Just Six

- Wow, just five opponents for Just Zip It in Sunday's $100,000 Schenectady Stakes; if, that is, the track is not washed away by tomorrow's expected arrival of Hanna, which is expected to drench this area between really soon and Saturday night. Three of those are fillies and mares that she defeated when she ran third in the Union Avenue; another is Light Tactic, who came back on to edge Just Zip It by a neck for second after forcing the pace between horses inside of her, and altering course top stretch; that in her first start since January. The last one is Under Serviced, from Baffert. This daughter of Hook and Ladder is 3/4 lengths from being unbeaten in her four starts. She's making her first stakes start, but note that her best race came in the mud, which I'd guess is a possibility, even at 5:15 on Sunday. Even though she wired the field in her last race, I think she's better suited to sit behind if Just Zip It and Light Tactic duke it out again.

Just Zip It however took the worst of it at Saratoga, a full three wide all the around the turn. Here, she should at least have inside position on Light Tactic, who breaks from the stall outside of her. The purse is $100,000, and I think it's fair to say that she has an excellent shot to get at least a portion of that. She's never been worse than third in her nine starts, which include a NW3X open optional claimer as well as the aforementioned stakes.

I mentioned yesterday how Del Mar Futurity winner Midshipmen has been dull on the board for both of his starts for Baffert. On Friday, with just over 4,000 on hand at Belmont for opening day of what has become my least favorite NYRA race meeting of the year, he took the second with his first-out two-year old Ventana; 5-2 in the morning line, he paid $12.40 as the 4th choice. He's a son of Toccet, the first-year stallion son of Awesome Again standing for $12,500 in Kentucky. Ventana is his 6th winner, but his 4th since last Sunday. So if a sire can be on a roll, this one is.

Elusive Bluff was a first-out winner, on the grass, at 32-1 for Bill Badgett in the 4th. He's a two-year old son of Elusive Quality out of a Pine Bluff mare, and plenty of turf pedigree here. He's inbred 4x5 to Sir Ivor, his second dam is by Cozzene, and the second dam of the sire is by Hero's Honor. Trainer Pat Kelly was second with 8-1 Insider; recall that we picked up on this barn being sharp with its grass runners late in the Saratoga meet. So we'll continue to watch him, especially if there's any grass racing here before next spring.

H. James Bond went the entire Saratoga meeting without a winner until closing day when he had two. How many times have we seen that recently? Seth Benzel had his first two winners on the first day, and Kimmel had three after going 1 for 20. Bond won another won on Wednesday (not three in a row however) when Turnupthevolume took the 7th at 12-1.

Saratoga Staycation

- Remember way back around five or six weeks ago when we were discussing the prospects for the Saratoga meeting? I thought that the effect of gas prices and the weak economy would be too much even for the Spa to overcome. Some of you disagreed, and argued that the town and the track would benefit from people taking 'staycations.'

Of course, the awful weather during the first two weeks makes it hard to draw any conclusions. Besides the disappointing attendance figures, everyone who I spoke to who was up there during that time said that the town was dead. But the weather has improved since then, and business during Travers week was good.

Attendance was up 3.3 percent comparing the fifth week of racing this year with the fifth week of racing in 2007, according to NYRA. On-track betting was also up 2.6 percent comparing this past week with the same week in 2007. [Schenectady Gazette]

The numbers remain down overall. But NYRA is hoping for a boost on Saturday, which has officially been proclaimed Curlin Day by Mayor Scott Johnson. Charles Hayward told Sherry Ross of the Daily News: "If we got less than 30,000, I'd be disappointed, as long as the weather holds up." I imagine that he's nervously tracking the progress of the remnants of the pesky Fay as it moves north, as am I.

Anyway, our trip to Saratoga for which we leave on Thursday morning is actually a perfect example of the staycation model. We'd been considering a trip to Europe this fall, but the airfare and exchange rate were just too much. Instead, we went in with a couple of others, took advantage of one of those last minute specials and rented a house in town, just a couple of blocks up the street from the main entrance to the track. The cost to us, including a couple of tanks of gas, is just a fraction of that of our scuttled plans. The Head Chef's brother and sister-in law, her good friend Eileen, and two teenage girls will be on hand. They're all curious enough about the track to devote one day to it, probably on Saturday. The pressure will be on me that day for sure, and I hope they don't have their hopes up.

Otherwise, I should be able to slip away and walk over to the track as I please.....make it to the harness track one night (at least) too.....and still be on hand for all of the delicious home cooking that's sure to ensue. So I suppose that it would be greedy of me to hope for a winner or two?

- Just Zip It is doing fine, and is slated for the Schenectady Stakes, another state-bred affair at six furlongs, at Belmont on September 7. Rap Tale earned an anemic Beyer of 62 for her allowance win at Philly Park. Yikes. She hated the track according to jockey Kendrick Carmouche, but dug in managed to get the job done. Trainer Bruce Brown has nominated her, at no cost, for the Twin Lights Stakes for three-year old fillies, at Monmouth on Saturday; it's a nine furlong grass race, and I'll let you know what he decides.

- Another franchise extension for NYRA, this one until Sept 28. However, Paul Post reports in the Thoroughbred Times that meetings were held with state officials earlier this week, and that Hayward expressed hope that the deal will be sealed within a couple of weeks.

“We need to get out of bankruptcy. It’s costing us $80,000 a day in interest fees and bankruptcy charges. We’re very close to a deal.” [Thoroughbred Times]

No word, of course, on the Aqueduct racino.


- In the 9th on Wednesday, I'll take a shot with Yield Bogey (10-1), for trainer Pat Kelly, and jockey Jean Luc Samyn (1 for 41). This barn is always good for some nice-price winners up there; Kelly's two winners, from 26 starters, at the meeting thus far were 10-1 and 8-1. It's been three weeks and ten races since then, but he's been in the money ten other times, and got close recently with first-timer Pynaformer, a close third at 17-1, and Upper Gulch, who missed by a nose at 11-1 on Sunday. Yield Bogey actually has very similar form to the latter, coming into this a few weeks and a solid string of works following a disappointing performance at Belmont. A return to the form of his June 14 effort, in which he closed for second in 11 flat and earned a competitive 78 Beyer, could put him in the mix here.

- Full day of work on Wednesday, tickets for the Yankee game at night, off to Saratoga Thursday morning, and uncertainty over the internet connection upstate.....so happy Labor Day (and Curlin Day) everyone if I don't speak to you until then! But I probably will.