Sunday Musings

Real Writing on Racing 💯

Apr 10

Quick Takes

Just some quick takes (some 🔥, some ❄️) about the racing 🌎 that we both love and hate, occasionally at the same time (like how some tracks run races). *Props to emoji OG TweetleD

🚀 Golden Pal’s first 50 yards out of the gate has to be as consistently fast as any thoroughbred that we’ve seen. He just leaves them every time.

✅ Good jockeys won’t lose you many races. The best jockeys can win you some. Joel Rosario on Mo Donegal was the latest example of this.

⚖️ There should be a minimum odds price under which bragging about your selection is not allowed. “That’s great that you were all over that $5.20 winner there buddy.” 🙄

💸 That said these Super Cards full of stakes races too often turn into festivals of chalk and before people start bombarding me with “OMG they had record handle” don’t forget that the bigger the day, the more the computer teams play.

📉 It’s funny hearing how certain preps CANT produce a Kentucky Derby ‘presented by something or somebody’ winner because it hasn’t happened since Joe Carter was a Blue Jay (random ⚾️ reference). It’s a once a year 20 horse race, there are no trends that matter.

👎🏼 It is still ridiculous that a prep named after 🥩 is a 100 point prep.

💰 Zandon is really good. That doesn’t mean he is gonna win his next race but he is really good.

🥇 Whoever is responsible for Taiba’s training (social media sometimes 😵) did an excellent job of preparing him to stretch out to 9 furlongs in start number 2. He is a really good horse but that doesn’t mean he is going to win his next race either.

🔥 take: Morello should skip the Derby and concentrate on the Pat Day Mile-Woody Stephens - H.Allen Jerkens path that his trainer took with Jackie’s Warrior last year.

🔥 take 2 but it shouldn’t be: Just because you qualify or have enough points for the Derby doesn’t mean it’s the right race for your horse. Horses first brings more 🍀

🔥 take 3: The Derby point system should allow for more points to the earlier 3yo preps so that connections aren’t waiting for these last round races like they are lottery tickets. Good horses racing is good for racing. #racingisa364daysayearsport

🏇🏻 Along that same line of thinking there are three superior 7f - mile horses in training in North America currently. If we can’t get Speakers Corner, Flightline and Life is Good in the same race at some point this year everyone from the graded stakes committee to the owners/trainers to the Breeders Cup to the Jockey Club to the racetracks, etc. should be embarrassed. Our game is great when the best horses race against each other, stop being 🐓. Stop acting like status quo is ok. (I have ideas but will anyone listen?)

⭐️ Speakers Corner has been crazy good this year

⭐️ Graham Motion is sitting pretty in the three year old turf division for colts and fillies. Sy Dog was super impressive in his graded stakes debut Friday at Keeneland and Spendarella ran really well in the Appalachian Saturday. She is a NY bred by a KY based stallion and Sy Dog is a KY bred by a NY based stallion. NYTB’s Naj Thompson is 😁

🏦 Tim Yakteen looks like a dude that is the manager of a fancy bank but seriously he doesn’t deserve much of the scorn thrown his way. You think it’s easy being in his position where he gets no credit if horses win and will get every ounce of the blame if they lose?

🌸 How about that Kentucky Oaks?

💸 If you bet the winner of the Grand National at Aintree yesterday at TwinSpires or any other American ADW you got back $9.80 on the winner (as part of the mutuel field) Noble Yeats who went off at odds of 50-1 on track. It wasn’t that long ago that horses 14-20 were coupled in the KY Derby, thankfully it’s a thing of the past.

🛁 Be prepared for an onslaught of horse bath photos 📸

❤️‍🔥 The Madison was as strong of a field of filly sprinters in one place as we have seen in awhile. Filly sprinters have fewer Grade 1 opportunities than any other division and their races are generally deep and competitive. There is an important message here if you want to consider it

💔 Search Results didn’t look sharp in her return to the races in the Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct. I’m wondering if she stretches out next or does she wind up a late addition to the court of Into Mischief or Curlin? It should be noted that since I made a large losing wager on her last year at Saratoga (Sept 5) when she made just a mild bid when running third, Glass Ceiling has been almost unbeatable. Charlie Baker owes me!

🙄 Happy Jack has run in three of the Southern California derby preps. He has run third two times. He earned 30 points towards a Derby starting slot. He averaged losing by over 16 lengths in each of those three preps. #sometimesyoushouldntgoevenifyouqualify

❓Charge It is a very promising colt as shown by his big effort in the Florida Derby but he displayed greenness/fitness issues when bearing in during the stretch run. Todd Pletcher is an excellent trainer but can he really get him to where he needs to be by May 7? Does Simplification really want to go 10 furlongs? Is the slow final furlong despite a great setup spell trouble for White Abarrio? These questions and the crash and burn of the Tampa brigade with Classic Causeways exit make the sunshine state road to the Derby 👀 shaky this year.

🏆 Racing screws a lot of things up these days but one thing it has done well is honor some of the legends of the game by naming proper stakes races after them. The Pat Day Mile along with the Grade I Woody Stephens and the Grade I H. Allen Jerkens are three great examples where the tracks got it right.

🤯 This is my annual “Why does Pennine Ridge have a graded stakes named after him” rant albeit early this year. With Emmanuel being taken off the Triple Crown trail and being pointed to the Pennine Ridge I was reminded once again that it makes zero sense in 2022 for PR to have a race of that stature (Grade II) named after him. He was a nice enough horse but only won two graded stakes at NYRA tracks and just one more, the less than famous Choice Handicap at Monmouth, a race which has been discontinued. His owner was at one time the Chairman of the Board of NYRA but he has been deceased for years. His trainer himself trained a way better turf horse, Awad, who only has a listed stakes named after him. Manila who was champion turf horse and a Hall of Famer also only has a listed stakes named after him. Lure who was a 2x BC turf mile winner and former track record holder at Belmont has but a listed stakes named after him as well. If you put those four in a race Pennine Ridge would be 1000-1. Of the great turf horses that have raced in New York over the last 50 years, Pennine Ridge would not be in the top 100, maybe the top 200. I just want a logical explanation, is that too much to ask?

⏱ It was nice to watch races this weekend and not wonder if the fractions are correct.

🎖 Going Global should get way more ink than she does. All she has done since being imported to 🇺🇸 last winter is run 9 times, 8 times on the grass with 7 wins, 6 graded stakes wins with a grade I being among them, at distances ranging from 6f to 9f. Hopefully her connections send her on the road a little bit so we can see her perform against the east coasts top turf mares.

😯 Flavian Prat got Dream Shake to win again! Is Hidden Scroll next? 🪄🎩