was to earn a place in the annals of Thoroughbred racing. In this race just like all of the others Curlin was able to win by a comfortable margin. Curlin received 153 first-place votes to 69 for Zenyatta with dual classic winner Big Brown snagging 13 votes.
"Racing is blessed to have such a magnificent athlete among us," majority owner Jess Jackson said of Curlin prior to the Breeders' Cup in October. "He's brilliant, durable and always shows up, always gives his best. The only time he's been beaten really is when race tactics or his own physical condition prevented him from winning."
As expected, Curlin and Zenyatta were named champion older male and champion older female, respectively, with Big Brown taking champion 3-year-old male honors.
Here is the break down of the Eclipse Awards.

Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male: Curlin
HOY Vote totals: Curlin, 153; Zenyatta, 69; Big Brown, 13; Raven's Pass, 2; Einstein, 1; Goldikova (IRE), 1; Peppers Pride, 1; Voter Abstentions, 2.Older Male Vote totals: Curlin, 239; Albertus Maximus, 1; Commentator, 1; Go Between, 1.

Two-Year-Old Male: Midshipman
Vote totals: Midshipman, 195; Vineyard Haven, 32; Old Fashioned, 7; Donativum (GB), 5; Desert Party, 1; Run Away and Hide, 1; Street Hero, 1.

Two-Year-Old Filly: Stardom Bound
Vote totals: Stardom Bound, 236; Maram, 2; Springside, 2; Rachel Alexandra 1, Sky Diva, 1.

Champion Three-Year-Old Male: Big Brown
Vote totals: Big Brown, 219; Raven's Pass, 21; Conduit (IRE) 1; Tale of Ekati, 1.

Three-Year-Old Female: Proud Spell
Vote totals: Proud Spell, 90; Eight Belles, 71; Goldikova (IRE), 41; Indian Blessing, 20; Music Note, 20.

Older Female: Zenyatta
Vote totals: Zenyatta, 240; Ginger Punch, 2

Male Sprinter: Benny the Bull
Vote totals: Benny the Bull, 107; Midnight Lute, 86; Street Boss, 40; Bustin Stones, 3; Fatal Bullet, 3; Visionaire, 1; Commentator, 1; Voter Abstentions, 1.

Female Sprinter: Indian Blessing
Vote totals: Indian Blessing, 138; Ventura, 88; Intangaroo, 13; Indyanne, 1; Voter Abstentions, 2

Male Turf Horse: Conduit
Vote totals: Conduit (IRE), 175; Einstein (BRZ), 31; Grand Couturier (GB), 11; Hyperbaric, 5; Kip Deville, 5; Red Giant 4; Court Vision, 2; Henrythenavigator, 1; Champs Elysees (GB), 1; Spirit One (FR), 1; Voter Abstentions, 6.

Female Turf Horse: Forever Together
Vote totals: Forever Together, 137; Goldikova, 94; Cocoa Beach (CHI), 6; Ventura, 3; Mauralakana (FR), 2.

Owner: Stronach Stables
Vote totals: Stronach Stables, 47; IEAH Stables, 46; Stonestreet Stables LLC and Midnight Cry Stables, 29; Mr. and Mrs. Jerome S. Moss, 27; Godolphin Racing, 24; Zayat Stables 16; Augustin Stable, 13; Maggi Moss, 11; Robert Cole, Jr., 10; Darley Stable, 4; Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, 2; H. Joe Allen, 1; J. Paul Reddam, 1; Juddmonte Farms, 1; Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum, 1; WinStar Farm, 1; Voter Abstentions, 8.

Breeder: Adena Springs
Vote totals: Adena Springs, 139; Stonerside Stable, 60; WinStar Farm, 13; Juddmonte Farms, 9; Brereton C. Jones, 4; Eugene Melnyk, 1; Edward P. Evans, 1; Fares Farm, Inc., 1; George Strawbridge, Jr., 1; Hal and Patti Earnhardt, 1; Maverick Production, 1; Monticule, 1; Voter Abstentions, 10.

Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Vote totals: Steve Asmussen, 187; Robert Frankel, 15; Larry Jones, 9; Bob Baffert, 7; Rick Dutrow, 5; Jerry Hollendorfer, 4; Bill Mott, 3; John Shirreffs, 2; Mike de Kock, 1; Anthony Dutrow, 1; Scott Lake, 1; Mike Maker, 1; Kiaran McLaughlin, 1; Todd Pletcher, 1; Howard Wolfendale, 1; Voter Abstentions, 3.

Jockey: Garrett Gomez
Vote totals: Garrett Gomez, 210; Rafael Bejarano, 11; Robby Albarado, 9; Russell Baze, 3; Kent Desormeaux, 3; Ramon Dominguez, 1; Alan Garcia, 1; Julien Leparoux, 1; Joe Rocco, 1; Mike Smith, 1; Voter Abstentions, 1.

100 Days left until Kentucky Derby 135

2009-01-21T20:48:00.001-08:00

With 100 days left before the gates open to start Kentucky Derby 135, there are so many issues that need to be discussed. The first time out do you start your charge in a prep race for sprinters, or do you send your horse to run in a two-turn route race. The second time out do you look for a 1 mile race or longer, and then there is the question of whether or not to prep in a third race. But the most discussed aspect is does the distance of the race matter. Most horseman and analysts would say yes, the distance of the prep race does matter, why though does it matter. Well let’s break it down and look at the way that each track sets up their prep races with regard to distance. We will take a look at: ,
Gulfstream Park – Hutchenson (7f) or Holy Bull (1 1/8 m), Fountain of Youth (1 1/16 m), Florida Derby (1 1/8 mile)
Aqueduct – Whirlaway Stakes (1 1/16 mile), Gotham Stakes (1 1/16 mile), Wood Memorial (1 1/8 mile)
Fairgrounds - Lecomte Stakes (1 mile), Risen Star (1 1/16 mile), Louisiana Derby (1 1/16 mile)
Santa Anita – Robert B. Lewis (1 1/16 mile), San Felipe Stakes (1 1/16 mile), Santa Anita Derby (1 1/8 mile)
Oaklawn Park – Southwest Stakes (1 mile), Rebel Stakes (1 1/16 mile), Arkansas Derby (1 1/8 mile)
The fact is there are so many preps that if you are thinking about prepping your horse at a certain track you have to take into consideration spacing the races out. Usually the best prep program would have each race spaced out 1 month apart so that the horse would be able to recover from each race. Looking at the way that the majority of the tracks set up the final prep theses races are all at (1 1/8 mile) or 9 furlongs. The length of the final prep prepares the horse to run in the Derby a stepping stone per say to the longest race that most 3 year olds will run in up to this point.
With the exception of the Louisiana Derby which is run at (1 1/16 mile) most connections want to see their horse run in a race that is at (1 1/8 mile). The Louisiana Derby though is a race that is ran in March, therefore many connections like to use the L.D. as a stepping stone to a race in April. It is important to again realize that the turnaround for a horse coming off of this race would have to be thought out very carefully. The race is ran in Mid March so races early in April would most likely not match up with the recovery time that most connections want for their colts. A race during the second week of April would most be more conducive to a colt coming out of the Louisiana Derby.
The stepping stone to a (1 1/8 mile) race is just as important as the final prep itself. Many connections focus on the historically significant tracks and races in preparing for the Kentucky Derby. Some don’t really worry about the location as they will ship their horses. Horses like Street Sense and Hard Spun were legitimate travelers, Street Sense prepping in Florida and Kentucky and Hard Spun prepping in Arkansas and Kentucky. These horses didn’t follow a traditional schedule, both connections had to call audibles after circumstances dictated this to occur. Hard Spun’s schedule change due to his not taking a liking to the track at Oaklawn Park, and Street Sense’s change due to the fact that his connections decided to get him a synthetic prep, therefore allowing for a workmanlike effort but at the same time not taking too much out of him and allowing the horse to not have to deal with the rigors of another Dirt prep before the derby. T his worked out quite well for SS’s connections, not so for the connections of Pyro and Visionaire, both of these horses prepped on a synthetic surface and fared horribly. Some say this caused the horse to regress after the polytrack effort and they both ran dismal Derby races.
The gradual progression in the length of the prep race is quite a factor in the development of a 3 year old colt. Running a horse at the same distance twice in preparation for the Kentucky Derby is detrimental in some people’s opinion. Others state that the length of a prep does not matter at all and that it is truly the best horse on the day that wins the race. But when looking at the results of the major contenders that move forward towards the Derby after their prep races, it would seem that the stepping stones provided by the Oaklawn Park Series. The SouthWest Stakes at 1 Mile, the Rebel Stakes at 1 1/16 mile, and the Arkansas Derby run at 1 1/16 mile, has been the springboard for a number of Eclipse award winning race horses in the last 5 years. This series has established itself as a major series of preps leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Horses like Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and Curlin have all come out of the Arkansas series, and have a major effect on the Triple Crown. Remember also that Lawyer Ron ran in the Oaklawn prep series in 2006, he went on to be the Eclipse award winning Older Horse that year. Bob Holthus Todd Pletcher both agree that the foundation that Lawyer Ron developed during his time of racing at Oaklawn Park. D. Wayne Lukas has said many times that there is no program like the program at Oaklawn due to the fact that the races are spaced perfectly and the movement in distance a 1/16th of a mile longer for each race gives the horse the ability to learn how to deal with longer distances and stretching out.
Another aspect of how to deal with prep races is the travel that is involved, as I stated earlier many times a trainer will want to use different venues to prep, to get his horse used to different circumstances. Barclay Tagg for one likes to prep his horses at Gulfstream and then move them along to the Louisiana derby and then up to Aqueduct to run in the Wood Memorial. He considered his route to be one that helps his horse deal with a good racing schedule and at the same time face stiff competition so he will know what he would need to do to prepare his horse for the Kentucky Derby. Todd Pletcher also is a huge shipper also, due to the fact that he has a number of horses in his stable, he moves some back and forth across the country. Steve Asmussen is totally different, although he has a large number of horses he likes to put his horses in a situation where they become acclimated to the location and comfortable with their surrounds. He wants the horse to be used to the track and the area so that he can give his best effort. The fact is each connection has to do what they feel is right for the horse and sadly some feel its all about winning, and although there is a realization that winning is the first and foremost thing, the horses well-being is important also. Appreciate has to be shown to those connection who realize that putting the horse first is always the best policy.
So does distance matter, many say yes, others say not at all, while others feel its just a matter of how a horse trains leading up to the Derby. Whatever your feeling realize that precedent says that a fresh horse with correctly spaced races can lead to a Derby winner. The main idea though is to do what’s best for your horse and make sure to get the horse safely to the starting gate to start in the Derby.. In our next article, we will look at the theory of the “Pletcher Syndrome”. Every connection wants to win, but a horse can’t put forth his best efforts every time out, do you focus on the win or do you focus on the prep aspect of the race, you prep for the Derby you don’t run in the Derby a month before that race.

