Melancholia over what could have been

a mood of non-specific depression. It is characterized by low levels of enthusiasm and low levels of eagerness for activity.

I am still not getting nearly as fired up for the Breeders Cup as some of my TBA brethren. I am getting there, slowly. The disappointment of so many tragic endings this season weigh heavily on me. No Triple Crown chase when it looked as though we had a real contender in Barbaro. The sudden loss of Saint Liam and with that how many future crops of Triple Crown contenders? The tragedy of Lost in the Fog's lost battle to cancer. And then the little things like my fav, The Tin Man, unable to recover in time for the Breeders Cup and the juve I liked Horse Greeley out with an injury it makes it tough. I am not really a Bernardini fan and I really liked Invasor but a loss of focus down the stretch to the Breeders Cup really leaves me out on a limb in trying to handicap this Saturday's action.
Sure I will watch and make an attempt to pick some winners, and the TBA contest has given me some new life. But I will watch with a little sadness that I hope I can shake off with some really great racing on Saturday and by reading some of the other great TBA blogs who are going to be live in that great crush of humanity that will be Churchill Downs this week-end!

Have a Horsey Halloween!

Beautiful Day at Keeneland

A little foggy, early, but the new tote board and HDTV are absolutely unbelievably crystal clear. Also the new rail is nice. They removed the stepped apron and levelled the apron with the track.

The polytrack. Up close it has every color of the rainbow yet it doesn't look too bad from a distance. The horses hooves racing by are muffled a bit (the difference between a group of kids running in the house on carpeted floors versus wood floors for example). No wonder it is safer since that is a very good indication of the pounding the horses legs are taking. Also, there is of course no "cloud of dust" but more a "misty spray of carpet" being kicked up so not sure how inhaling that stuff will be on the lungs of horses and jockeys but good old dust is not all that healthy either. A couple of other notes on the polytrack, of course closers fared very well which is unusual at Keeneland but some of that can be attributed to the reshaping of the final turn which gives closers more room to close. Also, no water trucks between any races and they only harrowed the track twice duirng the 9 race card. I never noticed any "holes" or bad spots develop as you would often see on the dirt. Also, no falls, spills, missteps or breakdowns and most of the cards had 10+ entries.

Where does the time go?

Pink Floyd's "Time" from their classic "Dark Side of the Moon" album has some lyrics that seem strangely out of place in my life lately. I have not been "frittering and wasting the hours in an offhand way" lately but time to post or even keep up with reading the blogs seems to escape me. Work has been especially challenging as I am a partner in a "side business" and we have a proposal on the table that might make it my "main business" so between that, my regular job, my new found running regimen (I am amazingly up to 25 miles/week and down 30lbs!) my focus on the ponies has waned, especially with my pitiful opening day wagering at Keeneland. But I make a return tomorrow to try and sneak in a mid-week winning streak. I plan on bringing the camera and attempting to document the track improvements and also comment on how impressed I am with the Trackus system and the excitement that adds in my next post. Anyway, here are my win picks, probably toss in some exotics and we'll see.
#4 Rayona to win race KEE Race #1
#12 Opening Dance to win race KEE Race #2
#5 Belgravia to win race KEE Race #3
#10 Altercation to win race KEE Race #4
#2 Queen Colleen to win race KEE Race #5
#9 Chief Commander to win race KEE Race #6
#4 Whatdreamsrmadeof to win race KEE Race #7
#9 Bee Charmer (IRE) to win race KEE Race #8
#8 Angry Pirate to win race KEE Race #9

Opening Day Picks

alright, hard to say how the track redesign and the polytrack surface will play out but here goes:
Race 1: 1 1/16 3y/o+ Maidens Fillies&Mares
#4 Maizelle WIN (clearly the class of this group)
Race 2: 6 1/2 F 3y/o+
#10 Tequila Party WIN (speed in the race, slight drop in class)
#12 Plunkit
10,12 Exacta
Race 4: 1 1/16 Turf 2y/o Fillies
#3 Bavarian Belle WIN (likes the distance, training well, likes the lead)
Race 5: 7F Maiden 2y/o
#9 What a Tale WIN (turfway park regular who likes the polytrack,Leparoux up)
#12 Glamour Guy
9,12 Exacta
Race 7 Lonshot Play
#4 Dark Obsession (nice outing at Turfway Park, likes distance)
Race 8: 1 1/2 Turf Sycamore Breeders CupStakes $150,000
#6 Louve Royale WIN/PLACE (nice outing, solid works, Leparoux up)
Weather: Rained today but should be fast and turf should be good. Sunny and a little cool at 62 as it has been a little warm and humid this week (upper 70's) so the horses should be feeling good and ready to run.....
Good luck to everyone......especially me!

Contests!

