Sunday Night - A Good Day

- This article on msnbc.com has some of the sorry tales of the Preakness losers. Zito said“I don’t see any of our Preakness horses running in the Belmont...Sun King ran a good race, but I don’t think you’ll see him in the Belmont.” He did mention Pinpoint (Peaks and Valleys), the winner of Saturday’s Sir Barton at Pimlico, as a Belmont possibility along with Andromeda’s Hero, who has potential to be overbet in that race. Pinpoint was winning his third race in a row.

Greeley’s Galaxy’s trainer said: “He had no excuses in the race, and that’s not good....So now we’ll bring him home and sit down with the owner (B. Wayne Hughes) and evaluate him and his future.” It doesn’t sound like anyone other than the top three finishers will even be considering the Belmont. Tim Ritchey said he’s going to keep an eye on Afleet Alex for any sign of injury. “What concerns me is (the chance of) muscle injuries, because he was contorted in a way that horses aren’t meant to be. But he walked perfect today.” [msnbc] Jay Privman in the Form reports that he suffered only a minor scrape on the back of his left front ankle [DRF]

- OK, well I had a pretty good day. Besides the 6th exacta at Belmont ($31.80), I had the 10th winner at Churchill ($11.20), and the 9th exacta at Hollywood. I’ve been doing a lot of board watching lately, especially for maiden races, which these two races were. The winners were both first time starters that got kind of sneaky bet and both were bet on the nose, something that continues to consistently point out live horses to me. Just 2 minutes before the Hollywood race, Ken Rudolph on TVG interviewed Adam Kitchingman, the trainer of the favorite Nucaya. He explained his horse’s class drop by saying that the owner just wanted to get a win and didn’t care if he lost the horse, and that the horse was doing very well and had a big shot. Maybe that’s why he got bet from 3-1 to 2-1 late. You hear some candid remarks, both pro and con, from the trainers on these pre-race interviews on TVG - they’re worth checking out. But the 4 horse, Aeblus, a first time starter trained by some guy no one had heard of, was getting pounded on the nose at 5-1. I bet him on top of Nucaya and the exacta paid $54. Frank Lyons congratulated the trainer by saying “Good job Manuel Landeros, whoever you are.”

- Please feel free to email me with links, comments, or questions.