111 Days until the 2009 Kentucky Derby

2009-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

111 Days until the 2009 Kentucky Derby.

This is part 1 in a 5 part series!

With just 111 days left until we experience “The most exciting two minutes in sports”, there are a few questions that need to be asked. What is interesting is that the answers will not come from humans, (well there will be some that come from humans) but most of the legitimate answers will come from the actions of the upcoming equine superstars of tomorrow. The new generation of thoroughbreds will have some large shoes to fill, but after watching the 2 year old races at the end of 2008 and seeing the few races that have kicked off during the beginning of 2009 there may be some that stand up and give indication that they are ready to fill those shoes.
We will start with a question that a human can actually answer. The question is “Where will you Prep”? There are a number of options, and there are no rules that state that if you start with a prep race at one track that you have to stay at that track. For example, many may remember the trouble that Hard Spun had at Oaklawn, he labored through a 4 panel workout, many may remember that Larry Jones stated that Hard Spun came back breathing pretty hard after that workout. There is more to read into this statement and the subsequent 4th place finish in the Southwest Stakes. Some may remember the ice storm that hit the Hot Springs, Arkansas area where Oaklawn Park is located. This caused a number of issues with track maintenance which caused the track to play deep for the early part of the season. After the running of the Southwest in which he was a beaten favorite Hard Spun was sent to Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky. There on March 24th, Hard Spun scored his fifth win in six starts with an impressive 3¼-length victory in the Lane's End Stakes in a strong time of 1:49 2/5 for the 1⅛-mile event. At that point it was thought that Hard Spun would run in the Blue Grass Stakes which would give him 3 preps but Larry Jones decided to skip that race and go directly to the Derby where Hard Spun finished 2nd to Street Sense.
When thinking about the different routes that are available to a Trainer when prepping for the Kentucky Derby there are a number of routes available. The most prominent are:
California, Santa Anita – San Rafael, Sham, Santa Anita Derby
Kentucky, Turfway & Lexington– John Battaglia,Lane’s End, Bluegrass Stakes
New York, Aqueduct – Count Fleet, Gotham, Wood Memorial
Arkansas, Oaklawn – Southwest, Rebel, Arkansas Derby
Florida, Gulfstream – Holy Bull, Fountain of Youth, Florida Derby
Louisiana, Fair Grounds – Lecomte, Risen Star, Louisiana Derby
So what exactly would you do, when you think back to the last few winners of the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown prepped in Florida, Street Sense prepped in Florida and then in Kentucky, Barbaro prepped in Florida, 2005 Giacomo prepped in California and 2004 Smarty Jones prepped in Arkansas. The thing to remember is that the best horse doesn’t always win the Kentucky Derby. When you go forward and consider that some trainers do very well getting their horse ready for 1 race especially, that gives indication that it may have been the horse that was best managed coming up to the Derby. So the location where a horse preps maybe more important that anyone would even think. If a horse is going to prep in Florida or New York, you can imagine that the top ranked three year olds will be there and your horse will have to be ready to give his best in these races. This is important because a horse has to have enough graded earnings to get a spot in the Derby starting gate. You do not want to have the best horse sitting in his stall at post time on the first Saturday in May.
The connections of the top Derby candidates: Vineyard Haven, Midshipman, Old Fashioned, Square Eddie, Pioneer of the Nile, all have decisions to make, the connections of Old Fashioned have made the decision to send him to Arkansas’s Oaklawn park at the end of January to start his trek to the Derby in the Southwest Stakes. This race which is run this year on February 16th at 1 mile. If things work out he’ll move forward to the Rebel Stakes and then the Arkansas Derby. The other connections have intriguing decisions to make. Vineyard’s Haven and Midshipman will prep in Dubai, which most feel will put them at a considerable disadvantage. Square Eddie and Pioneer of the Nile’s connections also have very intriguing decisions to make also, that decision is to prep on the synthetics or to travel to find some Dirt. The Kentucky Derby is a race that is still held on conventional Dirt, and most trainers realize that they need to get their horse a prep race on dirt. The example of Colonel John gives an indication that a horse was put at a substantial disadvantage because his connections did not give him the Derby “Dirt” prep before walking him over to the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby. Eoin Harty decided that he would send his horse to Kentucky a few weeks before the Derby the horse had a difficult time during the first part of the race and then came on to finish a credible 6th. In most opinion had the horse had a conventional Dirt prep, he possibly would have fared better. This can be validated by his hard fought win in the Travers Stakes later in the year. It is quite possible that this year could see a different attitude in the way that horses will prep going forward coming out of California. The synthetics put the horse in a position where he may or may not be comfortable in his first start on dirt being the most difficult race in the world to win. Sometimes the questions that are asked should truthfully be asked of the horse and not the trainer. Sadly the horse can’t tell you what he needs; he has to show by the way that he trains over the surface how he will respond during a race. Sometimes the way that the horse trains still doesn’t give you enough feedback on how he will do during the race. For the benefit of the horse it would seem that it would be best to bring the horse east to let him get a taste of Dirt racing, but some feel there is no need for that. It can at times have an effect on how the horse performs, so the question is: With 111 days left to Kentucky Derby 135, which route will you take, and will it be the synthetics or Dirt.
There are more questions that need to be asked in the 2nd installment of this topic we will discuss whether the distance of the prep races has any affect on how a horse moves forward.