I continue to be a sucker for these contests but I gotta tell you. Last year I finished somewhere in the prizes for this (I picked 6 winners) and got a $250 Gas Card from Citgo. So, you never know. I continue to be dumbfounded by the feature rich web environment going on over at the NTRA website. Whomever is shaking up their on-line presence they are kicking the other sites tails (with the exception of John over at Not to the Swift who continues to dazzle with his wide array of web goodies). Look for my focus, demeanor and outlook on life to abruptly change from mild-mannered, doldrums of late summer horse racing ho-hum to rabid, railbird as Keeneland's entries for Friday are posted, my tickets are in hand and the afternoon has been blocked out to point my Honda Civic down Versailles Road a mere 10 minute drive from work and hit the track around high noon. Look for my brilliant selections for Friday which I will bravely post on Thursday and more than likely change by the time I actually plop down some cash on Friday! Keeneland actually has a really nice online handicapping challenge that is free to play and has some nice prizes althought the best I have ever done is to crack (barely) the top 50 once! If anyone wants to follow at home, my player name is danahejk.

The Old fella does it again!

Just watched THE TIN MAN hold off TH Approval and Artiste Royal to win the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship S.!

Who doesn't love this 8 y/o gelding?

I hope he can find a way to win the Breeders Cup Turf...what an exclamation point to an interesting career that would be. He loves the lead, runs with a lot of heart and has overcome some pretty serious injuries not to mention his advanced age (we all know how that can take a toll on you).
This win makes his 7th stakes win of his career.
The interview with owner Ralph Todd before the race was really neat as he described what a thrill it was to win the Arlington Millions.
I hope he comes out of the race in good shape with his next stop in Louisville in November.

Walk on the Track...at Keeneland?!!! Sign me up but I may break into a gallop at the eighth pole!

Public Invited to Preview Track Renovations At Keeneland Open House
Lexington, KY (September 26, 2006)

Keeneland will host a Community Open House on Sunday, October 1, to celebrate the completion of its historic track renovation.

The public is invited to come out from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. for a “sneak preview” of the improvements, highlighted by a new Polytrack racetrack and state-of-the-art tote board.

The afternoon will be a family affair, with pony rides, face painting, stick horse races, balloon animals, magicians, and wagon rides for children. Hands-on exhibits related to Thoroughbred racing also will be featured. Leading jockey Patti Cooksey will be on hand to answer questions about race riding.

Fans also will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk on the new Polytrack racetrack. (okay so if this can possibly be fit into my weekend I will definitely have a goofy photo of a silly old fella doing his best gallop down the stretch)

The first 500 patrons will receive a free disposable camera, courtesy of Murphy’s Camera and Fuji. Drawings will be held throughout the afternoon for such valuable prizes as a pair of 2006/2007 University of Kentucky men’s basketball season tickets, two tickets for the 2006 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, Keeneland Fall Meet season passes and more.

Parking and admission are free. Cokes and popcorn will be 25 cents. Hot dogs, ice cream and cotton candy will be 50 cents each.

Keeneland wishes to thank its partners for the Open House, WKYT-TV and Clear Channel Radio, and our sponsors Coca-Cola, John Morrell hot dogs, Murphy’s Camera and Fuji.

Fall and feelin' frisky!

Well, my posts seem to be few and far between this month but I was stunned to see my last post was my 100th! Yow, I guess I would've done something more than complain that I can't get a decent Horse Racing t-shirt. Oh well, squandered opportunities seem to be the politics of the day.
I did actually compete in a human racing event, my first 5K this past week-end (in between some torrential rains) and it was horse-themed....The Horsey 5K at Georgetown, KY "Festival of the Horse"! So I suppose I did get a t-shirt after all (although I really would like to see a MOVEMENT hat)! Anyway, I rush home from work and jump on the mower to cut down some of that bluegrass that is just jumpin outta the ground like it is Spring or something and long about sundown (about 7:30 EST) I am on the final leg of the unfenced part of our yard and the horses are gettin' frisky, playin around the paddock and generally enjoying the cool evening and near perfect conditions. It was great fun to watch while mowing and jamming to some tunes on the Rio MP3 player. All in all a reminder of one of the reasons I love the horse racing game, the animals are just so very cool. Anyway, I am really getting pumped for my return to Keeneland for opening day. Lots of local press about the polytrack and many other improvements that I have been going on about on this blog almost all summer. Anyway, I hope to get my blog back up to the TBA's ever impressive standards so I don't get kicked out! I should get back to actually talking about some racing here in the next week. I also gotta see what cool html/javascript tricks I can put on my blog since I now have "blog envy" what with the video, new layouts and generally cool features sprouting up daily.

