Monday Night Notes - Oct 24

- Despite my earlier assertion that I wouldn’t pay much attention to the workouts, I of course watched every step of all 21 workouts shown on The Works on TVG. A lot of nice horses worked out very nicely, none more so than Saint Liam, whose work was every bit as effortless as described by Haskin in my earlier post. Frank Lyons said that Dutrow’s reaction to the work was “his patented ‘heh heh heh heh heh.’” It was pretty impressive indeed. However, it didn’t answer the question of whether or not Saint Liam can beat Grade 1 horses such as Rock Hard Ten at a mile and a quarter.

Leroidesanimaux, Shakespeare, Ashado, Wonder Again, Borrego....hell, all the horses you’d expect to look great did. Flower Alley and Sun King, I thought, a little less so. The only one singled out for criticism by Lyons and Tom Amoss on TVG was Adieu, who didn’t change leads and failed to draw away from her stablemate. Well, I didn't like her anyway. A couple of others that caught my not-that-trained eye was Stellar Jayne, with Jerry Bailey aboard and, particularly, Lion Tamer, who looked powerful in getting a half in 49 flat under no urging whatsoever; if anything it looked like the rider was trying to restrain him.

Lyons singled out Saint Liam as the most impressive work of the day, but Amoss surprisingly went with Nick Zito's two-year old Superfly, also singled out in Haskin's column today.

- I was going to bet on the International at Woodbine yesterday. I did all my handicapping and board watching and had come up with King’s Drama until I discovered that NYC OTB was not taking the race. I saved myself a little money as well as some self-flagellation, because I most certainly would have looked back and figured if I liked King’s Drama at 5-1, shouldn’t I have considered the winner, Relaxed Gesture at 11-1? He’d been beaten by Frankel’s horse less than a length each of the last two, and here he turned the tables in a big way. Is the sound defeat of European invaders Electrocutionist and Yeats to be considered relevant to the chances of the imports that will race on Saturday?

- The Head Chef had yesterday circled as a Belmont day. Being the weekend of the New York Showcase stakes for NY-breds, I’d assumed all meet that, as usual, there would be the accompanying fall festival in the grandstand, where vendors from New York state sell their wares – wine, food delicacies (including chocolate fudge), soaps, lotions, and did I mention chocolate fudge? Having a particular affinity for the concept of buying local when it comes to food, the Head Chef had gained an appreciation for the event, and she had been asking me about it ever since they came back from Saratoga. I repeatedly assured her it would be this weekend.

Now, I didn't actually remember seeing or hearing anything about the event this year; I just assumed that it would be held as it always has been, for the last several years at least, anyway. On Sunday morning, I went online to the NYRA site just to make sure, as I knew that I wouldn’t last two races with her there with nothing but horses running. Nothing there. Of course, considering that the website never mentioned the $500,000 guaranteed pick four on Woodward day, this didn’t necessarily mean that the event wasn’t being held. I placed a phone call and received the sad news.

I wonder if perhaps it was missed by more than just us, since the crowd of 7,333 on a rainy Saturday of state-bred stakes was just a thousand less than the number that turned out on a gorgeous sunny day for the Woodward. I get the feeling there were some people there who were looking for chocolate fudge and were very disappointed.

- And that brings up the question of how many people will be at Breeders’ Cup day? Belmont owns the ignominious record for smallest crowd, the 37,246 who came on a relatively mild day in 1995. That was two years before the crowds at the Belmont Stakes started to revive with the Triple Crown runs of Silver Charm, Real Quiet, etc., In 2001, there were 52,987 on a freezing day, but I don’t know how to judge that figure. For some people, including myself, it was far too soon after 9/11 to care all that much; others may have come here in a show of support for the city. I have no idea what to expect this year. I haven’t noticed a single NYRA advertisement anywhere, but what do you expect from an organization that has said it will run out of cash sometime next month unless it can sell assets. Plus, NYRA will once again prohibit fans from bringing in alcoholic beverages (as in, coolers full of beer, wink wink), and raise admission prices. I would hope that the people coming from out of town will be enough keep the attendance comfortably above that 1995 low, but in the current environment, I have no idea what to expect.