Colin’s Ghost asks, who really invented race charts?
Claire Novak, doing research in the National Museum of Racing, recently came across the work of Charles E. Van Loan, a popular sports writer of the early 20th century (and the man responsible for bringing Damon Runyon to the New York American). She shared a link to one of his long out-of-print books, “Old Man Curry: Race Track Stories,” a collection originally published in 1917, available through Project Gutenberg. It’s a quick summer read, packed with rich scenes from the backstretch and colorful characters — not to mention an introduction with laments that sound awfully familiar — and I enjoyed it, despite aspects disturbing to a reader of the 21st century. Be advised: some dialogue and descriptions are very much of the era.
Santa Anita is returning to dirt, announced Frank Stronach.
Posted by Jessica in Racing on 08/19/2010 @ 8:20 am / Tagged Charles E. Van Loan, Charts, Dirt, Old Man Curry, Racing History, Santa Anita, Synthetic Surfaces / No comments
It’s been a light week of posting, all due to another site on which I work. Breeders’ Cup 360 returned on Wednesday for another season of Breeders’ Cup handicapping and chat, and the editors have lined up a solid set of contributors, including returning international correspondents Nick Luck and Fanny Salmon, and new feature writers John Scheinman and Amanda Duckworth. Best of all, we have Ernie Munick, tanned and pampered, driving the E Train. Over the next few days, more features and links will be added to the pages; over the next 12 weeks, a terrific range of content will be published. There’s a widget, and of course, we’re on Twitter.
Not one, but two articles this week on the Keeneland Library DRF archive project, one of the neatest things going in the industry these days. “We’re building a ‘Cadillac version’ of an online database,” archivist Becky Ryder tells the Saratogian. They’re also ramping up fundraising efforts, reports the Daily Racing Form, as the project will take about $10 million (or approximately $1.25 a page) to complete. Consider giving.
John Pricci tosses off a few fine phrases in this column, and several excellent points. “The connections promised they would share Zenyatta with all her fans. I wasn’t aware that all of them lived in California.” It’s 2009 all over again.
Only a Game visits Suffolk Downs. “My own pick in the first race, a $12,500-claimer, is the lightly regarded Why O My. I like him for finishing second in his last test at 135-1. Why shouldn’t he win this time at 8-1? I ask the studious Mr. Greenbaum what he thinks of my reasoning.” Not much, says Greenbaum.
Posted by Jessica in Breeders' Cup on 08/14/2010 @ 9:01 am / Tagged Breeders' Cup 360, DRF Archive, Keeneland Library, Suffolk Downs, Zenyatta / 2 comments
Exciting news! Hello Race Fans has acquired Raceday 360.
My brief statement, posted on the site.
I can’t thank enough everyone who’s supported Raceday 360 over the past two years, whether by visiting or contributing. It’s been fun, and I know I’m passing the site off into the best possible hands. I can’t wait to see where Dana, Adam, and the rest of the HRF crew take it next.
Posted by Jessica in Business on 08/10/2010 @ 6:30 am / 4 comments
Well, I suppose it’s possible:
A defeat for dirt leader Quality Road and a sub-par success for all-weather leader Zenyatta were two further indications that Bob Baffert may be about to get lucky in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The first clue came last week, when his stable star ran away with the Haskell Invitational, posting the best performance by an American three-year-old this year.
But with the leading older horses having the chinks in their armour exposed on the weekend, it now looks increasingly likely that the elite division could be set for a changing of the guards in November.
Although, I’m not sure what chink is being referred to re: Zenyatta. The sub :24 final quarter? Or maybe the final sixteenth in :5.94?
Related: Eight reasons Pull the Pocket likes Zenyatta. Point #2, right on.
Posted by Jessica in Racing on 08/09/2010 @ 2:39 pm / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Breeders' Cup Classic, Churchill Downs, Farfetched, Lookin at Lucky, Quality Road, Racing Post, Speed, Speed Ratings, When Figures Obfuscate, Zenyatta / 1 comment
Disappointment Road: “I tried to put him into the bridle but he was just going through the motions, which is strange for him,” Velazquez said. “He ran, but he didn’t give me his best race.” (The Whitney replay.)
Missing Mine That Bird: “You know, it’s just hard for me,” Woolley said … after the Whitney was over. “The one wish I had was that I was there. Man … to see him get badly beaten like that … I still love that horse.”
Speaking of love: “Mrs. Davis arrived wearing an unbuttoned Zenyatta jersey over a Zenyatta T-shirt, toting a bag bearing a Zenyatta button, then claimed her souvenir Zenyatta glasses and confessed that she would not have made the trip for any lesser animal.” (The Hirsch replay.)
Yes, maybe: “I’ve got to stop running against Breeders’ Cup champions.”
Larry Jones on Just Jenda and her formidable competition: “She was the only horse that had to race against both of them, and let me tell you, she came back with a look of wonder in her eyes.”
What good about “Luck,” says HBO executive: “There’s a confidence in the storytelling that’s enormously compelling…. It’s enormously accessible to non-horseracing people.”
Posted by Jessica in Racing on 08/08/2010 @ 12:04 pm / 2 comments
Bill Dwyre:
For Zenyatta, racing’s Queen Mother, the campaign to avenge her only defeat continues Saturday at Del Mar.
