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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Strange Day

There was a strange occurrence here in NYC on Wednesday. I went out for lunch, and it wasn't raining. Not only that, the sky was an unfamiliar color, a pale shade of blue. Whatsmore, there was a bright round yellow circle shining through; I stared at it in wonderment for several minutes. I found it quite hypnotic; however, now I'm seeing slow-moving spots; like a field of 5K claimers plodding by.

Well, everything's back to normal now; it's grey and raining again, and man, did it pour last night. I'm told that if the bright yellow circle appears enough, the track at Belmont will dry out. So maybe we'll have a fast track and grass racing by Belmont day. And then perhaps we'll have some more horses too. Wednesday's card (with the track actually rated good), featured a grand total of 52 horses in the nine races - only 51 of which finished. Precious Kiss suffered a fractured sesamoid to her left foreleg. She was to undergo further evaluation. [DRF] The fact is though that the fields for dirt races weren't full to start with. Throw in all the off-the-turfers, and the scene at Belmont is quite bleak. I'll start getting with the program once the programs become more attractive. As I've always said, the prospect of no more sloppy tracks is reason in and of itself to make the synthetic track project worthwhile.

- The Yanks lost in ten innings to Tampa Bay last night, and I can't imagine a more dispiriting loss for a baseball team at this still-early stage of the season. Coming after being swept (again) by the Red Sox, they trailed 3-0, but tied the game on a clutch two-out, base clearing double by Mark Teixeira in the bottom of the 8th. Then, after a scoreless inning by Mariano Rivera, they had the winning run on second with one out in the 9th, and I'm thinking, they really need to score this run. They didn't. Sure enough in the 10th, Phil Coke, their only other effective reliever of late, is greeted, on his second pitch, by a long home run by Carlos Pena (his league-leading 12th). Then, they have the tying run on third with one out in the bottom of the inning, with Teixeira up again....and on a 2-0 count, he pops up a fastball down the middle. Are you kidding me? He was barely done slamming things around in the dugout before Matsui flied out to end the game. All this played out in a depressing setting; this entire homestand has been played in the rain and before vast sections of empty seats, and not only in the $1250 section. The Yanks could use that bright yellow circle to emerge as well.

11 Comments:

forego is my witness said...

I know this seems apropo of nothing, but...as a former Jersey boy, I'd like to point out Monmouth opens up this weekend. I'll be going Sunday with my Dad.

I can't help it—I'm still fond of the place.

Anonymous said...

Girardi should have pitched around Pena, you dont throw a strike to the league's leading HR hitter.

Anonymous said...

For sure Yankee fans have much to be dissatisfied with in 2009. Seems as though there is a hex on this new stadium, the Gods saying "You spent way too much on this place, your hubris offend us", just as they have to everybody else it seems.

Red Sox need to make Tampa Bay the new Yankees and treat them accordingly. For some reason, everybody beats Tampa except the Sox who have dropped 5 out of 6 so far. Put pinstriped suits on Tampa with TB in Yankee logo letters and see if that gets the bull pawing the ground? /S/greenmtnpunter

Anonymous said...

The deadline approaches for new bids to install VLT's at the Big A. Anyone care to speculate on the bidders, who they are, both old and new?

Perhaps an over-under on the new upfront payment $$$$ amount?

Anonymous said...

Agree with the Belmont product, have seen criticsm of Campo for scheduling all these turf events in the face of obvious rain, but the dirt races are barely filling so what choice does he have?

Alan Mann said...

>>Anyone care to speculate on the bidders, who they are, both old and new?

Perhaps an over-under on the new upfront payment $$$$ amount?>>

I think Del North and SL Green will obviously re-bid; the latter's lawsuit against the former seemed timed for these proceedings. Mohegan Sun seems interested again, but apparently w/o Cap Play. Personally, I'd be surprised if we see any new faces. And I'd make the over/under $150 million.

Anonymous said...

Alan's Aqueduct $150 million over/under seems reasonable. Is it to soon to make an internet bet on this as a result of Barney Frank's newly introduced bill?

Speculation coming out of Albany has the NYRA trying a bid with a former MGM gaming executive and maybe the Detroit family that backed the Shinnecock tribe bid the last go round; DelNorth; S.L. Green with new partners Jeff Gural and Plainfield Asset Management; Mohegan Sun, R.Donahue Peebles who may have left DelNorth, and some "new unnamed" bidder that has everyone trying to ascertain who it might be.

Let's hope the folks in the capital pick a legitimate winner this time before Aqueduct turns into Roman like ruins!

jk said...

http://tinyurl.com/cn9c34

Exclusive: Jockey says Rachel Alexandra going to PreaknessMay 7, 2009 at 6:08 pm by Tim Wilkin
The decision jockey Calvin Borel didn’t want to make is right on top of him.

The rider, speaking by phone from Louisville, Ky. late Thursday afternoon, said he has to make a choice between Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra for next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.

Anonymous said...

Zayat, while confirming PON is running, is half threatening to enter enough colts to keep rachel out of the preakness.

But the drf article indicates the conditions of the race do no automatically put supplemental nominations at the back of the line.

could be a lawsuit brewing?

Off topic, with all the prerace talk about Mullins suspension starting the day after the derby, did anyone even see it mentioned that larry jones also had a positive with the suspension beginning the same day?

Seems when they don't like someone, it is a big story, but when he is a sympathic figure, under the radar.

Anonymous said...

There's a real double-standard when it comes to guys like Mullins and Jones. Mullins really screwed himself with that "horseplayers are idiots" comment. Now most people, myself included, can't stand the guy. Meanwhile, Jones had a profile in last week's New Yorker which basically equated him to the horse whisperer. -JP from SD.

Anonymous said...

Friesan Fire hard of hearing?
RG