New Tops, Pairs and X’s. A Breeders Cup Review

[Silver Charm]

New Tops:

1)Thorograph. Without questions this was the best analysis they have ever put together and should be the platform for all subsequent analysis. Not only were selections given but there was a great deal of "sheet style" teaching in the analysis. Interpreting the numbers and analyzing the patterns is not easy, any assistance from the pros in gladly accepted.

2)NBC. This was their final year of coverage and they went out with a bang. Totally knocked the cover off the ball. Seems like only yesterday I was at my friends place, in his TV room wagering on something called the Breeders Cup. This was year one. NBC stuck their necks out and helped build a brand, but now it is time for them and the BC to part ways. Major network TV is a melting iceberg. NBC gave it all they had for as long as they could go. Thanks from a horse racing fan.

3)Garret Gomez. Stepped up to the plate big time when he was the focus of an extraordinary personal interest story on the broadcast by winning two races and almost winning a third. The road Gomez has been on is not empty one. Several others have been on that same road. It's called the highway to self-destruction. P Val, Day, Bailey, Antley, Bias, Me all drove it along with him. Whether the bottle was full of booze, pills or powder, or perhaps all the above, stay on it long enough and you will end up where two of the others crashed and burned.

A couple of years from now for Gomez things will be more downhill than uphill. Realizing the talent he has along like some of the rest of us did and deciding to do something about it can sometimes be the best motivation. We will find out how bad he wants its because from now on out his life is under a microscope.

Paired Tops:

1)Charlsie Cantey. This wasn't some sideline football bimbo, this was somebody who passionately cared about the sport she covered and was very knowledgeable. She now is retiring and I wish her the best. Leaving now is the right timing, she never stayed past her prime like so many others have and I truly wish her the best.

2)Jerry Bailey. This was his last Breeders Cup ok. Quit asking him every ten minutes and let him make what is a very personal decision his way. He has "earned" the right to do so. A guy who had to work and fight for every inch he got on his way to the top deserves the peace of mind necessary for something like this. Bailey was maybe one of the two or three smartest riders ever and one of several great jockey spokes people. This might be where the sport misses him the most.

3)D. Wayne Lukas. It was only fitting the Grand Marshal of racing kicked off the day with a win in the first race. to bad it wasn\'t the last because I would have emptied. Forty Two days he laided the filly off as he corrected the TV reporter. There was probably a time in his career, maybe thirty years ago, where a more swashbuckling gun slinging version of D. Wayne would have forged on after the romping prep win and run back in again and again. Not this version and now he has a legitimate Derby horse.

X'ed:

1) Bob Baffert. Showed up with only one horse for the second year in a row, which is twice as many Derby runners his program has produced over the last two years, dressed up sharp and exuding class. Clearly Baffert was confused thought there was a little Halloween theme built in and wore his Costume.

2) Mike Battaglia. Less than five minutes after outrider chaser Donna Barton popped the retirement question to Bailey so did Battaglia. Give him the benefit of the doubt and thinking he was mobile when Barton asked and assuming he didn't hear it is reasonable. However after St Liams owner thanked every Catholic Priest including those in jail for being pedofiles, Battaglia responded. "If I knew you had all of that working for you I would have bet more." Mike you picked Borrego.