RSS Feed for this Blog

Saturday, August 21, 2010

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.

17 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow!The White Liberal is showing us how to be tolerant to others.

Anonymous said...

I concur with your comments about that retard from Alaska, who must have flashed McCain prior to his selecting her; also, NYRA's management is still back in the seventies promoting horses instead of the money that can be won gambling.

Figless said...

I wont' be lining up at the Spa to see RA, but I will be lining up at the window to bet against her.

Figless said...

I happen to agree with most of the Tea Party's small government message but if they get behind this buffoon Palin they are going to shoot themselves in the foot by getting Obama re-elected.

All you fun loving libs should be rooting big time for Sarah to win the nomination.

Anonymous said...

Alan, you should be nicer to Sarah and Mary Lou, two women who have accomplished a great deal without the benefit of corrupt, liberal do-good programs. Sarah Palin will not be the nominee in 2012....she may be a VP nominee again, but not the Big One.

I am reserving my Jackson-Rachel bashing to the time when Jackson ducks a showdown with Z at The Spa.....or Belmont....or any other east coast, "real dirt" track....and until then Moss and Shirreffs deserve the bashing, not Jackson. /S/greenmtnpunter

Jessica said...

"I don't think that anyone other than Jessica Chapel is coming specifically to see that filly."

I kind of hope that's true; I'll have no trouble getting a seat at the Post. But I suspect that the lure of the HOTY is greater than you're willing to credit, Alan, and that I won't be the only one at Saratoga that day to see Rachel Alexandra.

jk said...

My $7 spent at a midtown news stand for a DRF gets me Saratoga, Mountaineer, Charkes Town, Presque isle, Thistledown, River Downs and Penn National. No Delmar or Arlington Millions. But I can go to drf.com for "all other tracks". What a bunch of idiots running the DRF.

Alan Mann said...

jk - oooo, don't get me started on that!!!! It's my #1 Racing Form pet peeve, you should have seen the tracks in the expanded edition at Saratoga last Friday!

jk said...

Alan, I will be following up with DRF management on this and will keep you posted.

steve in nc said...

Hey Anon 12:30. Since tolerance and flushing out hypocrisy are your passions, you'll enjoy this article. I look forward to your response, based on facts and reason, which surely trump race and ideology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22rich.html?hp

El Angelo said...

Why do republicans like GMP always back and support horrible people like Palin, Beck and Bruno? All of them personify hatred, corruption, ignorance and intolerance. They make America look horrible to the rest of the world and bring nothing but anger and sadness to people. It's stupid and unbecoming.

Anonymous said...

Why do Dem-Progs like El Angelo elect, re-elect, and stand behind awful, corrupt people like Charlie Rangel, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, the Chicago Mob including Rahm Emanuel, Blago, Daley, and Obummer hisself, and at home the likes of Shelly Silver, Spitzer, and Sens Schumer and Tweety Bird? /S/greenmtnpunter

Figless said...

Just post your DRF complaints on Steve Crists blogs.

I can not think of one possible reason to leave Del Mar or Arlington out of any regional DRF print edition at this time of year. Or Monmouth either.

Do they get Saratoga on the West Coast?

Figless said...

El Angelo, how many times have you watched the Glenn Beck show?

None, I presume, from you including him with the others mentioned.

Do some research instead of just spewing out liberal talking points, you are just plain lazy.

Watch one week of his shows and explain to me, with examples, how he is any of those things. Start by watching his last three shows on the civil rights movement in America. The whole shows, not the out of context segments posted on the Soros progressive blogs.

As for the others mentioned by you and GMP, there are corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisles. In fact the terms corrupt and politician are analogous at this stage of the game.

Alan Mann said...

The point that there are corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle is certainly well taken...but I think that the only thing GMP finds corrupt about most of the people on his list is that he disagrees with them. And Glenn Beck? He lost me at Obama having "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture," and his deranged comparisons of Democrats and progressive policies to Nazis.

Anonymous said...

He lost me at Obama having "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture," and his deranged comparisons of Democrats and progressive policies to Nazis.


Well,we know The Rev.Wright does and Obama spent 20 years with him sitting in his Pew.

alan said...

>>Well,we know The Rev.Wright does and Obama spent 20 years with him sitting in his Pew.

Really, 20 years in a church pew? A Muslim like Obama?