It should be remembered that all of these guys & gals are a \'split second away...\' in every race, every day.  It adds nothing to your argument.

Seems pretty clear (from my view, at least) that this result was going to be 2-1A-etc-etc with or without things tightening up as they did.  Pretty difficult to suggest that they should change the outcome considering how the 1A went about his business w/o much of a check/take-up.  I guess if you needed the 1A, though, this is of little consequence....

I don\'t know.  They could have taken a shot or two in the year leading up to the BC, no?  They didn\'t have to go all out & run in all of them like Rachel did.  If we\'re at the point in horse racing where you have to save it all for one day, then this game is DOA going forward.  They are race horses afterall.  Probably a good idea to race them.  Especially if they\'re capable of running like she is....

Cart,

Not a bad post overall, but you have to consider why she has the reputation she has.  I think Saturday\'s race, in retrospect, was a real shame in that all i could think about afterward was what might have been.

These guys (Moss, Sherriffs) have this kind of horse in the barn, and race her like they aren\'t sure what she\'s capable of. Milady, Vanity, CL Hirsch, Lady\'s Secret?  What kind of campaign is this for a horse who can run a race like she did on Saturday?  Think about what might have been in 2009 if Zenyatta was asked to display her talent in the same way that Rachel was.  They didn\'t have to come East to do this either.  Why not run in the Big Cap and/or the Holly Gold Cup, and/or the Pac Classic, etc?  What a shame....

Quality Road works well for Derby
By David Grening
ELMONT, N.Y. - Quality Road continues to show no ill effects from a quarter crack in his right hind foot as he worked a strong six furlongs in 1:12.03 Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for a start in the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

Working at 9:30 a.m, following the second renovation break, Quality Road went his first three furlongs in 36.93 seconds and his last three furlongs in 35.10 seconds as exercise rider Juan Moreno nudged on him only slightly outside the eighth pole. Quality Road galloped out seven furlongs in 1:25.55.

\"He let him out at the end; still, it didn\'t look like he went in 1:12,\" said trainer Jimmy Jerkens, who caught him almost a second slower.

Quality Road suffered his quarter crack while winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28. Nine days later, Quality Road showed some blood coming from the quarter crack after a routine gallop at Belmont. But after receiving a new patch on April 8, Quality Road has not missed a beat in his training, working a half-mile in 48 seconds on April 10 leading up to Friday\'s drill.

\"He lost a few pounds after the Florida Derby,\" Jerkens said. \"I wanted to get that back on him. Losing a few pounds and having the quarter crack I was a little worried, but it looks like he put some flesh back on and the foot looks like it\'s in good shape, so we should be in good shape.\"

Jerkens said Quality Road would likely work once more at Belmont next weekend before shipping to Churchill Downs on April 28.

From DRF:

\"Among those expected to challenge Big Brown are Shakis, Proudinsky, Get Serious, Kiss the Kid, and either Ballonenostrikes or Victory Alleged. Shake the Bank and Silver Tree are possible.\"

Joe B.

Levine, who is 29-for-59 overall at MTH, has the following stats on turf this meet:

6 starts
2 wins (both in stks races)
1 second
1 third

** started 2 horses in one of the stakes where he also had the race winner, so make it 2 winners from 5 races...

Dana666 Wrote:
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> I do respect Brad Thomas, but if he\'s against Curlin that would
> puzzle me with all he supposedly knows about
> horses -- Curlin\'s just a monster plain and simple
> -- look at him in person and you can see why they
> paid all that money for him.


They didn\'t pay all that money for him based on looks.  He went for $57k at KEE SEP before he raced. They only laid down the big bucks after he broke his maiden by the length of the stretch at Gulfstream.  

He\'s impossible to knock very seriously at this point, but I\'m leaning toward siding with Thomas on him.  He was flat in the last quarter of the Haskell - whatever the reasoning - and he was a beaten horse at Pimlico coming out of turn 2.  That he was able to re-rally is a badge of courage for him, but he can afford no similar mistakes vs. this group...

Sightseeing stayed on his correct lead all the way to the wire.  From my view, he got a real good closers trip - inside/out - and had dead aim on Nobiz from outside the 1/8-pole.  He just didnt finish it off.  

I don\'t think I\'d call Nobiz finding \"another gear\"; I\'d go with Miff & say Sightseeing hung at the end...

Lost Cause Wrote:
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> They\'ll probably still make the trip because of
> the money involved but the result will be the
> same...another outside of CA loss..


According to O\'Neill you\'ll not see him at the Breeders\' Cup this year:


\"I thought for sure Lava Man bled, but he scoped clean and walked sound,\" O\'Neill said.

The loss, Lava Man\'s fifth defeat outside of California in the last 18 months, has left O\'Neill convinced that the 6-year-old gelding should race exclusively in California.

\"We\'ll never leave California again,\" O\'Neill said. \"It\'s obvious there is a link.\"

shanahan Wrote:
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> The one mile run at OAK is a bitch and it\'s
> basically a jockeys race.  I think Hard Spun,
> knowing a win was out of the quesiton at the turn,
> just let it go...anxious to see the replay.