"Commentator" - Risen from the Ashes

2008-12-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

Edition #2 of the "Marcus in Seattle" Files.

He is listed on NTRA as "one of the most brilliant front runners in recent decades, he can simply blitz his competition off thir feet." He won the MassCap and the Whitney, both in stylish fashion. Every time he runs, I think of Trevor Denman calling a race right out of the gate.

"Annnnnddddd awayyyyy they go!

"That's emblematic of what I've come to know and expect from Commentator. Back to back wins in the Whitney. A nice Place in the Met Mile. Good racing, plain and simple. All of this seems amazingly surreal for a horse to accomplish at age 7 with all of his past problems. Health derails many careers. Zito took Commentator and allowed him to be great in time, instead of pushing him to fill pockets when he was younger. It seems to have panned out. The horse flys out of the gate, shows great speed and runs other horses into the ground. It seems like a sound method of running a horse; Hard Spun used the same tactic two years ago but didn't seem to have everything together in one race. On a side note, I've always admired Hard Spun. In other years, he would have been an elite horse. I won't dare say he had Triple Crown talent, but neither did Funny Cide and a few others. Hard Spun was just plain fun to watch. He had speed, could run all day and had a remarkable knack for being consistently in the race anywhere from 6 to 12 furlongs. From a trainer's standpoint, I'm sure Spunny was a dream horse. But all of that talent was retired too early. The potential not realized. Hard Spun might have been an excellent rival to Curlin this past year. We never will know.

But I digress, Commentator reminds me of Hard Spun in ways. Different in others. For one, Commentator was given the time to realize potential. He is 7 and yes I realize he is a gelding. When health issues showed up, they could have retired him. They didn't. I admire Nick Zito for that. In one year, I've seen an owner (Jess Jackson) race his colt for the good of racing and it's fans. Curlin not only raced for money but for legacy as well when he could have been in the shed. His place among the greats is secure. But now I've witnessed a trainer pull his horse from the ashes to try a campaign at age 7 that may put him in the company of Kelso and John Henry in the future. That's another man racing a horse for legacy. It's hard not to smile about that, right?

It's been a good year. Zenyatta is the best filly/mare out there. Curlin is now one of the immortals. The Europeans prove they can win on American Polytrack. Midnight Lute won back to back Sprint titles. And lastly, Commentator became a huge story not because he beat the best or made the most money. Rather, he displayed a dominance no one saw coming. He won big name races. It's that simple. I, personally, wish he would have been tested in the Dirt Mile but I'm alright with settling for the MassCap and Whitney performances. I hope he dominates in the Clark and then comes back next year. Maybe then some 3 year old will have our attention. Maybe Midshipman or Vineyard Haven romps in the Derby. Or maybe Commentator wins his third Whitney and takes the Classic wire to wire. It's a pipedream, I'm aware. But without Curlin, some of us have to find another horse to latch on to. I'm not sure I'll feel the same way about a 7 year old gelding as I did about Curlin but if Commentator can pull one more good year out of those achy joints and legs, 2009 might be just as good as 2008. If not better.

The Sport of Kings – This weekend summed up

2008-11-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

The Ups & Downs of Horse Racing

The weekend of racing started at Churchill downs as Einstein bested the field in the Clark Handicap, a race that the connections of Curlin most likely should have run him in. Never second guessing Jess Jackson, but the feeling I get in my heart of hearts is that either they felt it was too soon for him to come back from his last start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic or they felt it would be an incredibly daunting task to ask him to run down Commentator. Either way, I would have sent him to the Clark, but Curlin comes out looking ever so much better due to Einstein’s win against the speedy Commentator. As expected Commentator went straight to the lead and set legitimate fractions, 1st ¼ - 24.57 the ½ in 48.58 and he got ¾ in 1:12.64, if you know Commentator like I know Commentator you know one of two things is going to happen as they begin to turn for home. One, he’s going to turn it on and begin to bury his competition by 8, 10, or even 14 or 15 lengths. The second option is that he doesnt run his race and fades in the stretch. Basically, Commentator is an all or nothing horse, there is nothing wrong with that but he’s and older horse and he’s run the same way his whole career, for 2 or maybe 3 races he can hold his incredible form, putting down 119, 120, 121, or 122 beyers, but then there comes the inevitable bounce. Nick Zito knows it, Tracy Farmer (the horse’s owner) knows it, but that’s what makes Horse Racing so incredible, they still love Commentator for going out and trying hard every time. He shows the heart of a champion every time he steps out onto the track.
Einstein’s dominating victory against the Clark field adds even more validity to Curlin’s chances to garner 2008 Horse of the Year honors, as Einstein raced against Curlin earlier this year in the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill and dispatched of that field easily. Its was a great ride that Julien R. Leparoux, he sat comfortably off the pace that Commentator set and flew by him in the stretch easily dispatching Commentator and holding off Delightful Kiss. This was a quality win in a Grade II race against a Grade I field.
On Saturday the focus of Horse racing was thrust on New York as Aqueduct became the center of the horse racing world with 2 races being run that would push the two victors forward towards the Kentucky Derby. The Demoiselle Stakes is a 1 1/8 mile race for 2 year old fillies, this race normally sets up the winner as one to consider come Kentucky Oaks day. And the winner Springside didn’t disappoint her connections, turning what seemed to be a hotly contested race into a romp. Springside broke slowly and was in the back of the pack as the favorite Sky Diva sat chilly through fractions of 24 & 48, which is a moderate pace, Sky Diva and Aint Love Grand hooked up at the top of the stretch, but as they turned for home Springside ran to the lead and absolutely had things her way winning with daylight. Sadly as Springside changed leads while galloping out Garrett Gomez said that he heard a pop, and at that point pulled her up as quickly as possible. Springside was shipped to the New Bolton Center the same location that Barbaro was treated. I am sure they will take good care of this beautiful girl and hopefully one day soon she will be able to get back onto the track.
The Grade II Remsen was to be a race that pointed one of the top 2 year old colts towards the Kentucky Derby next year. Quickly though Old Fashioned, the same connections of Hard Spun, and Eight Belles, took control of the race and galloped to a very impressive 7 ¼ length victory. Old Fashioned, a song of Unbridled Song, went straight to the lead while ridden by Ramon Dominguez. He was under a hard hold throughout the race, and with about a furlong to go Dominguez let him out a notch and allowed him to finish up strong. Dominguez is quoted as saying: “Once he made the lead, I took a peek back, hit him one time, and he took off,” Dominguez said. “It was pretty impressive. Judging by today, there is no telling how far he can go.” Thus far the undefeated 2 year old is 3 for 3 with a maiden win by a nose in his first start, and a 15 ½ length win in an allowance race at Delaware, and now his first black type win against a field that was well aware of his capabilities. To be able to win a race with a target on your back with ease like that says something about the horse and the training job that Larry Jones has done thus far with the horse. With the win Old Fashioned pushed his career earnings to $173,280 and with the $120,000 In graded earnings from this race he looks primed to move forward patiently towards the derby.
The big race on the Aqueduct race card was the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile. A nice field was assembled for this race, with the likes of Visionaire, Monterey Jazz, Arson Squad, Kodiak Kowboy Harlem Rocker and Tale of Ekati. With Monterey Jazz setting suicidal fractions of 22.87 for the 1st ¼ mile and the ½ mile @ 45, and ¾ in 1:09.42, Tale of Ekati sat patiently 4th in the field rating, as the field began to turn for home Tale of Ekati and Harlem Rocker hooked up but Harlem Rocker came over on Edgar Prado and Tale of Ekati. Prado changed course and Tale of Ekati made another run at Harlem Rocker, but it seemed at the line that he came up a nose short. Immediately after the race there was an inquiry and although the stewards took a few minutes to make a decision Harlem Rocker was DQ’d and put in second position giving the win to what looked like the best horse in the race. The euphoria that was felt by Barclay Tagg and Charles Fipke was absolutely tempered by the news that the ever so consistent Wanderin Boy, trained by Nick Zito suffered a fracture of the sesamoids in his left front leg and unfortunately the decision was made to euthanize Wanderin Boy. The news that he was put down was sickening due to the fact that he ran against the best older horses in his career, including Curlin, Lawyer Ron, Bernardini and Invasor. This horse had overcome so much in getting back to the track after sustaining a number of injuries early in his career. I for one will miss the presence of Wanderin Boy, he gave it his all every time he stepped out on the track. You will be missed Wanderin Boy. RIP..

