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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Saturday Morning Notes

- Hambletonian winner Deweycheatumnhowe was noticed to have been "slobbering" this past week by his trainer/driver Ray Schnittker. A slobbering horse doesn't that sound unusual to me, but what do I know? Maybe he owns shares of Citigroup?

However, the colt is now at Cornell, where he's been found to be suffering from a throat abscess, and Schnittker says that "sucks;" Dewey is scheduled to race in next Saturday's Breeders' Crown Trot for three-year olds.

“In two years he has never had a thing wrong with him, so I guess it had to happen sometime. I’ll wait till Monday and see what I’m going to do. [US Trotting Association]
There was no elimination heat for the Trot, and Somebeachsomewhere gets the night off from the heat for the pacers tonight. Little Brown Jug winner Shadow Play, who battled the Beach to a neck loss at Yonkers, is listed as the 9-5 favorite. Though the top eight horses will make next week's final, the winner gets to select post position for next week, which, with Somebeachsomewhere subject to the luck of the draw, could be an equalizing factor. Keep an eye on Blueridge Western, coming off a game first-over placing against Shadow Play in the last race for both those colts. This gelded son of Allamerican Ingot has gotten really good late in the year, and qualified on a half mile track in 1:51.3 for this. Another horse on the improve is Bettor Sweet, coming off an upset win at Dover Downs in which he rallied extremely wide to catch a tiring Rudy Rednose, who'd set a torrid pace, and who figures to be prominent early again tonight.

Upsets early and favorites late in the eliminations for the two-year olds last night.

- This must sound like a broken record, but two more winners for Contessa at the Big A on Friday. He took the 6th, a 16K claiming affair, with Papi Chullo, and it seems not so long ago that I saw the trainer at the press conference in July 2007 which unveiled Win And You're In. Papi Chullo had won huge in his first two races for the barn, and Contessa was being asked about his upcoming showdown with Flashy Bull in the Whitney. Ah, those were the days, eh? Papi Chullo was claimed yesterday by trainer David Jacobson, so there's no limit to how cheaply we could conceivably see him run in the future.

1 Comment:

steve in nc said...

I thought Papi should have been 3-5so even at 2-1 I was all over him and the exacta, luckily, because I didn't hit anything else all day.

But I'm not sure this is a good claim. All those gaps. He's 6. He's not coming anywhere close to prior tops. And now in hindsight, with all his heart, he sure was losing steam at the wire Friday.

Anybody know what "chulo" means, or is it a name?