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Friday, November 14, 2008

Aqueduct Notes

- Winners at the Big A on Thursday for Pletcher and his former assistant Seth Benzel. For the Toddster, it was his second winner of the meeting. Benzel took his fifth winner from 11 starters with claimer Why West in the 7th. He trails leading meet trainer Contessa by two, but has sent out 38 less runners!

Bruce Brown took the second race with Personal Good, and now has three winners from eight runners. Tomorrow, he will saddle King Mobay for Kasey K Racing Stable in the second race. He's in tough in an open 35K claimer, and gets Johnny V.

Tar Heel Mom won the restricted Meadow Star Stakes for trainer Stanley Hough with a handy four wide move from sixth and last. This very nice looking three-year old filly is by Flatter, a second-year AP Indy stallion standing at Claiborne for $5,000. Flatter is actually doing pretty well, especially for a horse who never won a stakes in six career starts. Got a shot at stud I suppose due to his pedigree; he's out of Praise, a daughter of Wild Applause, who I just mentioned yesterday. Flatter, a full brother to Congrats (himself standing for $12,500 in Florida - his first weanlings are selling now at Keeneland), is number 21 on the second year sire list with an impressive total of 43 winners. That's more winners than several more highly regarded stallions up higher on the sophomore list, including Empire Maker, Posse, and Macho Uno.

Tar Heel Mom is a half-sister to Scrappy T. The sire of her second dam is a horse named Ward McAllister, and gee, I remember that one for some reason. He dead heated for the win spot in the 1975 Bernard Baruch with Salt Marsh; Daryl Montoya was aboard for trainer John Russell and the Phipps stable. I can only guess that I cashed a ticket on one of his four career wins.

6 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the new NYRA advertisement on the Left At The Gate site, Steve in NC says from another string: "But taking NYRA money to ease through NYRA's agenda would be, um, the GOP model of how to run a Congress." He may have a point here. What if something comes up on a NYRA issue that Alan would normally stand in opposition to, now the NYRA is a customer, so what can he say? I hope this conflict of interest doesn't ruin the candid opinions expressed on this blog. NYRA already has plenty of "trawlers" on other racing blogs.

steve in nc said...

Anon, you could tell that needling the anti-socialist wasn't my only goal.

But I suspect Alan ain't getting paid enough off the ad revenue to test his scruples, and he seems like a straight shooter to me. He wasn't exactly soft on the BC despite them making him an official blogger two cups ago. Nonetheless, if we see Alan going soft, let's blow the whistle.

No shock to see descendants of Wild Applause love the off track. The filly sure did long ago, as well as the turf.

By the way on the whole socialism nonsense. Jon Stewart asked Bill O'Reilly last night when he tried it, something to the effect of, "Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich from Bush' 36% to 39%. Exactly at what point between 36 and 39% does it become Socialism?" Conservative bloggers, if you want any credibility in this corner, you have to answer that question before using the "S" word any more.

Anonymous said...

Conflict of interest doesn't always have to be about how much money is exchanged hands. It can be more about one's loyalty and confidence in another party. In the case of the NYRA, I hope the organization gets beat up when it deserves it, and earns praise when it should, whether it be Alan's advertising customer or just confidant.

Anonymous said...

Lake, the master of one shot for the breathing and one for the pain. This guys an animal abuser.

Anonymous said...

ITs never mentioned but racing's statistics need a major overhaul. They are doing it now like they did 50 years ago.

Need to list trainer/jockey stats like batting average, win percentage is the only true indicator, not total wins.

Of course, like baseball there must be a minimum number of starts to qualify for the leader board.

I am so tired of reading about Contessa's "impressive" training titles when he wins 10% of his starts.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised there's no mention of the Fair Grounds opening today, particularly with slot-machines now in place (along with the new, higher purse structure). The introduction of slot-machines also happens to be the reason for the track's early opening this year. I guess they couldn't wait for the traditional Thanksgiving Day opening.