Vote Blue! (And Brown...)

Bigger Attraction Ain't Here

- I didn't make it to the track on Friday. I hope you don't think any less of me. But we all (sans teenagers) went hiking up at Tenant Creek Falls, and we made it all the way up to the third one; a round trip of 4.2 miles I'm told. If I hadn't forgotten my camera in the car I'd post some photos, but Eileen has some I can bore you with later on. I borrowed this one on the internet. Great day despite a persistent cloud cover and my and Eileen's suffering several painful stings from some angry wasps whose home I must have unwittingly disturbed. Ow. It was an accident, y'know! Fortunately, the Head Chef remained unscathed. (She swells up really bad, and may not have been able to cook tonight.)

By the time we got back, I could have run over for the late double. But when I saw that Sinners N Saints, who I liked in the 8th, was scratched, I stayed here, popped open the wine and the laptop.

It was a lazy day at the track on Wednesday. 14,210 doesn't quite fill the place anymore, and it had a definite "last week of the meeting" feel. It must have been a bit better with over 18,000 on hand on Friday. I know that NYRA is hoping for 30,000 for Curlin on Saturday. The weather forecast, though just a possibility of a few passing showers and nothing at all dire, doesn't help. But I don't know if it would matter anyway to be honest.

I just don't sense the kind of buzz about Curlin to think that there would be a crowd of that sort this weekend even if the forecast was fine. I hope I'm wrong, and NYRA, with some help from the town of Saratoga, is doing its best to hype it up.

The Head Chef's brother Claude, here along with wife Leah and daughter Eva, is an avid sports fan. He's not a racing fan, but he's aware of the Triple Crown events, and catches them on TV from time to time. He's excited about coming to the track on Saturday, as is the entire crew, who will be looking for yours truly to achieve pari-mutuel glory. Oh man.

When I told him that Curlin was racing tomorrow, his expression couldn't have been more blank than if I had said Sarah Palin. But when, in what could be considered push-polling, I asked if he'd be more excited if Big Brown was running, he said definitely. I think his reaction is the same as I would get if I posed the same questions to any of my non-addicted fans.

For one thing, it shows how the Kentucky Derby is really the singular horse racing event as far as most people go. The Breeders' Cup Classic? I don't think it registers in the public mind much at all, even, as in this case, combined with the Preakness, a nose loss in the Belmont, and the Dubai World Cup (ha).

The other point here in my mind is that it's Big Brown who is the horse of the moment. No matter what NYRA gets here tomorrow, there's no doubt in my mind that Big Brown would have drawn at least 5,000 more. Big Brown's appeal is a very fleeting thing in our sport, given the way the economics (and, as seems the case for Big Brown, physical problems) shorten horses' careers and the short attention span of the general public. Jess Jackson said he was bringing Curlin back for the good of the sport. The good of the sport demands that he put his pride and any notion that he deserves to call the shots against his more popular rival aside, and make a meeting with Big Brown happen.

Bedbugs and Ballyhoo, Big Brown and Bellyaching

- Pursuant to the last post, and the discussion that follows (including what I believe to be the all-time longest comment in LATG history), I characterized any continued discussion of Dutrow's, and by extension, Big Brown's worthiness in the next three weeks leading up to the Belmont, as "bellyaching," which drew a couple of negative reviews. True, I could have used another word, but I stand by that one and here's why.

I think that we've had a more than thorough discussion of Dutrow's history of suspensions, both leading up to the Derby, and, partly in the context of the Eight Belles breakdown, between races too. I've blasted him here, and on The Rail too (#3), maybe even more for his frivolous attitude towards his suspensions, and the ban he got for brazenly violating the terms of one of them. He also cheerfully admitted to violating suspensions routinely in an interview before the Derby. I think he's a cheater, and it will take a few years of a clean record before I consider the possibility that he's reformed, as he said. Of course, I'd rather that a guy like Michael Matz was Big Brown's trainer.

But at this point, Dutrow's horse, Big Brown, is on the precipice of a historic achievement. He's a really good horse, maybe even a great one. Yes, the competition has been sketchy - I mean, if Big Brown only got a 100 Beyer given how little he really had to exert himself (Gary Stevens likened it to a quarter horse race) - imagine how slow the rest of them are. But I think his two Triple Crown wins have been breathtaking - the Derby for the sheer revelation of his being able to rate and run professionally down the stretch, the Preakness for its sheer ease, and both for the incredible acceleration he displayed when asked by Desormeaux to go (as highlighted by the overhead blimp shots on NBC).

So for me, the story going into the Belmont is the horse. And, I'm finding the continued growling about Dutrow, at this point in time, getting rather shrill. That's not to say that any such discussion that continues despite what I think isn't valid and constructive. But to me, it's just sounding like....well, bellyaching. The horse is the horse, and we have no evidence that he's running on illegal medication. In fact, given the extra scrutiny for these races, and Dutrow's two wins in Dubai where the horses are all closely monitored and tested (ask the owners of Brass Hat), I'm assuming he's not.

As far as the steroids go, in my opinion, that's not a valid discussion with regard to this particular situation, but rather one for the industry as a whole. If the medication is legal, than it's legal. On Friday, ESPN, on their crawl during their telecast, repeated the news of the NY Daily News report that Dutrow was giving Winstrol to his horses every month. But like a lot of stats we see on that network and others, it was presented without context, and is therefore without meaning to me. Was Big Brown the only horse in the Derby running on a steroid? Is he the only triple crown race winner that had been receiving it? I tend to doubt that. Allen Jerkens told Bill Finley last year: "Sure, I use them occasionally. It helps build up muscle and it helps when a horse hasn’t been eating well.” Whenever Jerkens has a horse in a big race, all we hear about (ad nauseum at this point) is why he's a giant killer, never about steroids.

So, I won't be writing about Dutrow's history between now and the Belmont. I'm sure there are some TBA bloggers who disagree - here's one, to start - and, with all the new mainstream media types that will be gravitated towards the Belmont, I'm sure we'll be hearing and reading plenty. So, if you're interested, they'll be plenty of that to read. But I'm done with the discussion, at least until otherwise warranted. We have a possible Triple Crown winner, coming just as many were starting to ponder that the nature of racing in the 21st century may preclude it from ever happening again. So I'm going to concentrate on the horse.

- Bedbugs and Ballyhoo