Uh Oh...

- Patrick Biancone keeps his horses at Keeneland during the Churchill meeting, and it was there where a search of his barn has led to an investigation by the KHRA. Neither head steward John Veitch nor Biancone would comment. Keeneland's head of security told Bloodhorse, who broke this story earlier today, that the track will not take any action in regard to the matter until the KHRA has completed its investigation. Now, regarding the current meeting at Churchill, if a track can ban a jockey over murky suspicions of hanky panky at a distant track, I suppose they certainly could do the same to Biancone under these circumstances. We don't have any details, and I'm certainly not presuming anything at all; but you could certainly make the argument that given the publicity this will certainly be getting in the next few days, it's in the betting public's interest to have his horses withdrawn.

- Valerie Nellie pointed out that there are already stud ads for Lawyer Ron, and you can see his Stallion Register page here. His blurb is already written, and it's entirely possible at this point that there won't be anything to add:

SIX Straight Wins * FIVE Stakes
by Some 34 Lengths
Arkansas Derby-G2, Rebel-G3, etc.
Enters Stud upon Retirement

Oh, I thought he would take a year off and travel around Europe!

- Steve Davidowitz, writing for the Form's paid DRF Plus section, discusses the problems with the Cushion Track at Hollywood. It needs more wax to tighten it up; but according to Davidowitz, it won't be installed until July 9 at the earliest, and perhaps not for the rest of the meeting. He also reports that several trainers have privately admitted that some of their stock sustained back injuries.

In recent weeks, clockings have gotten noticeably slower, and some horses have not handled the looser surface nearly as well as the tight, perfectly balanced surface of 2006. Many horses have not handled the synthetic track as well as they did during the first two months of the current Hollywood meet.

This suggests that horses who negatively reversed their synthetic form from April to June might have been affected by the changing racing surface.

It also suggests that horses who might have missed a start during the last few weeks may have been forced to the sidelines to deal with body soreness, or some other minor injury. It also suggests that horses with good April and early May form over the surface should not be given an automatic edge on the present racing surface. [Daily Racing Form]

Something to consider not only now, but, especially, when analyzing the past performances once the action moves to Del Mar....and you have to deal with a totally different synthetic surface. I don't think that those fears of racing becoming too homogenized in the synthetic era, with every surface playing the same, are going to come to pass. Or at least not in the near future.

Del Mar will be adding some wax too.

"We received some feedback from the horse show people (in May) that the surface got a little looser in the afternoon when it warmed up," Fravel said. "That's why we wanted to get the (Polytrack) on there early and watch the various conditions." [North County Times]