The End of Paradise

- My Del Mar picks on Friday sucked, pure and simple. I feel compelled to apologize for that. So, sorry. There were a couple more wire-to-wire winners of sprint races, and the closing fractions seemed to be a bit quicker - or at least, less slower, than they were the last couple of days. Drewthegentleman was a legit front-running winner, battling for the lead along the inside, briefly ceding the lead and then fighting back to earn a two length win. The track continues to change and to perplex, and will probably continue to do so long after I'm gone, and until they hopefully get it right. But there were again no catastrophic breakdowns, so I suppose it was another successful day.

There was high drama in the third race, the first leg of the Pick Six. Trevor Denman had announced just before the race that the pool had reached $2.7 million. So there was a lot at stake when the race ended with the naked eye unable to determine the winner between even money Forest Miss and Tale of the Scale, the longest shot in the field at 16-1! I'm sure that a lot of Pick Six bettors were seeing a lot of hard work going right down the drain! To make matters worse, jockey Michael Baze, the rider of Marqz Melody, who I ended up using on top, claimed foul against the favorite. After a long photo and inquiry, the race was declared a dead heat, and the objection was disallowed. During the video replay of the incident, Denman explained to the crowd that Marqz Melody attempted to go through a hole "that wasn't there in the first place."

Well, I obviously didn't have a good betting day, but there's one more day to go. I'll just basically be winging it with the Form on Saturday; no time for Formulator and that stuff, as we have to check outta here shortly. Though I believe that over the long run, the more information the better, on Any Given Saturday, that one extra bit of information can turn out to be too much. So no picks here, lucky for you. I did handicap the Test for the Saratoga Special, and it's there on their site somewhere, perhaps just in the PDF version of their print edition. I picked Zito's Silver Knockers, though I don't really remember why; something about it being her best distance. And if I don't get back to you before Sunday's Haskell, while I have no desire at all to oppose Curlin, I'd take Any Given Saturday heads-up against Hard Spun any given day of the week.

So, that will do it from beautiful Solana Beach. Sorry if the blogging wasn't up to par, but hey, it's vacation. By the time we recover from the redeye flight home after a long day and the subsequent jetlag, I may already be in Saratoga for Travers week by the time you hear from me again. (But probably not.)

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few pictures from the zoo. I suppose you thought I forgot about that, but sorry, no such luck. I'll keep it short. Good luck on Saturday and have a great day!


No, not Hialeah Park, but perhaps some of the flamingos have retired here.


OK, there, it's the freaking panda bear, are you happy? I just don't understand what the fascination is with these things. There's 1600 of them in the wild somewhere, they're not that cute, and they're dangerous and carnivorous. So why do people care about this?


I think this one is from the track actually; just a forlorn bettor contemplating another unfavorable photo finish. Poor guy.


Some words of wisdom from the current stallion, reportedly spoken in a contemplative moment after his second place finish in the 1999 Juvenile.


Our girls discuss the weather and the laughable quality of the Republican presidential field with a wise llama.


Band-aids available at the nurse's office for five bucks apiece.