Live and in Person

[richiebee]

A packed house here and as long as the beermaids keep the Yuenglings flowing all should be OK.

LIKES:
In the Gallant Bob, like the one fig Hollendorfer from the outside.

Pa Derby: liking Cupid and Gun Runner.

Will file full report when dust has settled.

[SoCalMan2]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A packed house here and as long as the beermaids
> keep the Yuenglings flowing all should be OK.
>
> LIKES:
> In the Gallant Bob, like the one fig Hollendorfer
> from the outside.
>
> Pa Derby: liking Cupid and Gun Runner.
>
> Will file full report when dust has settled.

agree on Cupid and Gun Runner.  Sorry for K-O-D

[richiebee]

Road trip.

The weekend of Lenny continues.

Great to see a packed Parx house yesterday. Having not visited the Bensalem
facility this century, was surprised to see the large casino structure on what
used to be a vacant hill adjacent to the racetrack; always had assumed the
casino was housed in the racetrack structure.

Appreciated the free parking and lack of admission fee. Immediately found a
spot near a bank of TVs and a bevy of barmaids while I waited for the later
races.

Race 7 Another Ramsey/Maker/Kitten winner, Pa Bred Granny\'s Kitten. The one to
watch from this race might be I\'ll Call, from Carlos Martin. I\'ll Call set out
on the lead and continued along very well once collared by Granny. I\'ll Call
is winless in 2015-2016, formful now and in need of the right spot.

Race 8 Super Saver\'s expensive kin took this ungraded stake under confident
handling by Bejarano.

Race 9 Noholdingback Bear and Mind Your Biscuits, both out of the Kings Bishop
at the Spa, took the top two spots. NHB Bear now has a stakes win on dirt to
add to his two synthetic stake wins. Do not know if either of these two is a
BC Sprint contender.

Race 10 She\'s undefeated and the fans love her. The chart says she took the
lead without coaxing and drew off in handy fashion. Again.

Race 11 Its a Chad Chad World as Brownzilla captured his third stakes race in
about 90 minutes, with previous wins at Laurel and Belmont. The chart on this
one describes Connect as passing rivals on the inside, as Castellano probably
recognized that most riders were avoiding said inside all day.

Gun Runner may have hung slightly under Geroux, but I am beginning to respect
GR as one of the few consistent 3YOs in this crop; he seems to have fired in
all of his 3YO races.

The California contingent had no real impact. Cupid is apparently strictly one
dimensional; he needed to outbreak Awesome Slew and was not able to.
Exaggerator and Nyquist both no factored off questionable preparations; the
former had one workout since his Travers bust and the latter had a series of
mile long breezes after his Haskell retreat.

While wandering around the facilities, I saw Maggie Wolfendale, apparently on
loan to Parx for the big day. She was nice enough to chat with me for a minute
or two. Personable and very knowledgeable about all facets of the racing
industry, after speaking with her you hope NYRA recognizes her potential
beyond her excellent paddock skills.

Also during my wanderings through the crowd of children of all ages, I started
longing for a place to sit. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a familiar
looking New York Giants beach chair. \"No, it couldn\'t be\" I thought to myself.
Upon closer inspection, the hand lettering on the chair said \"Bill Spillane\".
I plopped down in the chair and soon was joined by Uncle Bill and Rocky
(Mathcapper), who had set up a small T-generate beachhead at Parx.

Stopped for dinner at a hoagie place on the way out of town, and came close to
regurgitating said hoagie numerous times while listening to the most recent
Mets debacle on the ride home.

Since I am not a huge Derby person, best five weeks of racing coming up now:
Graded stake racing returns to Belmont for two big weekends, Keeneland and
Santa Anita open, BC on the horizon.

[Fairmount1]

RB,

Did Uncle Bill have any fruit for you?  No doubt the memory of those chairs including the scrawled Sharpie name is crystal clear to anyone that has been to the backyard of Saratoga!  

Your GonzoLand journalism reads a little spotty today. Is it possible you let your family down and went on a drunken, gambling binge of historic \'bee proportions?  

