Dead Heat, Dead Races, Dead Bidder

- Z Humor and Turf War split $800,000 for dead heating in a wild edition of the $1 million Boyd Gaming Delta Jackpot on Friday night. Z Humor was just a length or two behind a torrid pace set by St. Joe. The first half of 45.93 was virtually tied with a five furlong allowance for the fastest split of the day; the filly stakes (with a run to the turn one sixteenth of a mile shorter) went in 46.78, and an earlier mile state-bred allowance in 48.72.

The race slowed down significantly after that half mile. Z Humor crept up the rail to engage the leader, as they went to the six furlongs in 1:11.91, a quarter of just about 26 seconds flat. Mott's colt took the lead, hitting the mile in 1:38.68, that quarter going in 26.77. At this point, with the half mile to the sixteenth pole run in 52.75 seconds ('ugly racing' anyone?), as one might expect, a couple of horses were bearing down on the faltering leader, including Turf War, who was dead last after the first half. It looked like he was going to go past, but Z Humor was dead game, and fought on admirably under a furious ride by Garrett Gomez to retain a share of the win. Golden Yank was gaining between horses, and there was said to be contact among the three (a claim of foul against the two winners was dismissed), though it's not apparent on the pan shot.

Z Humor had a very poor finish to a five furlong workout a few days before the Juvenile. He failed to gallop out at all, and Mott spoke as if he might scratch him when interviewed on The Works. But he ran, and was inexplicably bet heavily to 6-1, before fading to 5th, far behind War Pass. This was his first stakes win, and he's the 21st stakes winner of the year for his sire Distorted Humor, who is now third on the national sires list, close behind AP Indy but far behind Smart Strike.

Turf War is a full brother to Grasshopper who was making his first start on dirt after four tries on the Poly at Woodbine.

- The three new Breeders' Cup races added for the Friday before the big day range from 'oh no' to 'who cares' to 'gimme a break.' Turf sprints are a recent phenomenon, at least here in New York, that most bettors seem to agree we could do without. A turf race for two-year old fillies? Quick - who won the Juvenile Turf this year? And a mile and a half dirt race? I can't think of a single horse that was either entered in, scratched from, or considered for this year's Breeders' Cup that would have had any interest in a race of that sort. It's bad enough seeing important races run at a mile and an eighth consistently fall apart. Horses in this country are not bred to run a mile and a half, and I'd guess that the chances are pretty good that the race will be filled with horses who will have run for claiming tags at some point during the year. Come to think of it, a Breeders' Cup Claiming Crown race for horses entered for a tag of $50,000 or less at a standard distance would be far, far more attractive to this observer, both from a sporting and betting standpoint.

- I wasn't even going to mention the piece of garbage published in the New York Sun as an 'Opinion' piece today; but I guess somebody has to say something. Written by a consultant to Capital Play's PR firm Sheinkopf Ltd, it's nothing more than a perverse summary of all the distortions we've heard opponents hurl at NYRA throughout the franchise drama, with some outright lies mixed in for good measure. In addition to the usual crap suggesting that it's all NYRA's fault that attendance has dwindled and that the business is far in the red, we're told that the Getnick contract "directly violates existing State law" (that has not been determined to this point), that "NYRA is forcing the public to subsidize a corrupt agency" (the agency has received a clean bill of ethical health), and that the $250 million bailout money "would otherwise have gone to State education funding" (yeah, I'm so fucking sure). And, as usual and as in the case of their TV ad, Capital Play offers no suggestions as to how they would make things better. Perhaps that's because the ideas they offered - giant signs on buildings, a "beautiful fence" around Saratoga, and luring men to the track by turning it into a singles bar - have long been discredited and ridiculed.