Sandwiches, Cover ups and Burials

[richiebee]

Had a free hour I didn\'t expect to have Monday in the vicinity of Living Room
Downs and went in for a Pick 3 at Belmont on races 8-10.

I was really not in the mood to handicap, so I decided on a nice sandwich--
with Smart Strike products on either end with a nice five horse spread in the
middle for $10 = $50.

The Smart Strike product in the last race, More Oats Please, was a never in
doubt $5.00 winner. The 9th race winner, Sao Sebah, from the Paulo Lobo barn,
closed nicely at 6/1 under Rajiv Maragh to get the money and was one of the
spread components.

The Smart Strike product in the Pebbles Stakes, Denomination, was last, beaten
maybe six lengths as a 5/2 second favorite under RamDo. According to DRF,
Denomination \"was well in hand, steadied along the inside on the backstretch,
saved ground while boxed in on the turn, advanced along the rail at the quarter
pole and steadied along the inside while lacking room in the stretch run.\"

Another bad trip. We\'re talking the brown acid at the Woodstock Festival*, the
S.S. Minnow, the Presidential Motorcade in Dealey Plaza.

At Longchamp or Ascot they might say the filly was \"covered up\". At Living Room
Downs, we call this being \"buried\".

And of course the race was won by a Pletcher runner who paid $17 and change.

There is a lot of ugliness which sometimes causes me to want to walk away from
this game. Why would I want to support a game which supported Ernie Paragallo
for 20 or so years? Why would I want to support a game which locally is being
farcically mismanaged by the clowns in Albany and the myopic \"visionaries\" at
NYRA? Why would I want to support a game in which maybe 10% of the major Racing
facilities are owned by a man who seems to refuse to believe that he is bankrupt
and that eventually all of these facilities will have to be sold?

Because despite the ugliness, there are some beautiful moments of anticipation
in this game. Like waiting for Clement to enter Denomination back, hopefully in
a Graded Stake (she was a G3 winner in France) where she will be a decent
price, coming off 9th and 6th place finishes in her 2 US races.

Another highly anticipated decision is whether Zenyatta will go v males in the
Classic. To me, the Zen Mistress is among the great mares of the last 20 or so
years, but the amount of money which will be bet on Zenyatta and Mine That Bird
in the BC Classic has me itching my palms greedily, because I do not think
either of these runners is in the exacta.


----------
* Was reading about Woodstock over the weekend. The material I was reading
pointed out that Woodstock was preceded by 3 large outdoor music festivals. The
first was Monterrey in 1967 (a great documentary was made from this festival);
the other 2 were held at Gulfstream Park and Atlantic City Race Course. Will
have to investigate these festivals further.

[miff]

\"Another highly anticipated decision is whether Zenyatta will go v males in the
Classic. To me, the Zen Mistress is among the great mares of the last 20 or so
years, but the amount of money which will be bet on Zenyatta and Mine That Bird
in the BC Classic has me itching my palms greedily, because I do not think
either of these runners is in the exacta\"

Bee,

...speaking of Zenyatta,her Beyer of 97 is slow(very slow pace contributed to slow fig) and her TG will be app 1-ish if JB agrees. Z won very easily and only \"ran\" about 3/16ths of a mile.She deserves to be in the Classic especially after the common Goodwood runners, Richards Kid et al were beaten by a third string Euro.Z\'s running style tailor made for that surface.Speed horses something like 3 for 50 the first 10 days or so.


Mike

[TGJB]

Richie, trivia question-- who was editor/assistant director on the Woodstock film.

[Rick B.]

It wasn\'t addressed to me, so I cheated and looked it up. Wow.
 
Love these \"Before they were famous...\" references. I get the same kind of reaction when I tell folks to go see who the executive producer was on \"Used Cars\" (1980), starring Kurt Russell and Jack Warden.

P.S. www.imdb.com is hands-down the best movie info site I\'ve ever seen.

[HP]

Richiebee - Miami Pop Festival was at Gulfstream Park in 1968.  Featured old reliable - Jimi Hendrix.  

Atlantic City concert was a week before Woodstock in 1969.  30 bands and 3 days.  Chicago, Joe Cocker, Airplane, Creedence.  I guess Hendrix was tired for this one...

HP

[trackjohn]

One last Woodstock trivia Question...Who was originally scheduled to be the closing act (It wasn\'t Jimi...remember nothing went as originally scheduled)

John

[basket777]

milf


Z will not be in the male classic. as far as Mine That Bird eating up money. He did that saturday.  7/2 then   much much much greater in the male classic.

[magicnight]

The Who?

[devilinahorsesuit]

Barry Irwin?

[hooper]

Dylan?

[HP]

According to the poster the last act was supposed to be Johnny Winter.  His equipment did not arrive and he never played.  The Who refused to go on until they got paid.

[richiebee]

Thanks HP.

[trackjohn]

You\'re not going to believe this but it was originally supposed to be Roy Rogers singing \"Happy Trails\"! (I\'m not making this up!!)

The idea was that the promoters thought that it would be \'cool\' to have thousands of people in a \"Happy Trails To You\" sing-along with Roy Rogers.  

As part of the 40th Woodstock anniversary Pete Fornatale wrote a book

( http://popdose.com/jesus-of-cool-dj-takes-woodstock-nostalgists-back-to-the-garden/)

and in August did a > 3 hour interview on XM Radio where he discuss the behind the scenes \'details\' including Roy Rogers story.  


BTW, on a side note, Fornatale\'s son is a very good handicapper!

John

[HP]

That\'s a good story.

[trackjohn]

I heard Fornatale tell this on the drive home from Saratoga...Laughed so hard I almost drove off the NYS thruway!