If that were true, she would start in the August 28 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, or possibly, the August 29 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. Instead, she’s entered today in the Clement Hirsch, “a race she has already won 42 times. Yawn.”
Buzz babies updates: Maiden winner Wickedly Perfect took advantage of a hot pace duel between Final Mesa and Dawnie Macho to score the G3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar on Friday. The pacesetters, who zipped through early fractions of :21.89 and :44.90, finished sixth and seventh.
Posted by Jessica in Racing on 08/07/2010 @ 11:29 am / Tagged Buzz Babies, Del Mar, Horse of the Year, Juveniles, Sorrento Stakes, Zenyatta / No comments
As maddening, petty, and inept as I found New York state politics during the four years I lived in Brooklyn — particularly when it came to anything having to do with the Aqueduct racino or OTB — the explanation for the ostensibly irrational often lay in asking, cui bono? Because someone was usually, pretty nakedly, making out in campaign cash, political power, or patronage jobs. Not so in Massachusetts state politics, which are no less maddening, etc., for reasons that more often seem opaque, personal, or tribal.
Take, for instance, the apparently dead expanded gaming legislation. Never before, in almost two decades of debate, has Massachusetts come so close to allowing casinos and racinos. In the final hours of the legislative session on July 31, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill authorizing three casinos and two racetrack slots licenses. The Senate approved the same, two votes shy of a veto-proof margin. The governor, up for re-election, said he’d accept three casinos (his original stance), but only one racino, a compromise position he then backed off, returning the final bill with an amendment effectively killing racetrack slots. Explained Patrick of his reversal:
“We do this over and over again in the Commonwealth: We yield to the short-term interests of a few powerful people, and we set aside the long-term, best economic and social interests of the Commonwealth.”
(Let’s have a little fun with Deval Patrick’s campaign speak:
“We do this over and over again in [politics]: We yield to the short-term interests of [the upcoming election cycle], and we set aside the long-term, best economic and social interests of the [citizens].”
That really was too easy.)
There are those holding out hope that the legislature will be called back into session and that a resolution will be reached. I’d price that happening as a longshot so long the tote board tops out at 99-1. House leader Robert DeLeo — whose district includes Suffolk Downs and Wonderland, and who’s expended tremendous political capital, accomplishing more than anyone ever has, on the issue — has dug in, insisting on two racinos. “Asking me to go further than that is truly unreasonable,” he told the Boston Globe. Senate president Therese Murray is skeptical a deal could be reached, and quietly, stubbornly opposes calling lawmakers back.
Meanwhile, Plainridge, the state’s sole harness track, has already announced layoffs. Suffolk Downs has made no statements, but the rumors about the track’s future are wild and ominous.
Cui bono? No one.
2:45 PM Addendum: Tweets @jenmontfort, “It’s just so disappointing to be so close and to let political tomfoolery (on ALL sides) get in the way.” Exactly. And yet, it’s hardly surprising. This is the state, after all, where tomfoolery once led to the simulcasting law expiring on the eve of the Florida Derby.
Posted by Jessica in State Issues on 08/04/2010 @ 9:23 am / Tagged Casinos, Massachusetts, Slots Legislation, State Politics, Suffolk Downs / 5 comments
1. How is it that I hadn’t heard of the Holy Ghost or Ecuador betting systems before? After Bill Christine’s latest, I’ll be watching for the double-double:
Pack gave pre-race handicapping seminars called the Paddock Club at the New York tracks. One day at Saratoga he told his audience: “If by some miracle today, in a later race, the same horse qualifies as both the Ghost and the Ecuador, you are permitted to leave the track, go to the Adirondack Trust on Broadway, rob it, and get back in time for this big score.”
2. The summer 2010 issue of Trainer magazine includes a story by Bill Heller on the decline of fair racing. Seeing a Twitter exchange with @sidfernando on the subject, a correspondent emailed with tales of larceny past, like this one:
… the best story I can tell you is one that an old trainer I worked for at Suffolk told me. Summer of 1964, Brockton Fair, a mean old horse named Honest Count. They take him down there to run and the jockey bounces into the paddock and tells them, “Don’t waste your money betting on your horse today — I can’t let him run.”
Bill Finley wrote a marvelous column on the end of Northampton fair racing in 2005: “Thanks for the memories. They were something else.”
Posted by Jessica in Miscellany on 08/03/2010 @ 11:00 am / No comments
Now I know when I’ll be in Saratoga: Jess Jackson confirmed today that Rachel Alexandra will start in the August 29 G1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga:
It’s an historic race, named after a great champion. The timing is right for Rachel. She’s been coming back into her stride and this will help her prepare for the rest of her campaign and the Breeders’ Cup later this year.
We’ll get to take her measure at 10 furlongs; we’ll also get to see her go up against Life At Ten. (And possibly, Zenyatta? Despite what Team Z says about staying in California, the race must be under consideration. Or, not …)
Posted by Jessica in Racing on 07/30/2010 @ 12:47 pm / Tagged Distaffers, Personal Ensign Stakes, Rachel Alexandra, Saratoga / No comments
