- Still hanging in Florida, where the weather is gorgeous (sorry) and the posting light.
- The NY Daily News reports that Kentucky Derby “contender” Private Vow breezed six furlongs yesterday morning in 1:15.20 at the Palm Meadow Training Center in Florida. Steve Asmussen is pointing him to the Rebel on March18 for his sophomore debut. But it’s hard for me to put the “contender” label on any horse who plans to go into the Derby with just two preps after a long layoff, which apparently is the plan.
As Todd Pletcher prepares to bring High Cotton back to the races on Wednesday, he reported that Half Ours is off the Derby trail after re-aggravating an injury he suffered as a 2-year-old.
"He's back on the farm in Ocala for some stall rest for now....He reopened the old fracture. We'll just monitor him and see how quickly it heals." [Daily Racing Form]- Nice win for Buzzard’s Bay in the All American at Golden Gate; it’s his first win since last year’s Santa Anita Derby and only the 4th of his career. His time for the nine furlongs was an excellent 1:47 1/5. "The light bulb went on today," [jockey Jose] Valdivia said. "Hopefully, it will stay on." [SFGate.com]
- Wayne Lukas announced that Folklore is not yet “into her program” and will miss the Santa Anita Oaks.
- The lack of incisive press coverage of our favorite game has been something my fellow turf bloggers have been talking about lately; we’ve been discussing the idea of giving out awards to recognize efforts of good reporting when we see it. Here’s one worth reading by Bill Finley on ESPN.com. The trades reported without much comment or anaylsis the firing of jockey agent Jim Pegram by Garrett Gomez. Finley takes an in-depth look at Pegram’s key role in the resurrection of Gomez’s career after two years off due to substance abuse problems. He concludes of Gomez: He's got a lot of attributes. Apparently, loyalty isn't one of them. [ESPN.com]
4 Comments:
Geez, that Finley article was great to read. That's the kind of coverage we like. I've blasted Finley a few times for shooting from the hip when he's been woefully off base, but on the whole we need more guys like him shooting their mouths off. I'll take a muckraker that's wrong once in a while over the super cautious scribe any day. Of course, LITG gives readers the best of both worlds--keeping it accurate with plenty of muck raking.
...so, Half Ours is off the Derby Trail?...when was he ever ON the Derby Trail???...the horse still hasn't run since last May, and had never been beypond 5 furlongs...how he made it onto Churchill's Round One Derby Pool is completely beyond me...which brings me to my other point today...in spite of trainer Neil Drysdale insisting "he's fine" at least TWICE in the Racing Form, his mega-talented Your Tent Or Mine STILL hasn't recorded a workout this year...obviously, Your TeEnt Or Mine is NOT fine, and hasn't been fine for a long time...so what i'm asking is, didn't Drysdale have some responsibility to "come clean" when he found out that his horse was being included in the Round One betting pool?...didn't he care that bettors would squander thousands of dollars on his injured colt?...apparently, the answer is a resounding "No"...which brings us to the Round Two betting pool, opening shortly...is Your Tent Or Mine gonna be listed AGAIN???...will Churchill lean on Drysdale a little bit regarding YTOM's status, before they issue their list of horses?...or would Churchill even care???...i mean, they already have to replace several names from the first list, and Your Tent Or Mine would probably draw more money than whoever they might replace him with (that's pretty sad, isn't it?)...maybe they'll decide it's in their best interest to leave him on the Round Two list, despite his obvious "no chance in hell" status???...we shall see...in any case, i've lost a great deal of respect for Drydale...there's no doubt about his talent as a horseman, he's right up there with Frankel and Dickinson a small handful of others...but he also doesn't mind lying through his teeth (or just not saying anything), public be damned...
Walter,
I'm not quite as dismissive of gaps in workouts in the form as Alan, but probably not as alarmed as you over the lack of works. In Free's 2/7 column he quotes Drysdale:
"No setbacks," he said. "He's cantering, galloping on a daily basis."
Does your clocker report on these "gallops"? Has anyone other than the Drysdale actually seen the horse?
Free also quotes Drysdale as planning to work by mid-February. It's the 21st, and this is a short month.
...that's one of the "he's fine" quotes i was referencing...as for gallops, no, i don't get any reports on those...and if the horse WERE active in the morning hours (recorded workouts or not), i'm sure he'd have garnered a mention in the Santa Anita "Stable Notes" section by now (though the horse is stabled over @ Hollywood)...it's possible he's been galloping (or even working) at a private farm or something, but as you mentioned, it's Feb 21 and that pretty much tells the story...the San Felipe is less than a month away, and i doubt very much Drysdale was eyeing an allowance race for that "March return"...
...incidentally, i just read an article on Bloodhorse about the under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton 2yo's-in-training sale...you guys may remember my method of filing away the fastest workers from the sales, in order to have some "live" first-time starters during the summer months...well, get your notebook ready...a Forestry-Magical Maquerade colt worked a furlong in 9.80 seconds...that topped the one-furlong breezes...there was a tie for the two-furlong mark of 21.20 seconds, set by an El Corredor-Sami's Proud Squaw colt and a Songandaprayer-Sweet Proud Polly filly...i believe the second under-tack show is set for Feb 26...
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