Personally, I was thrilled to see Ramon Preciado earn a third in the big race for the locals.  Always exciting to see the good guys in the game doing well.

Last, would you go back again next year?

[richiebee]

Fairmount1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RB,
>
> Did Uncle Bill have any fruit for you?  No doubt
> the memory of those chairs including the scrawled
> Sharpie name is crystal clear to anyone that has
> been to the backyard of Saratoga!

Let\'s get this correctly. It is I that bring the produce
to my Uncle Bill at Saratoga. It is the least I can do
for the man who establishes Base Camp T-generate each
morning at the Spa. Uncle Bill and I did discuss the sorry
state of end of season summer fruit and citrus.

 
> Your GonzoLand journalism reads a little spotty
> today. Is it possible you let your family down and
> went on a drunken, gambling binge of historic \'bee
> proportions?

I think, with age, my narrative voice has become a lot less
Gonzo, maybe a good thing because at about my age HST was
contemplating turning a weapon on himself and shooting
his remains off in a rocket. But this was not an epic
Richiebinge.  
>
> Personally, I was thrilled to see Ramon Preciado
> earn a third in the big race for the locals.
> Always exciting to see the good guys in the game
> doing well.

Yes Preciado snuck into the Tri, and the \"Other\" Brownie
into the Super. The state vet voided the claim on the easy
winner of the 12th race; would love to know details.
Because of incidents seen and reported at Keystone/Philadelphia
Park/Parx over the years, Parx will always be the Wild Wild East to me.


> Last, would you go back again next year?

Let me make it to Belmont next Saturday.

[Mathcapper]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Also during my wanderings through the crowd of
> children of all ages, I started
> longing for a place to sit. Out of the corner of
> my eye I spotted a familiar
> looking New York Giants beach chair. \"No, it
> couldn\'t be\" I thought to myself.
> Upon closer inspection, the hand lettering on the
> chair said \"Bill Spillane\".
> I plopped down in the chair and soon was joined by
> Uncle Bill and Rocky
> (Mathcapper), who had set up a small T-generate
> beachhead at Parx.
>
> Stopped for dinner at a hoagie place on the way
> out of town, and came close to
> regurgitating said hoagie numerous times while
> listening to the most recent
> Mets debacle on the ride home.

Great to see you there yesterday Richie - PA Derby day is starting to feel more and more like the backyard at the Spa!

I've been making the trip down there pretty much every year now since they built the casino, which enabled the higher purse structures that in turn have attracted the top quality horses. PA Derby day has become something of a Travers Day South in recent years, with many of the Travers Day contingent on hand (including Maggie the past couple of years as you mentioned). Well worth the trip IMO, though I may be a little biased since my cousin Tommy lives less than 5min from the track.

Uncle Bill has joined us several times now, but this was the first time he brought along the comfy NY Giants beach chairs. We were definitely deep into enemy territory with them, but even hardcore Eagles fans seemed to appreciate fellow horseplayers despite their disdain for the G-Men, as they welcomed us into their circle with offers of beers and sandwiches throughout the day.

Btw Richie - my cousin had a little different take on that Mets game. When the winning run stepped up to the plate for the Mets in the bottom of the ninth after his beloved Phillies nearly squandered a 10-0 lead, the look of disgust on his face was a sight to behold. I'm convinced he would have thrown his Budweiser right through the TV set had Philly lost that game.

[jbelfior]

It was a great day at Parx. Anyone notice the 6 point drop in odds on Connect in the last minute? 10 point drop in the last 5?


Good Luck,
Joe B.

[BitPlayer]

Final odds of 10-1 on Connect fit with the DD will-pays.

[jma11473]

Thanks for the report---highly entertaining as usual.

At Parx, some slot machines were initially housed in the racetrack building but the separate casino opened in late 2009.

[mjellish]

Well, he was 17-1 about 1 minute to post, which is when I made my bet.  I didn\'t see his odds again until they were about half way around the track when he moved into 4th and his number came up.  I saw 10-1 below it and felt there was some significant late action that came in on him.  I didn\'t bet that much.  And I am not trying to red board here, just back up what Jbelfior said.