Farewell To The Champion – Horse of a LifeTime - Curlin

2008-11-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

First. please allow me to say that I was again, touched by the expression made by "Marcus from Seattle", he is a extremely talented writer and I am very happy that he decided to join the AAFBlog.

Now to the subject at hand. The retirement of the 2007 & 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin sent ripples throughout the Horse Racing industry, and even more so through my home. I recall sitting there stunned that the announcement was actually made that verified what I had feared.

I must be honest when I say that I have been in awe of Curlin since he was shipped to my hometown of Hot Springs, AR, and had the opportunity to see him run in person in the Rebel Stakes and the Arkansas Derby. I tried to keep things in perspective though when it comes to Curlin, unfortunatley that is easier said than done. Everyone that knows me knows that I am not a bandwagon jumper, and that the horse that I looked to win my Kentucky Derby for me in 2007 was NobizlikeShobiz. After the Derby though B. Tagg decided that he would move Nobiz to the turf as he did Showing Up in 2006. So there was this thought in my mind, after watching his electrifying victory in the Rebel, and the ease in which he dispatched of a quality field in the Arkansas Derby it was important to watch the development of this imposing equine athlete. I watched his workouts and saw that Asmussen was very patient with Curlin and didn’t ask him to run his races while breezing. He showed up big-time for the Preakness. When you watched Curlin run the one thing you always recognized is that he always gave maximum effort, but that maximum effort continued to seem so effortless. After watching him dig in gamely and battle the super-filly Rags to Riches in the stretch of the Belmont, I realized that there was more to Curlin than most of the horses that have come and gone within the last few decades. And he totally proved me right. His win against Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup was something of legends, beating the champion older horse and his overpowering victory in the Breeders Cup Classic on traditional dirt put you in a mindset that he had the ability to do some things that no other horse has done in the history of horse racing. The superlatives and the way that people described Curlin causes goose bumps, words like freak, superhorse unbeatable, makes you wonder just how incredible he really is.

As the 2008 season began, I basically began to follow every move that Curlin made, from his works that were emailed to my phone every Monday, to hearing about and listening to his connections and the people around him talk about his race-week routine. And in the aftermath of the tragedy that occurred in this year’s Derby with Eight Belles, it’s very difficult to follow your favorite horse so closely and not realize that things happen, you worry about injury each time they take the track, and with the example of the Super Mare Nashoba’s Key and her incident in her stall, it’s easy to see that things could happen at any time. The difference is the confidence that Curlin instills in everyone that he comes into contact with. From the owner to the fans Curlin made you feel that he was royalty, so composed and professional and patient with regards to everything that he does. Curlin is something very very special, elite, magnificent, all of these words applied. So when you mention Curlin with the greats like Secretariat, and Cigar, which he totally deserves, it makes me think about the way that I had to begin to prepare myself mentally for each of his races. See there is a message board at msnbc that I am a member of, some of us there respect Curlin and all of his accomplishments and others don’t. I chime in feverishly and make sure to show Curlin and the connections the respect that they deserve, because we all know he could be at a stud farm right now making million dollar babies. I love talking about how incredible he is and how I never felt Big Brown would beat him and after watching how he trained on the Turf and Pro-ride I didn’t think he was beatable. But come race week or a bit before that, all of that stops, I don’t say anything about Curlin's upcoming race, I don’t feel its necessary to tell people about what I think he can or will do, I dont want to jinx him by saying he's unbeatable. (I.e. Rick Dutrow-Belmont) I don’t talk about margin of victory or anything of the sort. What I focus on is hoping he has the same pre-race week routine that he's always had. I've spoken with Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn and he told me about how the week before the race goes, how Curlin knows when a race is coming up, how professional he is in the paddock and how he's focused on the task at hand. As the race starts I hope that he leaves the gate evenly, he gets a clear lane with little traffic, and he makes that move coming off the turn for home. How he hits the wire, (Yes, I want him in front at the wire) but I’d much rather see him gallop out well and pull up, turn around and jog back to be unsaddled safely. That’s the extent of it, but its so consuming, I watch how he looks down the backside, if he looks comfortable, and if he seems to be going easy or having to assert himself too much early. I always want him to finish the race strong and be able to come back and unsaddle and go cool out.

Now as for the Man O' War & the Classic, both times I was with family while watching the race, and they know that my love of Curlin had me disappointed and that I was doing all that I could to fight back the tears. It hurt to watch him not be able to make up the ground on Red Rocks, but there was a reason why, he is a dirt horse and when running in turf races there can be issues. It was strange watching him get passed in the stretch by the Euro's, 1 because in his brilliant career Curlin has never given up ground in the stretch and 2. Because in his brilliant career Curlin has never finished off the board. So to me that was a throw out totally I mean a Dirt race run on rubber and carpet and silicone, I could care less about. To be totally honest I wish they would have never even entertained the idea of running him on that surface, but kudos to Mr. Jackson and Mr. Asmussen for trying, it showed an incredible amount of confidence in Curlin (something that cant be said about the connections of others in the game). But as I said with these athletes you have an expectation for them and you want them to show up and win every time, but remember we have to understand how lucky we are just to witness the greatness of a Eight Belles and a Curlin, and be sure to soak up every moment of their brilliance, because this is not something we may ever see again. The retirement announcement was so conflicting, it choked me up bad, as I sit here now and talk about my feelings for this wonderful animal it brings tears to my eyes. I can let go of these emotions because I am alone to myself, and I would guess that the finality of the words: “Curlin has been retired” is finally setting in. I was so conflicted due to the stress that I felt when he stepped out on the track, it was nerve wracking and now that worry is over. I will always recall the feelings that welled up inside me when Curlin trotted onto the track, I recall his public workout at Santa Anita Park in October, and I recall what it felt like to see him become the first horse to ever win $10 million In earnings. These memories will always be there for us as his fans to remember and there is a chance that in the future people will wonder how much better he would have been as a 5 year old, but not me for one, I enjoyed his career as he spoiled us with his consistency and as Asmussen says "Curlin spoils us with who he is". But Curlin’s connections made the wonderful decision to retire him 100% sound, and that decision is such a wonderful change from what we’re accustomed to. We are used to people either retiring their horse after their sophomore season or running them until they can’t run anymore. Kudos to you Mr. Jackson for this incredible year of allowing us as fans to be blessed with Curlin’s magnificent presence. I have only wonderful thoughts and memories of this incredible Champion, and as we say goodbye, let me last say to you Curlin:
***“Thank you for being you, Thank you for the memories, Thank you for all you have done for the industry & now relax & enjoy your Retirement”***

"King of Kings"

2008-11-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

I want to take a moment to welcome a Brand New Blogger to the AfleetAlexForever BlogSpot. His name is Marcus Schmidli and he will be sharing a great deal of his Horse Racing knowledge with us. So without further ado, here is the first edition of the

"Marcus in Seattle" Files.

King of Kings

By Marcus Schmidli

"Curlin has proven himself across two continents with 16 starts, the honor of 2007 Horse of the Year and the greatest North American money-earner in racing history."

-Jess Jackson.

