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Thursday, July 07, 2005

Notes - July 7

- A field of ten for Saturday’s Hollywood Gold Cup, and it does not include Perfect Drift, who did not make the trip west. "It's a little ulcer on his eye," trainer Murray Johnson said. [LA Daily News]

- Jockey Russell Baze returned after a month off after suffering a broken collarbone (perhaps Frankie Dettori is basing his return time on that), taking three mounts at Alameda County Fair yesterday, and winning on his first mount. Consider it a tuneup for his trip to Calder to ride Lost in the Fog on Saturday.

"If Saturday would have been the first day I was released to ride, I wouldn't have ridden (Lost in the Fog)," Baze said. "You've got to be able to get your timing and your reflexes back. Although I don't think I've lost a whole lot, it's still beneficial to have a couple of days of riding." [Inside Bay Area]
Trainer Greg Gilchrist spoke to the Daily Racing Form about what’s next for his unbeaten sensation, and it continues his extremely cautious handling of the colt.
"The Breeders' Cup Sprint doesn't have to happen…I'm pretty old-school when it comes to running 3-year-olds against older horses, although the Breeders' Cup is not until late October, so it's a little easier to do at that time of the year. But I'd also really like to try him in a route race once before we give him a break for the winter, just to get a better idea where we stand when trying to plan his campaign for next season.”
Also in the Form, Bobby Frankel spoke about what’s ahead for Megahertz before her scheduled retirement at the end of the year.
Frankel said he envisions starting Megahertz in the $750,000 Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 13 and the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 29. There is a chance she could run in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1, one of the few major stakes for fillies and mares on the Southern California circuit that Megahertz has not won.
- Nice to read that former trainer John Veitch, who trained for Calumet from 1976 to 1983, for whom he conditioned stars such as Alydar and Our Mims, has landed a job as the chief steward for the Kentucky Horseracing Authority. Veitch was always a classy guy and did a good job on NBC’s Breeders Cup broadcasts in the 90’s. He was humble, friendly and personable when I saw him address an owners’ seminar in Saratoga a couple of summers ago.

- It was just yesterday that London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, disappointing some, but certainly not all of us here in New York. The Olympics, with at least one tragic exception, is where nations of the world gather and put aside all most politics and differences. It’s probably the only setting and venue in which all the people of the world can co-exist in a spirit of friendly competition. Just 24 hours later, the unthinkable – innocent people going through their daily routines have their lives shattered by unspeakable, unimaginable, despicable brutality by people with no conscience and no business being on this earth. What the hell is wrong with people anyway? Has there ever been a more profound statement/question than “Why can’t we all just get along?” Such a crime against humanity makes all the partisan bickering in this country just seem so shrill to me.

In the case of the Supreme Court vacancy, the noise comes from both sides – my colleagues on the left demanding a nomination to our liking despite the fact that the electorate chose Republicans as president (well, the second time anyway) and as the majority party in both houses. And from the right we hear stuff like this from Gary Bauer, president of the conservative American Values:
"If all my side does is talk about process - 'we want a fair hearing, etc.' - while Ted Kennedy is talking about 'we are not going to let somebody on the court who is going to take away the rights of individuals,' as silly as I think that is, it will affect the way people think about the battle," [NY Times]
Yeah, leave it to a liberal like Ted Kennedy to talk about something horrible and "silly" like preserving the rights of individuals, EGADS! I guess then some conservative would then have to talk about how the rights of individuals must instead be subject to their idea of what’s “moral” and “ethical.” With the stark realization that, besides the everyday horrors of accidents, natural disasters, and disease, any of us at any minute in this day and age could have our brains blown out by maniacs that want to indiscriminately kill all of us, can’t we all come to the realization that it’s best for us to just enjoy our own lives while we can, appreciate the glorious gifts of love and art and the beauty of the natural world on which we were born, and, instead of worrying about the way others choose to live their short lives, just leave the rest of us the fuck alone?

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

When did it become "old-school" to not run three-year-olds against older horses?

Alan Mann said...

That's a good point; you'd think it's really the other way around; like saying it's old school to not run fillies against the boys.

Nice name. Though besides her own fine race record I guess she's best known as the dam of Go For Wand, her son Dance Spell was one of my all-time favorites, and he would have loved the sloppy track we have in NY today. Thanks so much for reading and commenting.

Anonymous said...

Politicians are what most of us could never be. Thank God. At least Ted had the guts to vote against this 200 billion and no end in sight waste of money in Iraq maybe you want to pay my share when it comes time to pay up yeah right put your money where your mouth is. I'll lay odds when and if and end to this mess exists you might wish more people had half his mouth.