Handicapper Saved From Rapture

Perusing the other contestants in the public handicapper contest I stumbled upon a holy affirmation that I would like to share. Between the picks, endless stats and various handle-names it looks like a soul was on the line. A contestant named C Matters wields an unorthodox and unique handicapping style. Judging by the small sample of results it seems to be working well for C Matters. The stakes were high for him in the Lanes End as his fate wavered in the wind like a cat tail shifting about in November storm. With everything on the line C Matter's fate rode alongside Edgar Prado around the polytrack at Turfway.

A man was found dead Wednesday in what appears to have been a suicide at a residential construction site on a lot owned by Mel Gibson. The Lost Hills Sheriff's Department received a 911 call at 8:09 a.m. alerting authorities to a man hanging from the rafter of a house on Sierra Creek Road in Agoura Hills, Los Angeles County. Law enforcement sources say the body was found hanging in the addition to the home that was being built and was in "full-body rigor mortis" and the hanging could have occurred the night before.

Don't quote me on this, but according to Inside C Dot's Hollywood scuttlebutt, the worker had a piece of construction paper with the words, Lane's End: look in my pants pockets stapled to his forehead. Cops found two notes, one in each pocket. They read: Robbie The Human Anchor Albaradotros and Edgar My Favorite Tamale Prado.

Scuttlebutt in hand, my mind's been made. It's Holy Saturday. I'll be taking this afternoon's Lane's end outcome as a sign from God: if Adriano wins, I'm heaven bound; if Racecar Rhapsody wins, my future's anchored in hell; if neither win, a jillion years in purgatory.

As mysterious as picking winners is the scourged mind of an unbelieving, guilt-ridden lapsed Catholic.

Dubai Modern City Embraces Racing

There is no place in the world right now building and expanding like Dubai. This is truly a now city, in the way that New York was a now city in the early part of the 20th century or Athens back in the 5th century B.C. Most of the Dubai infrastructure has been built since 1990 and the city is growing up and out on a daily basis adding new construction and new population. Dubai is at a major crossroads of trade. It is a meeting point of goods and services between Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. It is good for the future of racing that it is an integral part of the Dubai culture. Sheikh Maktoum uses racing as a primary tourist attraction in the Go To Dubai campaign. Compare that to New York where racing is marginalized and rarely mentioned as a tourist attraction. Most tourists would hardly be aware that Aqueduct or Belmont is a world class racing facility easily accessible from Manhattan. The new Meydan racecourse under construction promises to be the grandest racing facility in the world, you can count on the Dubai World Cup to continue to be a major target on the racing calender.

Year after year the Dubai World Cup is expanding its profile and it has become the dominant late winter top class racing event in the world. The fields are more global than the Breeders Cup and represent a large cross section of Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Africa. Saturday's upcoming Dubai World Cup card may just be the most exciting card run all year any where in the world. As Dubai continues to expand its profile on the world stage it is good that racing has secured a spot in one of the most important international cities.

Weekend Derby Prep Action 22MAR

This week we have the Lanes End GII from Turfway. The only graded winner in the lot is #11 Turf War who is drawn wide and 2nd off the layoff. The morning line favorite Halo Najib is returning from an abysmal race at Gulfstream where he made little impression. The third choice Cannonball has won on nothing but turf. The forth choice Adriano is another that has won on turf twice and showed little to nothing in the Fountain of Youth while having the valid excuse of the 12 hole at GP going nine furlongs. Perhaps Macho again has a shot if he can stretch out successfully. The race is wide open. My pick is Graham Motion's Adriano who is beautifully bred out of a Mr. Prospector mare by A.P.Indy. Adriano is bred to get the distance and his two wins were impressive. Both wins were on the big circuit, either Saratoga or Gulfstream, many of these horses have cheap wins at places like Sam Houston or Turfway.

Showdown:Then There Were Two

After a grueling 24 days of racing there are two contestants left in NYRA showdown. Alysa The Dancer who was forth in a 5 horse field eliminated two contestants Friday. Now it is head to head for the $7600 first prize. Just what are the two showdown iron horses Inky and Kluelesskeith thinking as they drive for the wire?

Must See Film

Last year I went to the Tribeca Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed the The First Saturday In May. I caught a matinée in the east village down the block from Webster Hall, I brought a friend who does not embrace racing and he liked the film as much as I did. The film was an entertaining look at the people behind the scenes who muck the stalls, guide the horses through their workouts and feel the sting of disappointment when something goes haywire. The film starts in the dead of winter as the derby trail kicks off. The anticipation builds as the horses make their way to Louisville. There are plenty of laughs, cheers and tears in this game and the film captures it all brilliantly. Insightful behind the scenes action with the very interesting connections. Frank Amonte the former Contessa assistant stole the show, but there are many colorful characters to chose from. The racing fan will love it and the non-racing fan will want to get out to the track after viewing this film. Here is another review from an esteemed blogger. Looking forward to purchasing the DVD when it is available.

Breeders Cup Two Consecutive Years At Santa Anita

The Breeders Cup Ladies day has been the hot button issue and has stoked the fires of many fans on both sides of the argument. Another issue that is not getting as much discussion is Santa Anita hosting the Breeders Cup for two consecutive years. The main issues are the hot weather, the travel for European Shippers and the unknown surface. With all of these concerns and I felt that it was a mistake that Santa Anita was awarded an unprecedented two consecutive Breeders Cups. This is a track that is struggling with the surface and nobody can say for sure what type of surface the 2008 breeders cup will be run over.