His racing career was over in a flash. Passed by two European horses in the final furlongs of the Breeders Cup Classic. His defeat was a polarizing moment in horse racing. For some, it allowed them to cash in on a big pay day. For a few, it allowed them to fist pump at the notion of "their" Zenyatta becoming horse of the year. And for others, namely me, that defeat was the one of the most painful moments of my young life.

You see, I'm 22. I'm immune to fear. I have very little worries aside from the normal day to day inconveniences. And very rarely, if ever, have I been troubled or saddened deeply by the loss of a loved one. But when I saw that Curlin hadn't managed to hit the board in his final race, I wept. That might be an odd way of dealing with the emotion surrounding the race. I could have rejoiced in Curlin's triumphs of the past, I know. But the past wasn't of any significance to me. Only the future. In the moments after the race, it hit me as it hit many for the first time, that the race I had just witnessed was most certainly Curlin's last. There was no future.

And with that powerful knowledge came the horrific feeling I had rarely felt. I felt as if I had lost a family member. Call it silly. Call it crazy. Call me what you will. I've never had a hard time saying goodbye to a horse, simply, because I've never been attached to one before. That very reason is why I was hit so hard and rocked to the core when I saw how all of this would play out. Underneath all of the speculation that Curlin would return for a 5 year old campaign, I secretly knew all that was too good to be true. Why would someone in this day and age allow an animal to do that? Why risk it? Why not go the way of Street Sense and Hard Spun, two horses who dazzled us and then left the sport as quickly as they entered it? Why even get your hopes up? Those lingering questions are rhetorical in some sense. We all know the answers before we ask, sometimes even if we don't want to hear them. Curlin racing at five was a pipe dream. And to be blunt, so was Curlin racing at four.

And so, in 16 starts, I got to witness 11 thrilling victories, one memorable loss to a filly who was out of this world, and many other races against top competition. Of the new decade, I have a hard time finding better statistics to build a colt's legacy. Tiznow winning back to back Classics is right there. But other than him, who really stood out? I saw Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Barbaro, Big Brown, Funny Cide and many others just as you have. I saw many horses fail in their attempt to becoming a Triple Crown winner. I saw one horse fail to fight off an infection and I saw a few horses who were wildly overrated in some sense. But what I witnessed these last two years with Curlin, was more than memorable. It was a religious experience to some degree. It brought a collective pool of race fans together to cheer for a horse who wasn't running for a Triple Crown but rather, immortality. And isn't that what the sport is about? Legacies. History. Tradition.

After watching Curlin win the Dubai World Cup this last year, I wrote this about the horse:"...No horse ever instilled more confidence in bettors, owners, trainers, fans and his jockey than Curlin. There hasn't been a race where he looks out matched or out classed. There hasn't been a race where he looked annoyed or rattled. I haven't seen him make a mistake in a race aside from maybe going too wide in the final turn at Belmont. All he does is win. And he wins big. Every time he takes the track he reminds me, with his elegance and superiority, that horse racing might still have a very bright future ahead."

I stand by that quote to this day. Curlin might not have won every race. But anyone who got to see him run felt privileged regardless of the outcome. I'm sure in the future, his records will be surpassed and people won't acknowledge what he gave to the sport these last few years. But I'm 22, I'm young and I haven't been witness to Spectacular Bid or Seattle Slew. I don't know Alysheba or Sunday Silence. All I know is what I'm able to see. What I've always been taught by my father was that horse racing is "The Sport of Kings." Maybe each era of racing has it's own king. THIS era belongs to Curlin. Farewell and thank you for the memories.

Long live the King!

Eight Belles - A Magnificent Lady, we will never forget you!

2008-11-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

I have a story about Eight Belles that I want to tell. The story begins late on Jan 21st, I came home and looked at the news the sports reporter talked about Eight Belles and Larry Jones, she had just won an allowance race by 15 lengths. I looked at my wife and said "she won an allowance race like that". I wonder what that's about, so I did some research and found out about her pedigree, and what possibly could be with that type of raw talent. I went to work the next day and I told a friend of mine that we had ourselves a horse that needed to be on our Oaks radar. The worry I had was where she would go next, the possibilities were Fairgrounds or Oaklawn, which is in my hometown of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Well as luck and good horse sense would have it Jones decided to split his two best fillies up and send 1 to Oaklawn and Proud Spell he left at fair grounds. Eight Belles next race was on my radar, I knew I wanted to watch up close and in person so I made the trek back home to watch her run in the Second Division of the Martha Washington Stakes, this was a Sunday and she had the day all to her own to impress and what an impression she made, as I watched her run from mid pack and make her move on the turn I thought to myself, will I see that same turn of foot or is that a 1 time fluke, and her turn of foot was so explosive that the first thing I said is they need to change jockeys because Terry Thompson should not have been asking her for run at the end, I was so shocked by the video when i got home that I apologized to Mr. Thompson the next time I was at Oaklawn, he never really even shook the reins at her, and she put 10 lengths on the field in about 4 jumps. The next race I went and saw in person was the HoneyBee on March 16th, and Ramon Dominguez was brought in to ride Eight Belles, they wanted a East Coast rider who could deal with the pressure of the big ones, because she was becoming a monster, but I knew her challenge was going to be much stiffer as she was dealing with Pure Clan an undefeated filly that closed like a freight train and before you know it she's 4 lengths out front and Dominguez is gearing her down and conserving energy for the next race with a hand ride, that is when I knew that she was legit.
I thought to myself, I'm sure Mr. Porter and Mr. Jones thought wow what are we really looking at here in this filly. The Fantasy was a race where she had to dig down and find a way to gut out a victory as Steve Asmussen's Alina made a bold move and fought gamely only to lose to Eight Belles by 3/4 length. Then came the Derby, which basically broke my heart. See sometimes we get too close to horses and we regret becoming so emotionally involved, but normally that's from a far, not a great deal of people had the opportunity to watch her run in person and see what an amazing presence she had on the track. She knew she was special and she will go down in history as my favorite filly, I would have loved to see what she developed into later in the year and possibly on into her 4 year old campaign. She is and always will be a true champion. We all Miss you Eight Belles!!!!!!!!!!

Taking an early look @ Kentucky Derby 2009

2008-11-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

Taking an early look @ ***Kentucky Derby 2009***

There are 172 days until the running of the 135th edition of the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby this year will be quite intriguing because there has not been a true monster that has established himself yet, although two prospect had began to show signs that they could be the horse. I am speaking of Midshipman and Vineyard Haven, these two are winners of four Grade 1 races between them. Midshipman the Del Mar futurity and the Breeders Cup Juvenile, and Vineyard Haven the winner of the Champagne and the Hopeful Stakes. Godolphin now owns both of these equine athletes and as usual has announced that they will take the Dubai route in trying to win the Derby. This has never worked before and I don’t have any reason to believe that anything different will occur with these horses due to being shipped half way across the world to prep for the hardest race in the world to win. The question is who are the real contenders for the taking of the roses on May 2nd of 2009. The list would have to include some horses that ran in the Breeders Cup Juvi race including 2nd place finisher, Square Eddie, 3rd place finisher Street Hero, and a few others including West Side Bernie, Gallant Son, Silent Valor, Azul Leon, Munnings and Terrain. For those horses whose connections want to keep them out west or running at Keeneland, the real question is will the form from the synthetics transfer to the Dirt at Churchill. The next question is which horse has the running style fitted for a race of this nature with such a large field of horses. The fact is there are a number of horses that haven’t even seen the starting gate yet that will make a large splash in the Triple Crown races, as did the Curlin’s and Big Browns of the world who either only had 1 start or no starts at all as a 2 year old. As we dig deeper into the upcoming prep races that will start up late in January and in February we will break down the list of contenders a bit closer and find out exactly who they are.

The next topic that will be included in Thursday edition of the AAF Blog will be the synthetics and what would happen to horse racing if it were mandated in areas where the Triple Crown Races are run or at Traditional Dirt tracks like Belmont, Monmouth, and Saratoga.