Goofy clothing designs

Okay, now I have very little room to speak on this topic but I will anyway (direct from my gym shorts and t-shirt pajamas!). The latest KY Derby 133 design leaves a lot to be desired. How the heck do you improve on the wonderful silhouette of a thoroughbred? By "modernizing" it into robohorse? I think not. Churchill Downs fashionistas please watch "What not to wear".
Next, the DRF t-shirt that looks a bit like you have leaned up against a wet copy of the DRF and it stuck to the midsection of your shirt. A strange fashion statement to be sure. How about just the classic logo across a nice cotton t-shirt, how about that?
These are a couple examples of how other mainstream sports absolutely kick the crap out of horse racing clothing...I mean check out the NFL licensed merchandise...a regular plethora for fans and not really a horrible fashion misstep in all of it. C'mon horse racing, I would actually buy a t-shirt in support of the sport if only there was something out there worth wearing!

Anticipation....is makin me wait

It is still a solid 2 weeks and 4 days until the Fall opening day at Keeneland (but who's counting---me that's who) and with every pumpkin I see or even a hint at fall, I check the site and can't hardly wait to see the improvements up close and in person. The track has been completely redone over the summer, not just the polytrack but the turns have been reshaped, there is radical new tote board the sloped apron down to the track has been levelled and a new winners circle, all designed with that some great limestone and done with so much style that it generates excitement from your average fan and near hysteria for someone who loves nothing more than a fine autumn afternoon spent on the rail at Keeneland!
Does anyone use the DRF's Formulator software? I have tried it a bit off and on with varying degrees of success but I do keep coming back for more in hopes that I can repeat my analysis last fall that enabled me to select Dawn of War at some ridiculously long odds at Keeneland.
And finally, the sales are still going strong here in Lexington.

Through six days of the sale, Keeneland has sold 1,445 horses for $330,578,500, an average of $228,774 and a median of $130,000. The gross average and median are up 2.6 percent, 5.3 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.
The sale continues through Monday, September 25.

Ah, Fall and the crisp smell of cash is in the air

Sheikh Mohammed is in town and the September Yearling sale at Keeneland is seeing some record prices being paid. John Ferguson, the buyer for the Sheikh said that they came to spend money and wanted to be sure they got the horses they really liked. I guess tossing around $20 million the past two days on 2 horses shows you they are serious. The Keeneland website has all the details from the latest results to live covereage of the sales via the web. Storm Cat babies continue to reap huge prices. Check out more about Storm Cat over at a very nice Overbrook Farm site where apparently he keeps very busy at $500,000 Live Foal! You know, that is when a horse becomes a "cash cow".

And away they go and is the bluegrass really blue?

I like Trevor Denman's calls. I find he picks up action that I would otherwise be missing and I think the "And away they go" is exciting and understated all at the same time. Very cool. Durkin is a consummate pro but I don't find this move distressing and it sounds like neither did Tom Durkin. I think the Breeder's Cup call will not suffer from this change. Here is a link to a year old article interviewing both of these pros.

I have recently gone from retired athlete to working out regularly, first for several weeks on the stair stepper and more recently to running 5k's each day . That and a healthier diet has shed 21lbs on my way from an overweight 207 down to my ideal body wt of 172. Anyway, we have had an unusually wet August in Kentucky and during my runs the past few days I noticed the grass giving off some really blue hues. At first I thought it was just oxygen deficit or some other pre-stroke hallucination but since it has happened twice I am going with it. I always wondered if the bluegrass was blue and have been hard pressed to really see that, mostly it is just really green. But the theory is (and I can attest to this having set my pastures fence posts) that Kentucky lies on mostly limestone. Apparently that helps nuture the grass and is said to give it a "blue hue". It is also said to build stronger equine bones. Also, bluegrass makes for good pastures as it tolerates a lot of grazing. More info on Wiki

Miscellany on the brainy

It has been an introspective week in the Bluegrass. The tragic plane crash this past Sunday has put the local media front and center and that combined with a clip I recently saw on one of the few tv shows I watch (Jon Stewart and the Daily Show) where Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly were smugly berating Jon Stewart made me think about how the "news" has fallen so far in this 24hr news cycle. I think that after reading some of the comments from the editor of the BloodHorse, I hear some of that same smugness and it makes me wonder even more about the mainstream media. It seems ironic that Blogs merit criticism from such an esteemed publication. Everyone knows it is easy to take a pot shot but much more difficult to offer constructive criticism or even some encouragement tempered with helpful advice. It's a shame Mr. Paulick chose to do neither. I don't think he understands that blogs are begun for many different reasons, the last being to attempt to supplant professional journalists (although some bloggers do a fine job of that). I started mine to keep track of this great sport and what I was thinking about it, some notes about the horses we own and my daughter's interest in riding and just a chronicle of my thoughts really. I never meant for this to be read by much more than my immediate family and myself. I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the TBA and I began to regularly scan many of their blogs which offered entertaining posts with personal commentary and often first-hand accounts and news and perspective and a frame of reference you just don't get in the mainstream media. I think I will not be renewing my BloodHorse electronic subscription in favor of holding out for any paid content on a revised DRF website (courtesy of TBA's Railbird). I know Jessica "gets it" and I look forward to seeing her influcence on the DRF site. As for the BloodHorse, they will not miss my subscription but they are missing the point of blogs and they are missing serving racing fans who are online and who have something to offer horse racing.

