The Monster

- Sounds to me like Patrick also may have tried to single Wend and Behaving Badly on Saturday. Wend was done before the race even started, due to a variation on the loud yelling guy jinx. I never, ever win a race when some idiot is screaming for my horse, and actually prefer that there be nobody else rooting for the same outcome as I anywhere within earshot. So when they were loading, and a disembodied voice asked “Who do you like, Lenny?” I was like “please don’t say the two, please don’t say the two.”

“The two.”

OK, well, although you should have seen Lenny, this wasn’t necessarily the kiss of death. This was:

“I call him ‘The Monster.’”

Let it be said that I never, ever win a race when some idiot announces that he calls my horse “The Monster.” So much for the Pick 4’s. I liked Behaving Badly too, and like Patrick, suspected that Pussycat Doll’s freakish seven furlong race was due to the wet track. I even broke down and used Splendid Blendid (not related to Sinister Minister), but not Pussycat Doll.

Pussycat Doll is by the now-Pennsylvania-based sire Real Quiet, who I actually had right on top of my tickets in the 1998 Derby. It was the first time I was able to get myself to bet a horse with a dosage over 4.0. His dosage is listed now as 5.33, but I seem to remember it being around 9. Is that possible? Dosage Indexes do change as more sires are anointed chef-de-races. Strike the Gold is the first non-dosage horse I remember winning, but his dosage is now 2.60. I didn’t cash a single ticket in that Derby because I did not use Victory Gallop anywhere on my tickets. I don’t remember exactly why, but I was completely opposed to him, and I recall that he started at pretty long odds. I had the 3-4-5 horses, Indian Charlie, Halory Hunter, and Cape Town. I probably was busted on Pick 3’s if they had them then. But in any event, I didn’t have a penny on him to win. So, my question is – can I say that I had Real Quiet in the Derby?

I’ve heard that Mum’s the Word, the Real Quiet filly that my pinhooking partnership sold and whom Bill Turner was so high on, is back at the farm recuperating from an injury. That’s a tough break; she was training very well and I was looking forward to her debut. Christening, as you may know, is down at Delaware, and her latest workout was on Saturday, a five furlong breeze in 1:02.40 (6/14). Efforts to sell her have thus far failed, so she is slated to make her debut at Del Park on Sunday, in a 50K maiden claiming race. If she runs well, the hope is that she’ll be sold. If not, then I imagine she’ll be sticking around for awhile. Don’t want to put so much pressure on an unraced filly, but it’s REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT that she run well! It doesn’t even have to be well enough to win and/or be sold, but at least encouraging enough to give us some indication that she can make at least some money; lest we have two horses not paying their way.

Highland Cat worked out today, a half in 47.83. That was the second fastest of 13 at the distance. So that’s an improvement over his most recent works, and perhaps an indication that the treatment on his hocks are paying off. Bill Turner is committed to running him on the grass now, even if we have to wait around for another suitable race. Seeing that the race in which he was entered oversubscribed, you’d think there would be another coming up soon, but apparently that’s not the case.

Here’s something I learned today – only stakes-nominated horses are permitted to work out on the turf course. So that’s why Highland Cat – and most other horses – don’t work out on the grass, at least in New York.