Enjoy

Our Horses Against Theirs - I aint talking about the Euros- Im talking the World

2008-11-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

Our Horses Against Theirs

I ain't talking about the Euros- I'm talking the World

We have got to face it folks, the World is now going to be aiming for The Breeders Cup Classic, a race mostly dominated by American Dirt Horses. At $5 million dollars this race is one of the most prestigious races in the world and you can be sure that the connections of any dangerous turf horses that run well will be looking to complete the Arc - Classic double now that its known that our dirt horses don't run as well on the synthetics, they know the playing field is much more level and will be looking to take advantage of that from now up until the B.C. is run in a traditional manner at a location where there is dirt racing. Someone mentioned that there is a chance that one of the T.C. races could be or possibly would be run on synthetics, this is possible, it would be a sad day for racing if it happened but very few people can control this. What we have to hope for is that our connections will circle the wagons and learn to deal with the surface it seems inevitable that this is the path that we are being taken down, and although many of us dont like it we may have to get used to it. I'm hoping that we will learn from the B.C. weekend and next year have our top horses ready and send the world back home packing with their tails between their legs.

Any comments.

The Breeders Cup's, Pro-Ride, & some other stuff?

2008-11-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

First off let me give a shout out to one of my favorite people Afleet Treet, oh and don't let me for get SOTO. These are two of my favorite horse racing peeps on the msnbc messaging board. These ladies were there front and center at the Breeders Cup this year at Santa Anita and were able to see how things went down both days. They gave the Pro-Ride a thumbs up due to the fact that all of our racers came back safely on both days. No accidents, that is the most important thing, but i'll get to that in a moment. I wanted to also give a shout out to Afleet Treet's message board located @ http://horseracingmania.freeforums.org/. Make sure to go register yourself at her website and drop her and the other posters a line. This is a legitimate board that gives everyone the ability to post their thoughts and comments without being judged. I hope that you'll all take the time to go look at the different threads that are set up to discuss very important issues that pertain to Horse Racing.

Now back to the issue at hand. The Pro-Ride surface that is being used at Santa Anita is what is in question at this time. The questions are abundant and they vary. The first question that i personally have is why would the Breeders Cup put so much emphasis on making the playing field more level when it comes to the Europeans coming over here to race on our biggest days. In my opinion the fact that the dirt races which are tradition were taking off of the dirt and put onto a new synthetic surface that not many of our horses are used to is sad and demeaning to horse racing and shows that certain people have no idea what the sport of kings traditionally means.

It doesnt mean taking world class athletes and making them run on surfaces that are not traditional. Consider for a moment asking Usain Bolt to instead of running the 100 or 200 meter dash on the normal surface, to run these sprints on a Poly-mixed, rubber blend. The idea seems incredibly stupid, almost insane. The same thing can be said sadly for the Breeders Cup who felt it necessary to even the playing field for the Europeans so that the horses they bring over have a chance against the U.S. best dirt horses. Is this tradition, you might ask. Well for 24 straight years the Breeders Cup dirt races were run on well - "traditional dirt". Fair and Square, if the europeans wanted to run their turf horses against the U.S's best dirt horses on dirt so be it. Thats the way it goes. Here's a question, do you think the europeans will take their biggest race the Arc De' Trioumph and put it on dirt for the U.S. to possibly have a better chance against their best horses. Not a chance in the world, sadly the poor and seemingly amateur mismanagement of such a huge event as the Breeders Cup would lead to the dirt races being put on a synthetic surface. It was not fair in any way shape form or fashion, why because it breaks tradition. Traditions are the basis by which we live, the Kentucky Derby on synthetics would be a bust, the Preakness or Belmont stakes on synthetics would be an even bigger bust.

Tradition means the Triple Crown is difficult to win. the KyDerby, 2 weeks later the Preakness, 3 weeks later the Belmont, changing tradition would mean adding a week between theDerby and the Preakness and at this point, asterisks would have to go up after any horse won the Triple Crown. The same would have to be said of the results that came from this weekend of grand champions losing races and struggling to find their way home in the stretch. The prime examples are Curlin & Ginger Punch, Curlin finishing fourth, and Ginger Punch finishing an amazingly frustrating 6th, totally floundering in the mire of the rubber bands and tires that she was running on. If there is anyone that can tell me without a question that Ginger Punch the defending Ladies Classic champion and 3 time Grade 1 winner this year was outclassed by 5 others, then please stand up, because its not going to happen. The chart notes for Ginger Punch read, "GINGER PUNCH failed to mount a serious rally" that has never happened before, ever in her career, why would it happen now, well the synthetic rubber band surface would have a great deal to do with it. The sad thing is more owners and trainers didnt make the decision that Bobby Frankel and Nick Zito and Barclay Tagg made with their charges to keep them off of this pitiful surface that gives no credence to true race horses. I feel that the likes of Curlin, Ginger Punch, Munnings, and others that ran poorly due to the surface should have been left at home to allow the B.C. and Santa Anita Park to suffer the dismal effects of a B.C. without a buzz horse. I hope in the future this will be the case also, I for one will not contemplate attending the B.C. if and when the dirt races are run over that silly surface. I will gladly be there in 2010 for Churchill but as for synthetics and the likes there of, they do not diminish the Legacy of the Great Champions that we have come to know.

Does the level of competition affect H.O.Y voting?

2008-11-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

Does the level of competition have an effect on Horse of the Year voting?

There has been a great deal of debate about the level of competition that both Horse of the Year candidates faced. The body of work is very important when trying to understand the criteria that a voter should use to place a vote for Horse of the Year. Lets Break down the level of competition for each of the candidates:
Zenyatta raced 7 times this year. 3 times in Grade 2 races, and 4 times in Grade 1 level races. In the El Elcino Stakes, a Grade 2 race, she faced 1 Grade 1 horse, Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Romance is Diane, Dawn after Dawn, Indescribable, and Fleet Caroline. In the Apple Blossom she faced 1 Grade 1 horse, Ginger Punch. The rest of the field was made up of Brownie Points, Lemon Drop Mom, Clever Strike, and Kettleoneup. In the Milady H, Zenyatta raced against Santa Teresita, Kris’ Sis, Romance is Diane & Double Trouble. In this Grade 2 race there were no grade 1 stakes winners. In the Vanity H, she faced 1 Grade 1 horse again in Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Silver Swallow Silver Z, Sealy Hill, Fleetheart and andmoreagain. In the Clement L. Hirsch Zenyatta faced 1 Grade 1 winner again in Tough Tiz’s Sis. The rest of the field was made up of Model, Romance is Diane West Coast Swing, Silver Swallow, Silver Z, and Dawn after Dawn. In the Lady’s Secret, Zenyatta faced 1 Grade 1 winner in Hystericalady. The rest of the field included Santa Teresita and Super Freaky. And in the Ladies Classic, Zenyatta faced 5 Grade 1 winners, Cocoa Beach, Music Note, Carriage Trail, Hystericalady and Ginger Punch. The rest of the field included Santa Teresita and Bear now. So in 7 races Zenyatta faced 37 other mares of which 6 were grade 1 winners.
Curlin raced 7 times this year. 6 Times in Grade 1 level races. In the Jaguar Trophy he faced no grade 1 winners. In the Dubai World Cup Curlin faced 5 Grade 1 winners in Great Hunter, Happy Boy, Premium Tap, Vermillion and Well Armed. The rest of the field included Gloria De Campeao, Sway Yed, Lucky Find, Jalil and Kocab. In the Stephen Foster Curlin faced 2 Grade 1 winners in Einstein and Brass Hat. The rest of the field included Barcola, Grasshopper, Jonesboro, Delightful Kiss, Sam P High Blues and Red Rock Creek. In the Man O’ War Curlin faced 3 Grade 1 winners in Red Rocks, Better Talk Now and Grand Couturier. The other starters were Mission Approved, True Cause, and Sudan. In the Woodward Curlin faced 1 Grade 1 winner in Divine Park, the rest of the field included Past the Point, Wandering Boy, A.P.Arrow, Loose Leaf, and Out of Control. In the JCGC he faced no Grade 1 winners in a field that included 7 others. And in the B.C. Classic Curlin faced 7 Grade 1 winners. The other starters were Smooth Air, Fairbanks and Casino Drive. Curlin faced 55 horses this year of which 18 of these horses were Grade 1 quality. So to keep it quite short, if the body of work does have anything to do with Horse of the year voting and I believe it does this category goes directly to Curlin, hands down, he faced far better competition. Just a point to keep in mind.

