Sunday Night Back Home

It's Sunday night, and I'm back from Sag Harbor in Eastern Long Island where I spent Saturday and Sunday with the Head Chef and her family, as well as most of our 4 kids. Again, part of the price I have to pay to have the Head Chef accompany me for the upcoming week in Saratoga. Also something about it being her birthday.

Equipped with my new laptop, I thought I'd be able to do some posting, but I guess it's not proper blog etiquette to plug your laptop into your host's only phone line for hours at a time. I didn't see any races from Saratoga, or anywhere, this weekend, except for the last two races on Saturday, which I caught on the replay show. I bet Flower Alley in the late double with the three horses I mentioned the other day, and they were all right there but couldn't get by the favorite, who benefited from a ground-saving trip.

Just at first glance at today's results, I see that there were winners for Leo O'Brien and George Weaver, a couple of trainers that I've wanted to keep an eye on; and Weaver in particular is off to a terrific start. I can never say with certainty, "I woulda had it," because you never can really know what your mindset would have been if you were actually at the track; and of course it's always easy to "red-board" the races once you know the result. Nonetheless, the O'Brien horse was taking a legit-looking drop in class for a guy who's always done well on the turf there, and who I've mentioned a couple of times.

Weaver's horse was a 20-1 bombshell making his first start on the turf in the 8th, and it's very unlikely I would have considered her at that price. Secret Forest is by Forestry, out of a winning Upper Nile mare, and a half to stakes winners Top Secret and Tate, as well as to the dam of Megascape. She'd shown signs of life on the dirt, and in 6 starts since her debut at 7.90 to 1, she'd never been higher than 2.75 - 1. She was coming off a 2 month layoff following the only bad race of her career. Weaver should be considered with virtually anything he sends out. I'll try and catch up on the rest of the weekend a bit later.