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Monday, June 01, 2009

Green and White

Minnie Punt ($58.50) was the upset winner of the New York Stallion Stakes for colts and geldings on Sunday with a clever ride by Johnny V, who saved some ground on the turn and managed to find a way through to victory. Little question in my mind that it was that shorter route that was the difference between he and favored Uncle T Seven, who circled five wide and settled for second. Interestingly, Velazquez had never before ridden for trainer Mike Miceli....at least going back the five years that Formulator does.

These Stallion Stakes are limited to horses sired by actual New York stallions, as opposed to horses like Funny Cide (Distored Humor) whose dams were returned to New York to foal. Minnie Punt is by Gold Fever, who, at one time, stood at Questroyal up near Albany. However, now he's at Dove Hill Farm in Minnesota, for $2850; and he thought it was cold upstate? He was the Minnesota's leading sire in 2008. I understand that the Coleman campaign attempted to get his vote counted, but the Franken team successfully argued that Gold Fever was ineligible to vote by virtue of his being a horse.

- NYRA seems to be pulling out all the stops to try and promote the Belmont. The improved flow of emailed information to the media continues (not that I'm media, but I am on the list), and there's a satellite newsfeed available too. There's a media event scheduled for the Empire State Building this morning with jockey Rajiv Maragh (Brave Victory) and trainer Time Ice (Summer Bird). And, the Empire State Building will shine its tower lights green and white in the race's honor on Thursday night. That's pretty cool I'd say, though many people will probably think it's for the Bloomberg campaign.

7 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Also, Gary Contessa and Calvin Borel are ringing the opening bell at the NYSE, I believe on Friday as more promotions. JJ

Anonymous said...

Awwwww, Mark Sanchez thought it was green and white in honor of his arrival.

Alan Mann said...

It'll be Borel, Chip Woolley, Marc Allen (the SEC may want to ask him some questions), along with Contessa.

http://www.nyse.com/about/newsevents/1243851626712.html

Anonymous said...

not sure it was the distance...Minnie Punt will get better as they go longer and was opening up on Uncle T Seven at the wire..winning by 2+ open lengths

Anonymous said...

It's nice that your e-mail in box is full of Belmont promotional items but are you really the one NYRA should be reaching out to? It seems to me they need to attract NEW customers and market their product as such. Reaching out to those already involved isn't going to increase market size,is it?

Alan Mann said...

>>not sure it was the distance...Minnie Punt will get better as they go longer and was opening up on Uncle T Seven at the wire

I actually meant that it was the ground saved by Minnie Punt relative to the favorite on the turn that was the difference. Don't know if I agree though that longer distances will help her, at least based on pedigree on her female side. Her dam was a stakes winner at seven furlong, by the crack sprinter Rubiano. Her second dam is by Tri Jet, her third dam is by Crozier. Those two are speed influences if I'm not mistaken.

>>...but are you really the one NYRA should be reaching out to?

Fair point, but they're just looking for some (free) press publicity, and they seem to have a more focused effort in that regard this year. I doubt they have the money for a full-fledged ad campaign. I don't think that Jess Jackson will be getting any Xmas cards from Charlie Hayward this year.

Sean said...

Love Gold Fever, man. Another Fappiano line mare, Nautical Agent, just delivered a nice filly by him a few weeks ago for us up in NY. Probably one of his last NY-breds. Pic here: http://tstreetassociates.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-what-you-do_10.html. We're making plans for NY Stallion Scam races, I mean, Series races, in 2012.