Did Zenyatta Do enough to Garner H.O.Y.

2008-11-04T12:26:00.001-08:00

Did Zenyatta Do enough to Garner H.O.Y.

This is the question, did she do enough? In the last year the super filly Zenyatta has impressed all of those that have been able to witness her domination of the Older filly and mare division. The first thing that I want to say with regards to Horse of the Year voting with regards to Zenyatta's record is that (in my opinion) I do not feel that at any point in time during a filly or mare's schedule she would need to run against and beat a field of colts to be in consideration for Horse of the Year honors.

With that being said, I do believe that the Horse of the Year award should go to the horse that has raced against the highest level of competition all year long and has in no way ducked anyone at any time and proven him or herself consistent at the Grade 1 level. Did the connections of Zenyatta do that, to respectfully put it in a word, -NO-!!! I have the utmost respect for Mr. Moss and Mr. Sheriffs, and I believe that they did the best they could to have their mare ready to give her best efforts in the few Grade 1 races that she ran in and that includes the Ladies Classic. Please for a moment, indulge me with regards to how the connections of the other top mares in the country planned out their schedules. It would be quite easy to assume that the highest level of racing would be where you want to race your filly or mare to prove that she is the best in her division and still have a fresh and ready horse that would run huge in at the Breeders Cup. Where though would you run your horse to be able to prove herself against the best of the best. The debate will run its course when trying to define which coast has the highest quality or runners, the east or the West, but there is not much debate as to which races are traditionally considered the most prestigious.

East - Ogden Phipps - June 14th @ Belmont Park, a Grade 1 race for older f&m.

West - Milady H. - May 31, 2008 @ Hollywood Park a Grade 2 race for older f&m.

East - Go for Wand - July 26, 2008 @ Saratoga a Grade 1 race for older f&m.West - Vanity H - July 5, 2008 @ Hollywood Park a Grade 1 race for older f&m.

East - Personal Ensign - August 22, 2008 @ Saratoga a Grade 1 race for older f&m.

West - Clement L. Hirsch - August 2, 2008 @ Del Mar a Grade 2 race for older f&m.

East - Beldame S. - Sept 27, 2008 @ Belmont Park a Grade 1 race for older f&m.

West - Lady's Secret S. - Sept 27, 2008 @ Oak Tree a Grade 1 race for older f&m.

Looking at these two schedules and comparing where Ginger Punch and Zenyatta prepared for the Breeders Cup gives an indication that 1 horse's connections went out and wanted to win the best races and travelled to the places where the highest level of racing in the older filly and mare division took place, that would be Ginger Punch, now if Ginger Punch runs the table that would have been 8 for 8 in 6 grade 1's, 1 grade 2, and 1 non graded race in the Sunshine Millions. No doubt she didn't win out but in comparison Zenyatta ran in 7 races this year, 4 Grade 1's and 3 grade 2's. From the view of the information presented even though Ginger Punch didn't win out her record of 3 Grade 1 wins 1 second and 1 third and 1 ungraded win would mean that if u calculated using the point system of 5 pts for grade 1 wins and 3 points for grade 1 runner up and 1 point for grade 1 3rd place up would give her, 19 points. Zenyatta would score 20 points.

Only 1 point more why, the answer is because her connections didnt or maybe wouldnt ship out to run in the highest class of racing, they were not ambitous nor did they go all out to possibly win H.O.Y. votes. The issue at hand is that the ease of the Grade 2 races would lead to her or honestly most horses being able to come back and continue to win the few grade 1 races that she won. A horse that didn't win a lot of races but who ran at the top level of competition all year long and who's connections didn't mind shipping her to these locations is Hystericalady, she ran at Santa Anita, Oaklawn, Churchill, Delaware, Monmouth, and Oak Tree. Had Hystericalady won all of her races except for the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic, she would in all likelihood get a number of votes for older f&m and possibly Horse of the Year. A horse though like Zenyatta, that is running in a number of Grade 2 races and at the horse's home track does not give an indication that the connections are looking to garner Horse of the Year votes, it seems to those of us that follow horse racing closely, that the connections were picking and choosing the easiest possible spots for the horse to run in (Grade 2 races) and this proves what exactly, well it proves that at the Grade 2 level Zenyatta can beat allowance horses, thats not saying alot about the horse and for those people that think that this is deserving of HOY honors it says alot about the state of horse racing, or even the ability of some people to understand the sport of Kings.

This is no knock on Zenyatta, as she did all she was asked, but this would tend to lead to a knock on the connections who now realize she can get Horse of the Year votes, for a undefeated record running in Grade 2 events against some of the weakest competition in recent memory. The only Grade 1 horse that Zenyatta beat out west was Tough Tiz's Sis, who ended up winning that Grade 1 race on dirt not the synthetics. The connections therefore understand that honestly, they didn't allow Zenyatta to go out and take the Horse of the Year award, but they feel, I would assume that they can back into the award, and it just doesn't work that way. This is an issue that will be debated from this point up until the award is announced in January, and will likely be debated for a long time afterward. Why, because the 1 time that she did face a full field of Graded horses she won a race that in many people's opinion really holds no merit. Again why u might ask, well the synthetics worked out very well for Zenyatta, but if you look at the race that Ginger Punch ran that would easily give u indication that the surfact had a great deal to do with the way that many of the better horses performed that day, again that includes champions like Ginger Punch and Curlin, so please dont act as if the Ladies Classic ran on a synthetic rubber and carpet blended surface is a true measure of these horses form, as Ginger punch and Curlin finished off the board for the first time in their careers, im sure that you would have an excuse for this profound occurance that took place 2 days apart for both of these champions.

But there is no excuse that can be used like they were off form or just got beat, these horses dont get beat like that, if you put the ladies classic on traditional dirt this year at Belmont your order of finish would be quite different. With all due respect to Zenyatta she may have actually lost a race. Someone mentioned her race at the Oaklawn Park meet, she ran against a nice field in the Apple Blossom. What I would ask that you keep in mind is that in early April there arent going to be many horses in tip top condition at this time of the year, but see things as you may.

So for those out there whose standards basically state that you can become Horse of the Year if you run at your home track all year long and win Grade 2 races against mostly small allowance fields of 3 and 4 horses, then more power to you, but please go back and see the standard set by other HOY candidates. A Grade 2 resume of races doesnt even come close to qualifying for being under consideration to be considered the best horse in your own division, less known garnering Horse of the Year votes. But it will come down to the voters who will give Curlin his second Horse of the Year award.

Good Luck to the connections of Zenyatta. Next year actually be a bit more ambitious and really look to go after and win the award, please dont try to win the award because the competiton loses a race or two. Thats not very good sportsmanship and takes away from true champions!

2008 Horse of the Year - Curlin Vs Zenyatta

2008-11-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

2008 Horse of the Year - Curlin Vs Zenyatta

Does anyone have any thoughts about this race. It would be great to see on the track. Although both have their advantages. Curlin's dirt and Zenyatta's synthetics. I for one would not be disappointed either way. But there are some fundamental truths that have to be acknowledged before you cast your vote.

Fact Curlin Ran 7 times - 6 Grade 1's - 5 wins, second place.

Face Zenyatta ran 7 times - 4 Grade 1 - 3 Grade 2's

Curlin faced over 20 Grade 1 winning horses this year

Zenyatta faced 5 Grade 1 winning horses this year

Curlin won $5 million in earnings

Zenyatta won $2 million in earnings.

