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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Was There Anything Kent Could Do?

- OK, after piecing together all the evidence, we finally know exactly what happened to Big Brown in the Belmont. Cranky from missing his monthly injection, and a bit wobbly after waiting on those long bathroom lines, Big Brown was spooked at the break by the starter standing on the track, causing him to veer out, get stepped on by Guadalcanal, thus displacing his shoe. He was then restrained into submission by Kent Desormeaux, who mistakenly thought the horse was trying to move too soon, when he just wanted to get outta there and beat the traffic back to Aqueduct so he could pee in privacy. Glad we cleared all that up. We've now been offered more excuses than we heard from Hillary explaining why she voted for war.

- Here's a hint of what will happen in two years when that "temporary" 1% takeout increase is set to sunset.

The legislation actually would extend by one year—through Aug. 31, 2009—a 2% purse deduction. (A one-year increase from 1% to 2% was included in the legislation that awarded the New York Racing Association a franchise extension.) If the bill passes, it would mandate that up to one-half of 1% of the amount be used to fund the testing program for steroids. [Bloodhorse]
The legislation referred to is one passed by the NY State Senate to establish a fund for steroids testing; what exactly the other half percent will be used for we're not told. So all of us honest owners will have to pay for the transgressions of admitted users like Dutrow, and "no comment" ones like Zito.

- Drag racer Scott Kalitta was killed in an on-track accident over the weekend; the second straight year that a driver lost his life racing Funny Cars. No congressional hearings are planned as far as I know. Big surprise there.

- We had XM Radio in our rental car down in Florida, and had a lot of fun listening to Fred. No, not Fred Gwynne, Fred Shero, nor Fred Flinstone. But just Fred.....XM Channel 44. It's billed as the "History of Alternative Rock," and though I'd quibble with some of their selections, it serves as kind of a "Deep Tracks" for the new wave/alternative soundtrack of the 80's. We heard a lot of songs we hadn't in some time. When we got to the Sarasota Farmers Market on Saturday morning, we ended up sitting in the car to hear three of them, and please indulge me for sharing. In order, we have I Confess, by the English Beat; Kid, by the Pretenders (the real ones, including the late James Honeymoon-Scott and the likewise Pete Farndon); and last, and most assuredly not least, Was There Anything I Could Do? by Australia's fabulous Go-Betweens; performed here by songwriting genius Grant McLennan, RIP.







4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

From Sunny Jim in New Jersey

Greetings Alan, thanks again for the blog and keep up the good work. Handicap to your heart's content.

Good that you got rid of that uber-idiot who was anonymously abusing you here.

His hostility was getting worse and worse, as though by posting your hunch bets you were somehow trying to personally agitate him. Scary to think that this was an adult of betting age and not just an unhinged eleven year old.

If he tries to resurface his posts will be recognizable by the comically inept grammar and spelling errors.

Cheers.

SaratogaSpa said...

The Pretenders 1st and Best album-would love to hear Tattooed Love Boys or Prescious!

Anonymous said...

I like Fred on XM too. They play a lot of the same stuff over and over - X seems to be a favorite. I used to love "deep tracks," but it seems every time I turn it on it's Procol Harem singing "Salty Dog," which is a pretty good song, but there's lot's of deeper stuff I can think of. The blues channel on 74 is really good. The decades channels are good too, but the 1970's channel reminds me just how bad a decade that was for music -- karen carpenter makes me want to be bulimic and the starland vocal band is pretty bad too.
But the 1960's channel is great -- so much great music presented as though it's 1965 all over is really cool.

Superfecta said...

I do like me a little Go-Betweens. You should check out The Lucksmiths too if you're looking for another great, literate band from Oz.