Saturday News and Notes

A lively and interesting day at the claim box at Saratoga on Thursday. In the third, Amazing, the only one of the five horses who was entered for the $75,000 claiming tag, was taken by Gary Contessa for Farnsworth Stable. According to the Form, the graded stakes-placed five-year old mare had been purchased privately by Paul Pompa prior to her last, a distant 6th in the Bed O'Roses. Wonder if he got his money back....can't imagine he thought he would slip her by at this meet given all the horses we've seen changing hands.

In any event, Pompa didn't leave the money laying idle for very long. In the 5th, Mountain Town ($16.40) won in his first start, and Dutrow took him for Pompa for the same $75,000. Nice job scoping this one out; he was 10-1 in the morning line, and was the only horse claimed in the race. Mountain Town, whose win got Nick Zito off the schneid, is a son of Cape Town out of a Mt Livermore half-sister to Bird Town and Birdstone. As you might then expect, this horse was bred by, and was claimed from, Marylou Whitney.

And so, a brief comment on her husband's good friend Sarah Palin. There's no question in my mind that the half-term governor's rah-rah defense of Laura Schlessinger was nothing but a nakedly blatant and absolutely shameless ploy to appeal to the most ignorant and extreme racist element that makes up a large portion of her devotees. After all, anyone with any sense, and on either side of the political spectrum, is well aware that Ms. Palin is a hate-mongering fool who cares of nothing but her own personal ambitions, be they political or, more likely, financial. No friend of hers is a friend of mine, so Ms. Whitney can take the proceeds from the purse and the claim and stick it up her scrawny butt as far as I'm concerned. And if Ms. Palin thinks it's a good thing-y to berate a black caller - 11 times! - with the N-word, is it then ok for me to refer to her with the C-word?

So. Where were we? Oh yeah, the claim box. In Thursday's 9th, another extremely prescient claim, as trainer Gary Gullo took the 21-1 winner Mitigation for $35,000, for Richie Munk's Funky Munky Stable (who also had a winner on Friday with the unfortunately-named Funky Munky Mama). Great job there, though, in truth, a little red-boarding leads one to believe that he was way overlaid; his last turf sprint was a very wide third for 50K in a race won by the subsequent G3 Jaipur winner Stradivinsky.

There was another two-year old first-out winner on Thursday, and both he, Running Tap ($13), and Friday's second race juvenile debut winner Tap for Luck ($16.60), are both offspring of Tapit (and both were ridden by Javier Castellano). Tapit stands at Gainesway now for $50,000 and has bucked the trend in a big way; his stud fee his risen from $12,500 in 2008 and $35,000 in 2009. Running Tap, trained by George Weaver, is a Wild Again half-sister to G1 winner Diplomat Lady. Tap For Luck, trained by the meet-leading Todd Pletcher (his 6th juvenile debut winner of the meet) is out of a Crafty Friend mare; her second dam is a half to the 1981 Haskell winner Five Star Flight.

Friday's first race winner Sextant ($6.30) was another turf sprint winner for Linda Rice.

- NYRA is going all out for next weekend. They will hold a press conference on Monday to hype what they are calling the Double Day Spectacular - the Travers on Aug 28, and the return of horse of the year Rachel Alexandra on the 29th. Unfortunately, even with the Derby winner scheduled to run, the most interesting Travers entrant just might be a horse who just broke his maiden in his first start. And, as I've said, I don't think that many people care much about Rachel at this point. I don't think that anyone other than Jessica Chapel is coming specifically to see that filly. NYRA and all the tracks need to come up with more generalist approaches to promotion that do not depend on specific horses.