Hirapour at Saratoga...he's a winner no matter what place he finishes!

I have already expounded on the excitement I get watching my single live steeplechase race of the year at Keeneland each spring the Royal Chase. I have also commented on my favorite pony who has won me some cash over the past few years that I have followed this race. I have also been learning about the tradition of steeplechase races at Saratoga so it was with great delight and awe when I read that Hirapour will be racing this Thursday . This amazing 10yr old has battled some injuries and colic but he has such a huge heart and there is nothing like seeing a race over hurdles live. I think this quote sums it up: "It's just a credit to his desire and his will to perform," said Hirapour's regular rider, Matthew McCarron. "He grits out every victory he's ever earned. He is just one of the hardest-trying horses I've ever sat on."
I know I will plop down a few more dollars on old Hirapour, if for no other reason than sentimental. He is in the final season of his racing career so I will be sad to see him retire as I have followed him for 3 seasons and it has been a lot of fun watching him race.

Like takin' candy from a baby...

Should I feel guilty?!
Henny Hughes win ticket
Bernardini win ticket
Bernardini/Bluegrass Cat Exacta
Hit 'em all, made a tidy little profit even though the investment was larger than my usual $5 win/place betting but when the pickens are this easy, ya gotta cash in!

Travers....easy exacta, how bout the superfecta?

Looks like Bernardini and Bluegrass Cat are a pretty safe 1-2 but what about after that????
With a very short field (I hear that Kip Deville may scratch in favor of the Grade 3, $500,000 Kent Breeders’ Cup at Delaware Park on Saturday, September 2.) the play may be superfecta and take the field with Bernardini.

Field for the $1-million Travers Stakes

Post position -- Horse, jockey, morning-line odds
1--Hesanoldsalt, Eibar Coa, 15-1
2--Minister's Bid, Edgar Prado, 8-1
3--Dr. Pleasure, Cornelio Velasquez, 12-1
4--High Cotton, Garrett Gomez, 6-1
5--Bernardini, Javier Castellano, 1-1
6--Kip Deville, Rafael Bejarano, 30-1
7--Bluegrass Cat, John Velazquez, 2-1

The news just goes from bad to worse

Saint Liam was put down today after severely fracturing his leg....
My daughter and I had gone to see him on a blustery January day at Lane's End and got several nice photos....
Rest in Peace fella

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -Saint Liam, the 2005 Eclipse Award winner as thoroughbred racing's Horse of the Year, was euthanized on Tuesday after injuring his hind leg, according to a newspaper report.

The 6-year-old stallion, who won the 2005 Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park last October, was being led to his paddock at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky., when he slipped and fell, suffering a left tibial fracture.

He was taken to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, where he was euthanized, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported on its Web site.

Movement Places!

Win/Place/Show Payouts

Gate	Horse	Min	Win	Place	Show
7	SOMEKINDA ROMANCE	$2	6.20	3.80	3.20
9	MOVEMENT	$2		7.60	4.00
2	SIERRA MADAM	$2			4.20

Have not seen or heard any more than this but found the results on bodog.com and I now see I could've got my wager down there! Too bad I moved my Bodog account to TVG about a month ago so I didn't even check so looks like my loss. Hope Brad went with a big bet across the board!
Helluva debut.
Update, thanks to Scoop, the video is over at CalRacing
Looks like fractions were 1/4 mile: 22.73 1/2 mile: 46.86 Finish: 59.26
looks like about 2-3 lenghts back, not too shabby for a debut. Congratulations to Movement and all of his connections!

Lava flows, Foggy sadness, more free stuff from NTRA

Lava Man drew the 2 post and looks tough in this field. I am anxious to see what Giacamo can do given there should be an honest pace to this race. Lava Man in a close one with Giacamo closing hard at the wire. Let's go ahead and play this exacta straight up!

Lost in the Fog will return to SF to say good bye as his cancer has been declared inoperable according to TBA report from TVG telecast today. It's a really tough blow to all racing fans but Brad from the TBA writes about just how hard it is when this fella was one of your local favorites. Very sad.

The NTRA site seems to be exploding with free goodies for race fans, what with their wonderful race replays, their stakes calendar download and now a podcast! They are really stepping up the online content and it seems to be hitting this fans sweet spot!

Finally, our very own Brad and his filly Movement have their racing debut Saturday so anyone who wants to back the next Azeri this week-end should pull out a few bucks and plop it down on her nose in the 7th race at Bay Meadows