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Sunday, September 02, 2012

Sunday Morning Notes

We were at Swami's Beach in Encinitas, just a few miles north of Del Mar, on Saturday morning.  Barely a cloud in the sky with the familiar morning fog, known as the marine layer, nowhere in sight these days.  It's a special little slice of the planet, as spiritual as the name may suggest.

The racetrack too was resplendent in the uninterrupted sunshine.  That hasn't helped me - in fact perhaps it's proven a distraction, as I've yet to cash a ticket through two days.  It also just could be because I suck.  At least I was getting closer on Saturday.  Still, thinking I may need a swami to get me back in the game.

A couple of horses - both two-year old fillies - well worth mentioning from the day.  In the 5th, Pure Indy ($8.40) was bet down from 8-1 morning line in her first career start; perhaps because a bunch of her West Point owners were in town.  But maybe instead it was a reflection of whatever it was about her sales work that prompted the owners to pay $195,000 for a daughter of the $7,500 sire Pure Prize at the Barretts two-year old in training sale earlier this year.  Looked like the former when the filly trailed in dead last down the backstretch.  But not when Victor Espinoza tipped her five wide turning for home and just blew by them all, despite lugging in a bit early in the stretch run to win going away under a long hold late.  Even Trevor Denman, best in the business at picking up such late moves, didn't do so this time until the sixteenth pole.  Unfortunately for me, 20-1 Controlled Chaos split me in the exacta.  But it was the kind of performance from a debuting two-year old that can make one fall in love and mark down for possible future glory.  Pure Indy is out of a winless AP Indy mare who's a half-sister to the graded stakes winner Greater Good, who ran with a similar closing style, the G1 winner Pure Clan; and this is also the distaff family of the Belmont winner Danzig Connection.  So I'd say that her distance prospects are quite good.

In the G1 Del Mar Debutante, 4-5 favorite Executiveprivilege seemed beaten at the sixteenth pole, but staged a desperate last surge, even while drifting out a path, to just barely collar the loose-on-the-lead Beholder on the wire to remain undefeated, for Baffert, in four tries.  It was her third stakes win.  The finish reminded me of -- and don't go nuts on me here, not at all comparing the horses, just the visual -- Forego nailing Honest Pleasure in the 1976 Marlboro Cup.  It was a gutsy effort indeed.  Executiveprevilege is by First Samurai, his only graded stakes winner thus far (her second such win); out of an Unaccounted For mare.   Her third dam is the great Calumet champion Davona Dale (not so hot in the breeding shed).  The Juvie Fillies is no doubt on the calendar for this filly.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Silver Faces Possible Ethics Inquiry-



Two groups filed a formal complaint Wednesday asking New York state's ethics enforcement agency to investigate state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's handling of sexual-harassment complaints against a high-ranking lawmaker.

The National Organization for Women and Common Cause, a government transparency group, submitted the formal complaint, calling for a probe into Mr. Silver's approval of a secret $100,000 taxpayer-funded payment to settle accusations by female employees against Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

Mr. Silver would be the most powerful figure yet to be scrutinized by the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which wouldn't comment on the complaint Wednesday. A commission probe would widen the circle of Albany power brokers at risk in a quickly unfolding sexual-misconduct scandal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443864204577619981060570956.html

Figless said...

Albany misconduct, I am shocked...

But lets have Albany run racing.

Has the "Joint Commission on Public Ethics" actually ever punished anyone?

Anonymous said...

Shunning spotlight, Andrew Cuomo is convention's invisible man



Say you're a Democratic governor, judged to have presidential ambitions once Barack Obama exits the stage. Where would you spend the day before your party's national convention in Charlotte?

Courting the delegates and donors starting to pour into town? Doing the rounds of morning television news shows? Hitting the evening party circuit?

None of the above for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who on Monday chose to stay 600 miles (960 km) away in the New York City neighborhood of Crown Heights, marching along with celebrants in a West Indian parade.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/04/usa-campaign-cuomo-idINL2E8K4C2G20120904

Figless said...

The fact that Cuomo was not provided the opportunity to speak at the convention provides stark contrast between the national party's opinion of his future and his opinion of himself.

If anyone was taking him seriously for 2016 he would be speaking in primetime, instead he is marching in Brooklyn, a tactic more appropriate for a mayoral contender than a contender for national office.