Saratoga Bound (Part 2)

Heading back up to Saratoga on Thursday afternoon; staying in town again at the same place. Weather forecast is not great, though it's improved slightly over the last few hours, not that I'm addicted to the weather websites or anything. Should save my angst for other things; not much one can do about that, other than going to Del Mar instead.

Again, I'm on Twitter now, though I slightly altered my screen name and you can now find me @here at @alanLATG. There you can follow me, if you have an account, or you can just read some of the 21 tweets I've done thus far, a couple of them pretty witty if I say so myself (including this one, which actually got re-tweeted), others just incoherent responses to other tweets that you can't see, which really makes no sense to me.

So now I can provide real-time updates from the track, though I'd like to think that I'll be focusing on the races instead. Besides, you think I'm going to actually share valuable information with the horseplayers with whom I'm competing?

Oh, OK, I'll tell you. Not that it's likely going to help. And I'll also probably post some photos of nature and shit when we're not at the races.

Not too much noteworthy as far as Wednesday's races go. The ten race card featured four maiden claimers amongst six races for non-winners over all; plus two for winners that were taken off the grass.

In the second, Make Note ($9.80) won the only way a plodder like he could ever win - when three horses race out to opening quarters of 22.72 and 22.57 in a seven furlong conditioned claiming race. Bye bye leaders, hello Make Note, winning for 25K two races after trainer Patrick Quick claimed him for 10. He's unlikely to win again any time soon.

2yo first-time starter Voodoo Daddy earned a 90 Beyer in romping for Asmussen in the 4th. And watch out; that was the 5th winner from the last six starters from this barn, now hitting an even .300 (9 for 30) on the meet.

Reserved Quality ($6.20) won the 5th in his debut, and was claimed for 60K by Dutrow from Mike Hushion. Two-year old son of Elusive Quality was purchased for 75K as a weanling, and surely the combined purse/claim proceeds of nearly $80,000 didn't come close to covering the total cost incurred. But you have to think that the connections knew what they were doing, well aware that there's plenty of money around and that they surely risked losing him here. Some interesting pedigree here - Reserved Quality is out of a Bet Big (Distinctive) half-sister to Holy Bull.

Chardsey ($4) shied from a right-handed whip near the three-sixteenths pole, shied from a left-handed whip around the eighth pole after rallying wide from far back, and got up with a dramatic late surge. Durkin seemed skeptical as he noted his position down the backstretch. He was also skeptical of the half time posted as 49.65 after an opening quarter of 23.03. But those are the times on the chart. The yielding course must have been a slow one, as they never really picked it up much from there. Ha, he shied from the left, and shied from the right - sounds like John Boehner.

DQ in the 10th, as Purplegreenandgold drifted out late into Pure Home Brew ($7.10), second winner of the meet for Dallas Stewart. Even though I think the DQ was warranted, I also thought it was still tough luck for Purplegreenandgold and trainer Roy Lerman. He was carried out into the eventual winner during the stretch run by Solid d'Oro, which eventually forced jockey Irad Ortiz Jr to switch to a left-handed whip once Solid d'Oro backed off. That surely appeared to contribute to the decisive bumping at the end. If any jockey is at fault for the incident, it was David Cohen, who continued to pummel Solid d'Oro with a left-handed whip even after his horse started to herd the DQ'd horse with the long name to the outside.