While we can assume that the surface will be sorted out over the next seven months, it is an absolute risk to run a event like the Breeders Cup on the assumption that the ground under the horses hooves will be sound. Any injuries or ugly incidents and the finger of blame will be pointed to Santa Anita, and their incompetent management of their surface. This could be the first Breeders Cup run over a synthetic surface but who really knows what the surface will be at this point. There is such a diversity of synthetic surfaces, from the fast Hollywood cushion track to the waxy quicksand-like Del Mar polytrack. This uncertainly must make long term plans challenging as horses can not get a race over the surface. What ever Santa Anita installs will play a huge role in determining which horse excels in the 2008 breeders cup. Never has there been so much uncertainty leading up to the event. What if the unproven, freshly minted surface has drainage or safety issues? There will be very little time to make corrections and the pressure to run is tremendous.




The issue of weather is usually a problem wherever a Breeders Cup is run. Running at Santa Anita has issues unique to the desert climate. Last year at Monmouth the Breeders Cup was run under a constant deluge and the drops did not stop falling from Wednesday until Saturday. It seems like the move to run in the desert at Santa Anita for two consecutive years was a reaction to get as far away from the driving rain of the Jersey shore in Autumn. Another weather issue that of a Breeders Cup location is the biting cold of Belmont's North facing Grandstand, not the most pleasant place to be for many in late October. The weather issue with Santa Anita is the hellish heat. Santa Anita's inland location is far enough from the ocean that it does not get the cool Pacific breezes of Del Mar or Hollywood. Santa Anita is basically in the desert. The 2003 Breeders Cup was bone dry hot. As soon as the sun rose it was in the 90's and the earth was on fire with the Santa Ana winds stoking wildfires from San Diego to San Bernardino. The smoke filled, smoggy air compromised many horses. Not only did the Eastern and European horses have to acclimate to a hot dry climate they had to acclimate to running with smoke and ash in the air. Volponi shipped back to New York from the 2003 Breeders Cup with a lung full of ash, mucus and blood. The classic is run at at the height of the heat at 3pm to accommodate the eastern time zone TV slot. No wonder local boy Mandella won four races with three longshots, as his horses had the edge of acclimation.



The other issue with running at Santa Anita is the travel issues. California is 3000 miles from New York and it is a long ship to a place with a inhospitable climate for horses that have begun to grow their winter coats. For Europeans it is a very long plane journey and climate acclimation issues may prevent many shippers from contesting the Breeders Cup. Combine the hot dry weather with the currency conversion issues reducing the Breeders Cup purses and the ship from Stanstead / Shannon /Amsterdam to LAX is not very appealing. Running at Santa Anita for two consecutive years means that Europeans horseman and fans may just lose touch with the event.



Santa Anita is a undoubtedly a beautiful setting, the San Gabriel mountains beyond the backstretch make for one of the most appealing vistas in America. However running the Breeders Cup for two consecutive years at a track with a unsettled surface is a mistake. Breeders Cup is going to alienate the Europeans running under oppressively hot conditions for two consecutive years. When the Breeders Cup is done with Santa Anita in 2009 we may find an event that has lost much of its stature within the global industry. The Breeders Cup may have squandered much of its global appeal at a time when the Breeders Cup is attempting to expand. The Breeders Cup seems to be losing ground to other championship type racing events in Dubai, Hong Kong and Japan.

Showdown Marathoners

How about the players still alive in the show down contest at NYRA.com. Twenty one consecutive days of picking a horse to finish better than than fourth is quite an accomplishment. Do these people feel pressure? After about two weeks those contests become pressure cookers. Anybody alive this long is a real classy capper with a tremendous amount of talent for picking the ponies.

Things Horseplayers dislike

5. Redboard- Horseplayers hate redboards and redboarders. A redboard is when someone brags about a winning wager without speaking about the wager before the race. Not only is this obnoxious but the redboarder could be full of you know what as who knows for sure that he/she made the wager or are they just looking for admiration when none is due. If you plan on braging about a wager make sure you speak about it before the race.

4. Racetrack Management-These guys are universally hated by horseplayers. They even have a website for them called track thieves. Horseplayers have not received the best treatment from the tracks over the years and this has produced a built up resentment. The customer service level experienced by the horseplayer at a racetrack is about what a crackhead could expect in a crack house. Management of either the track or crackhouse knows they have both groups as dedicated customers and they do not need to do much to keep them coming back.

3. Window capping- Horseplayers hate when some newbie is at the teller window one minute to post reading the program instead of calling out a wager. This causes those at the back of the line to get shut out of wagering. These are the most annoying people at the track. Racetrack etiquette dictates that window cappers can be verbally abused with impunity. Feel free to shout at and denigrate window cappers at any time, it is completely acceptable.

2. Paying for anything- Horseplayers hate paying for stuff. TVG is avoided as a ADW because they make their customers pay 25 cents for the privilege of making a wager. A horseplayer would forgo buying lunch but would gladly allocate the same sum towards a wager on a animal running in a circle. One of the biggest beefs at the track is paying for admission or parking.

1. Change- Horseplayers hate change above all else. Perhaps this why horseplayers are drawn to horseracing, a game that is hundreds if not thousands of years old. Any change at anytime draws outrage. They would like the game to remain suspended in time. In most respects the game has remained suspended in time, only the people the get older.