Long on Eggs, Short on Press Conference

- Thanks to everyone for the compliments about the Breeders' Cup coverage. It was a pisser, that's for sure. I didn't lose that much money because I just didn't bet that much, especially considering I was there for four days. Between the sloppy track, working on a BC post, Friday's lack of simulcasting, doing the live blogging thing, night time activities, and just generally being in a daze, I found myself unable to focus much on betting.

We went to the Press Breakfast this morning. It said in the Media Information: Winning Owners, Trainers, and Jockeys...will be present for a press conference/breakfast in the Breeders' Cup Paddock Tent at Monmouth Park. That wasn't quite the case. All of the riders and trainers had already left for their home bases. So a press conference it was not. But there was certainly breakfast. The Breeders' Cup certainly knows how to treat and, in particular, feed, its guests, and the working media as well. There was a buffet breakfast that included scrambled eggs, French toast, hash browns, and berries with whip cream that the Head Chef thought was superb. She thought the eggs were too sweet (?), but was fascinated by the silverware. It looked to the eye be the real deal, but it was really plastic with a silvery sheen. She swiped some extras to bring home.

After a while, Dave Johnson stepped to the podium, and spoke of how it was like there was a glow evident in the tent after the great day of racing we experienced. It was clear that there was to be no talk of George Washington here, even as mention of the tragedy was prominent in the newspaper headlines around the country. The spin was strictly upbeat. Greg Avioli spoke of the record handle of $147 million, and acknowledged that the figure could have been significantly higher had the weather been as it was today (a brilliantly sunny, but cool and windy day. One gust blew over some tables in the Lady's Secret Cafe as we were walking by.

Dennis Dowd, from the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority, spoke with a smile about the rain, doing an excellent job of hiding the frustration he must have felt. He said that he received only two customer complaints, one about the mutuel lines, and immediately corrected the situation. I see that Christina had some complaints in the comments section - and I did get stuck in a bottleneck inside that seemed like poor planning. But, other than that, I didn't see any unhappy people myself, and Denman's calls were booming throughout the grandstand seats. The mutuel bays on the first floor grandstand as you walked in from the paddock barely had lines at all.

All of the speakers raved about the "great races." Anytime you have races of this caliber, with so many top horses, you can call the races "great." The day definitely had its share of scintillating moments - in particular, Midnight Lute's stunning rally to take the Sprint. But in all honestly, many of the horses did not run well in the slop, and I don't know that you can call the races "great" in the sense of their competitiveness. Only in the Distaff was the winner of the race in any question inside the sixteenth pole. When you see horses as honest as Smokey Stover, Greg's Gold, and Any Given Saturday hardly lifting a hoof, you know the track is having a profound effect.

We wondered before the event how the horses which have been racing on synthetics will fare on the dirt. Yet it seems to me that there's a much bigger discrepancy between fast dirt/sloppy dirt form than there is between synthetics/fast dirt. I've always thought that the elimination of tracks such as the one we saw on Saturday is second only to safety as the best reason to hope that synthetics succeed. Next year around this time, when, if I'm lucky, I'll have a chance to do this again, we won't be worrying about handicapping for a sloppy track. (Though I think we'd take that over raging wildfires anyday.)

So the rest of the breakfast was basically just watching replays of the races. "We have to watch all the races?" the Head Chef asked. The only trainer, jockey, or owner that appeared was English Channel's owner James Scatuorchio. Dave Johnson, in a bit of desperation, tried in vain to summon War Pass' exercise rider, but even he was absent.

Johnson praised Trevor Denman for his calls, and I have to say after hearing them at the breakfast, portions for the first time, that I think he pretty much nailed them. The Distaff was vintage Denman, as he picked up the move from Octave early on, identified his jockey silks to the crowd, and followed her progress while never losing sight of the battle up front between Hystericalady and Ginger Punch (two of the fillies who I specifically did not like in the race). In the Turf, he did a great job of keeping appraised of the progress, or lack thereof, of Dylan Thomas. I'll likely have more comments on his calls as I really get to sit and review the races.

One difference between he and Durkin is that the latter has an extra reserve of elevated drama in his vocal chords that he can tap for the truly special moments. Denman's voice doesn't have that kind of range. His calls for these races don't differ much in dynamics from those of a 'regular' stakes at Del Mar or Santa Anita; at least for me. But having said that, I think Denman is great, and I'm glad, and quite relieved for his sake, that he had a good day.

Once they finished showing the races, that was it. Scheduled to run until 11, it was not long after ten. Having eaten well though, nobody seemed disappointed at all.

And one the way out, we noticed that the Merchandise Tent was open, and hopping. Everything was being sold for half price. I knew that if we stopped by later (the track was open for simulcasting), we could get stuff for five bucks, but picked up a couple of t-shirts anyway.

- Garrett Gomez got some award for being the best jockey on the day; he rode Indian Blessing and Midnight Lute. He also won two of the races that preceded the BC races, and I don't know if that counted towards giving him the nod over Corny V, who also won twice, including with a perfect ride on Kip Deville. Gomez went from first to last on Cobalt Blue in the Select, in addition to doing so on Midnight Lute. He tried to do the same with Octave, but fell a bit short. It looked she was going to do it, but fell short as she so often has, even with a final eighth of almost 14 seconds.