No Buzz for Cup

- I’m surprised at how little has been written about how little has been written about the Breeders Cup, at least other than the usual outlets. Racing in New York has always been covered as if it’s at least a semi-major sport by the print media. I don’t watch the local evening news, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if any of them have bothered to send any reporters out to the scene thus far. As I mentioned previously, there is no advertising as far as I’ve seen, and the buzz here has been deafening for its silence. But this columnist, John Rowe of North Jersey.com, seems to be the only one has noticed that nobody other than the hard core fans have noticed that there’s a major thoroughbred event in town.

Even with the World Series of thoroughbred racing in town, there is no buzz around Belmont. A cold wind rippled through the track at midday Wednesday as the usual small midday crowd moved through the turnstiles. There's little mention of the Breeders' Cup. The banners hanging from the telephone poles on the adjacent street mention this is Belmont's 100th anniversary year. No mention of the Breeders' Cup. There were two horse racing midday commercials on sports talk radio. One was the Meadowlands telling you that you can bet the Breeders' Cup there on Saturday. The other was Belmont reminding you that its racing program runs through Sunday. No mention of the Breeders' Cup.

I haven’t read any estimate from NYRA on the crowd; perhaps after the disappointments of the Belmont and Travers audiences, they’re afraid to say anything.

As far as the press nationally goes, Lost in the Fog is definitely the main topic, with features like this, this, this, this, this, and this article by the award winning columnist for the Philly Daily News, Dick Jerardi.

The articles all basically deal with the familiar story line of Lost in the Fog’s connections answering the skepticism and criticism of his supposedly soft campaign. For the most part, Greg Gilchrist patiently replies about how it’s not the horse’s fault that people didn’t want to run against him. It seems, however, that the subject of a certain columnist in the Daily Racing Form gets his dander up a bit.

“Go ask Bill Mott, go ask Kiaran McLaughlin, go ask Nick Zito or Wayne Lukas what they think of the horse….Tell me whose opinion you would accept, one of those trainers or the guy from the Form." [Albany Times Union]

The guy, of course, is Mike Watchmaker, who has only grudgingly moved LITF up to number two in his rankings, behind Battle Won, a horse that has won exactly one race this year, and that was a Grade 3 at seven furlongs. He’s not the only skeptic at the racing bible, as editor Steve Crist is firmly in that camp as well, as he affirmed in his chat the other night.

If you say anything negative about LITF's chances, people accuse you of drowning puppies in your spare time but I do think he's vulnerable. He has never faced quality early speed or quality older horses. Of course he can win -- he's a terrific little horse -- but I think he's going to be wildly overbet at 3-5.

I don’t really disagree with anything Crist says here; I’m sticking with my selection of Lost in the Fog, but I can’t say I think he’s as sure a thing as Harriet Miers' withdrawal was. However, I think the anti-LITF crowd took a hit with the scratch of Pomeroy, who at least had the potential to flash some freaky speed. Now, really, they’re depending on two allowance horses, Lifestyle and Atilla’s Storm to soften him up; they’re just the type of unproven horses that Lost in the Fog gets criticized for beating. And remember, LITF has shown that he’s perfectly capable of being behind a front-runner early.

Mike Welsch of the Form, who has some excellent commentary in his clocker’s report today, wrote:

Anybody looking for a chink in Lost in the Fog's mighty armor would be hard pressed to find one after watching the unbeaten 3-year-old sensation train this week. Looks fit enough to win the Classic the way he has been completing his daily two mile gallops.

- A couple of other observations by Welsch worth highlighting:

Sweet Symphony struggled to outfinish a workmate while also unable to keep pace with 2-year-old filly Along The Sea through the final furlong of Monday's five-eighths prep.

Original Spin has had a great week. Turned in as good a work as anybody here when teamed up with jockey Jerry Bailey for the first time, throwing down a couple of :11 and change quarters through the stretch before galloping out very willingly. She also blew out like an express train on Thursday.

I was going to include Sweet Symphony amongst my selections for the Distaff. Does this mean now that I shouldn’t? Or is it a case of knowing more than I need to know? It was a five furlong work in 1:00 2/5…how much faster did they want her to go? DAMN ALL THIS INFORMATION, IT CAN MAKE A GUY CONFUSED!!!