A Tale of Two Seminars

[belmont3]

It was the best of weather. It was the worst of weather.

Arrived at Siro\'s during the first race recap. Sparse crowd attending.

A couple of young cappers (one a tourney qualifier) were new faces to me.
Unlike Seminar Stenographer Sean D.,  they took no notes. Must be nice to be young!  
Hoping they stop by the Backyard behind the mac n cheese truck. Tables and seating in abundance.

At 11:15 am, The spa weather was sunny and warm. Hardly a cloud in the sky.
The turf course was dry as a bone.

Yet,  Alan kept busy looking for horses that ran well on soft and yielding turf. He rambled on about a stemp meter to measure turf softness.
For a moment, I thought I he was handicapping the PGA.

As to the picks,

No strong opinions expressed in 1st or 2nd (maiden race).
One quick note on the 2nd race. All seminar long, Alan extolled the virtues of Speghtstown. Somehow, Oskar Blues eluded him!

Nothng of note in the 3rd as well.

After the 4th, (Adirondack), Alan, intimated that he somehow should get credit for that Pletcher favorite.
At that moment, I jokingly told Alan that he couldn\'t even handicap the Weather. (still sunny and beautiful).

If that was the Worst of Alan, then, the Best of Alan was about to materialize.

Naturally, changes in track surface, scratches etc. due to weather can often change opinions on the fly. Pays to hang around the Backyard at times.
 

Although he mentioned Husband\'s Folly as potential live bomb, he did talk quite a bit about Slim Shadey and trainer John Servis. He liked Italian Charm a bit as well while mentioning Ghuair as a solid use.
The 6th and 7th were the typical maiden puzzles.
   
As the wind picked up and the clouds formed, Uncle Bill\'s best call of the day was moving our tack under shelter.
Had an hour of thunderstorms and heavy rain to endure. Race delays, surface changes, late scratches and two smiling young NYRA folk telling us to take our chairs back outside ......Really??

In the 9th, Alan was very strong on Lewy\'s Vaporizer.
In the 10th he had positive things to say on World Approval but was not against Disco or Ballagh.
In the finale, he was very strong on The Pooch (5 to 1 in a scratched down off the turf field). Felt his race was disguised or \'muddied up\' I suppose.

Have to give him credit.

Another entertaining day and looking forward to Sunday\'s card.

Sunny and Cloudless in Saratoga.

Bob

[Bet Twice]

I\'ll add that Alan also offered up Dacita in the Bev D. at Arlington for a nice 6-1 payout, salvaging an otherwise poor day at the windows for me.