These are just a few facts that a person wants to keep in mind when thinking about Horse of the Year voting. There are no kinks in either horses armor just food for thought. We will post a poll later today to see where everyone stands.

Fasig-Tipton Sale

2008-11-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

The November edition of the Fasig-Tipton Sale began today with some gaudy numbers being put up. There was the world record setting $14 million purchase for Better Than Honour’s the broodmare of the year and also the $5.7 million purchase of the likely to be crowned 2008 Juvenile Filly Champion Stardom Bound offered.

There is no indication who purchased Better Than Honour at this point but we have learned that IEAH has been on record as saying that they purchased Stardom Bound. This could be another situation in my opinion where Rick (the big mouth) Dutrow, ruins the horse, and any chance that she would have at winning the 2009 Kentucky Oaks and possibly making another big run on the synthetics at Santa Anita in November next year at the Breeders Cup. This horse has no physical issues and seems to be thriving since her win in the Juvi Fillies. In my opinion Rick Dutrow is a lower tier trainer, who basically is working for an operation with plenty of capital and has the ability to go out and get the very best horses offered at the different sales and give him the opportunity to allow, and I do mean allow these horses to win. Sadly you can expect that if Stardom Bound does not live up to her potential then rumors and excuses will fly from the camp and you can be assured that her schedule up to the Kentucky Oaks and possibly the Breeders Cup will be just as imaginative as Big Brown's schedule, therefore allowing for the connections to be able to throw legitimate excuses out there for the public to make decisions on.

Farewell to Big Brown

2008-11-02T01:30:00.001-07:00

*Farewell to Big Brown*

I just wanted to stop for a moment and acknowledge the incredible accomplishments of this years Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown. This magnificent Equine athlete showed he was truly something special by first breaking his maiden at first asking by 12 lengths and then going straight to the highest level of racing and winning as if it was an after thought, in the Florida Derby. His subsequent romp in the Derby followed by a dazzling display of his uncanny turn of foot in the stretch of the Preakness gave all an indication that he was quite a special horse. The great stretch run and the grit and determination that he showed in the Haskell proved that not only could he win by daylight but he could run down a pace setter who was able to go out and run some easy fractions and continue running in the lane. Tactical speed and stamina is something that set Big Brown aside and will allow him to easily, in my opinion garner a mountain of Eclipse Award votes for the top 3 year old of 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters)Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:47pm EDT "The top three-year-old in the U.S. hurt his right front hoof in a six-furlong gallop on the turf at the Aqueduct track in New York.

Michael Iavarone, co-owner of IEAH Stables, said the injury was "a tremendous blow."

"There wasn't a lot we could do to prevent this," he told a teleconference. "It was just a complete fluke.

"We hadn't had issues with his feet. To have this come up like this is a shock to all of us especially since he worked fantastically today."

Big Brown had been due to take on Horse of the Year Curlin in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park on October 25 in one of the most highly anticipated races of the year.

The Kentucky-bred Big Brown, winner of seven out of eight career races and $3.6 million in prize money, hurt his hoof while working out with stablemate and Breeders' Cup Mile winner Kip Deville.

"They both worked very well," said Iavarone. "Everything seemed to go according to plan.

"They finished up together. They galloped out together. We were all excited."

It was later discovered Big Brown had taken off a "three-inch piece of flesh" from the back of his hoof."

Curlin - as dominant at 4 as he was at 3?

2008-11-02T01:03:00.000-07:00

Was Curlin a different horse this year compared to his 3 year old season, some people think that he wasn't the same horse especially after coming back from Dubai. This is a point that has to be taken into consideration because its common knowledge that most if not all horses after traveling 12,000 miles regress quite a bit after making the D.W.C. trip. If comparing Beyer numbers there is a great deal to be said about the fact that Steve Asmussen was able to keep Curlin in tip-top shape all year long. Here is a quote from an article by Handicapping Guru Gary West about his view of Curlin this year compared to last.
"From several sources, I’ve heard and read suggestions that Curlin lost the Classic because he isn’t quite the same horse he was last year, meaning not quite as good, and, further, that he’s not quite as good because he’s no longer on steroids. But I can’t find much to support the first part of that argument, which seems based largely on visual impressions.
I make my own speed figures and pace figures, but the Beyer numbers, since they’ve become common coin in handicapping, would probably serve better to make the point that Curlin was at least as good this year as last. I don’t mean to suggest that speed figures are definitive, but they do, I think, provide a useful measure of performance. And by that measure, in his graded stakes last year – and that’s tossing out only his maiden win – Curlin’s Beyer speed figures averaged 107.25.
In his graded stakes this year – and that’s tossing out only his first outing in Dubai – Curlin’s speed figures for the season averaged 110. (I’m giving him a 117 for the World Cup, which seems a solid, although conservative, number based on what we know about Well Armed and A.P. Arrow, who finished third and fourth in the race.) And in graded stakes on dirt – that’s tossing out the Man o’ War on turf and the Classic on Pro-ride – Curlin’s speed figures this year averaged 112.25. (Zenyatta, by the way, averaged 102.4 this year.) Curlin lost three races on dirt last year; none this year."

***Horse Racing 2011***

Ode To Grace

Havre De Grace finishes Beldame Preparations

Simply Put -Opportunity Missed

Statement on the passing of Jess Jackson

The Triple Crown Trail/Train Wreck

2011 Apple Blossom Champion - Havre De Grace

Havre De Grace

The Truth about HOY - it may shock you Pt. 1

My Vote For Horse of the Year - BLAME

John Sheriffs points fingers - but who are "THEY"

Breeders Cup Breakdown

Rachel, The Breeders Cup, Zenyatta and East & West Coast Peace

Zenyatta Overrated, Watch this Video

Goldikova Loses, Yet more impressive than "ANY" Zenyatta Win

It is official, Rachel to try 10 Panels in the Aug 29th, Personal Ensign

Rachel has Rolled into Monmouth Park

The Forgotten Filly & Mare

2010 Apple Blossom Invitational

2010 Could we see a Rachel vs Zenyatta matchup after all?

Saying farewell to an historic 2009, and Hello to what could be in 2010

WoodWard Weekend Part II

The 2009 WoodWard Trip - Part I

Rachel Alexandra - Do people really still doubt her?

Rachel Alexandra – Her next start, the 2009 Woodward

The pursuit of Perfection or the pursuit of Greatness

Alexandra The Great - Yes ***Rachel***

Monmouth Park's 2009 Haskell Invitational

Rachel Alexandra Vs Zenyatta, Just tell me where!!!

Rachel Alexandra - The Grade 1 Mother Goose

Rachel Alexandra HOY - Already? YES!

Alexandra The Great - How Good is this Filly? Hmm

Rachel Alexandra - The Preakness Conspiracy

***Arkansas Derby***

AAF Update - 3.8.2009

Top 5 Derby Contenders

SouthWest Stakes Day - An "Old Fashioned Romp"

Eclipse Awards Thoughts & Horse of the Year

***100 Days left until Kentucky Derby 135***

*111 Days until the 2009 Kentucky Derby*

"Commentator" - Risen from the Ashes

The Sport of Kings – This weekend summed up

Farewell To The Champion – Horse of a LifeTime - Curlin

"King of Kings"

Eight Belles - A Magnificent Lady, we will never forget you!

Taking an early look @ Kentucky Derby 2009

Our Horses Against Theirs - I aint talking about the Euros- Im talking the World

The Breeders Cup's, Pro-Ride, & some other stuff?

Does the level of competition affect H.O.Y voting?

Did Zenyatta Do enough to Garner H.O.Y.

2008 Horse of the Year - Curlin Vs Zenyatta

Fasig-Tipton Sale

Farewell to Big Brown

Curlin - as dominant at 4 as he was at 3?

Horse Racing 2011

Alexandra The Great - Yes Rachel

Arkansas Derby

100 Days left until Kentucky Derby 135

111 Days until the 2009 Kentucky Derby