Shanahan,

You\'ll have to draw your own conclusions, obviously, but Hard Spun tried hard to get into the race thru the 2nd turn; he didnt get close & was very tired thru the stretch.  Being 4-wide all the way prob\'ly didnt help, but this wasn\'t a good performance from a horse getting this amount of hype, IMO.

As an aside, trainer Jones threw in the obligatory \"he didn\'t handle the track\" excuse after the race.  As of now, there\'ll be a tie-breaker with the winner in the Rebel, 3/17...

Michael D. Wrote:
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> take a look at the Kee stakes race today. it
> poured yesterday and they had to take the $125g
> valley view off the turf. in the old days, this
> race would have been scratched down to a few
> horses. well, today, from the Kee web site:
>
>
> Race 9
> Race has been taken off the turf course and will
> be run at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
>
> No horses have been scratched.
>
> #11-Delmarva-Jockey change to John Jacinto
> #13AE-Pure Incentive-Will run
>
> ....
>
> is this true - the race gets rained off and they
> get MORE horses?
>
> anyway, if they keep a good mix of dirt, turf, and
> poly, i just can\'t understand why any horse player
> would be upset.
>



In the old days this race never would have come off the turf, would it? I, for one, have been disappointed with the number of turf races carded at KEE this meet (many days w/ only one race carded for turf) & I remember KEE being one place where they very rarely came off the grass, let alone a stks. Am I just mis-remembering because I haven\'t been able to get on board w/ the Poly....?

Thehoarsehorseplayer Wrote:
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>
> On the other hand, do you think it\'s possible that
> the Racing Form will have a graphic in place by
> the end of the Saratoga meet which indicates
> whether the five and a half furlong turf races are
> being run on the Mellon or Inner Turf?
> It seems like it might have some relevancy to the
> bettor.
>

They don\'t run 5-1/2f races on the inner, so you can stop wondering about that one.  They\'re all on the \"Mellon.\"

On another note, pondering the whole \"drug\" thing, anyone notice how badly the Asmussen/Blasi 1st-time-starters are performing since the suspension began?  Blasi is still wacking about 20% overall, but after today\'s 4th at Saratoga, their firsters are now 1-for-26 since he took over.  This from a barn that had seemed like TAP\'s equal (at least) in that category.  Lone winner in that stretch, the $2mil FuPeg filly who goes in the Spa Gr1 this weekend.

Sunday is the big one at HOL;

American Oaks (Gr1)
Triple Bend (Gr1)
Vanity (Gr1)
American Invitational (Gr2)

& the Flawlessly Stakes, for good measure.

There\'s also a CashCall Mile (Saturday)/American Oaks (Sunday) double.  Not sure if the bet will be available only on track, or what...  

marcus Wrote:
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> the ruling should be contested , the penalties
> seem out of balance with recent rulings handed
> down for comprable drug violations . i don\'t
> understand how the drug would be useful for
> players and horsemen - wouldn\'t that type of
> medication have it\'s best value when a horse is
> shipping and not when racing ? .
>
>  basically the ruling artificially boosts public
> relations and profile for an already troubled and
> beleaugered racing industry , and thats about all
> -  as was the case w/ the ny trainer who just got
> nailed for pain killers that he had borrowed for a
> back problem ...
>
> i don\'t want come off as one of these \" jerimiah \"
> or \" jesse jackson \" types but , the level
> arrogence and complacentcy involved in the
> asmussen ruling is not only failing to serve
> racing\'s ( or anyones ) best interest - it\'s
> counter productive  ...        
>

It\'s not up to any of us to worry about whether or not this kind of suspension and the resulting media coverage is \"just another black-eye for racing\".  Racing has plenty of troubles, most of them of the industry\'s own making.  The bottom line is this trainer has had plenty of run-ins with the testing labs and now is being made to pay up-I think rightly so.  Maybe the 2 cases pending now are the result of honest mix-ups and/or bad luck, but there could be far more troubling things associated with both cases.  The head of the La. state testing lab had this to say re: the Mepivacaine positive:

--Dr. Steven Barker, head of the state testing laboratory at LSU, said the level of the drug in No End in Sight was \"quite high.\"

\"It was consistent with a race-day administration of a therapeutic dose,\" Barker said. He also said that mepivacaine \"is used diagnostically and also used therapeutically. The reason it\'s Category II is it can be used as a nerve block.\"--

That\'s not good for racing. And if they currently don\'t have the testing capability to find the \"magic bullet\" (thanks Miff) the least they can do is stop these guys from abusing the stuff they can test for.

TGJB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Manning-- if you knew they were going to test for
> it, would you try to get away with it? And, only
> once? Doesn\'t figure.
>

I believe these guys know they are going to test for it, and try to get away with it - all the time.  I also believe they usually do get away with it.  Just because he got caught this time (and in the past) doesn\'t mean it was an honest mistake.  

You\'re 100% correct in that there is a lot more that can & should be done.  But nerve-blocking racehorses is serious in it\'s own right, and is not a throw-away offense.