NTRA
Unabashed Praise
… for the Racing Post website. This morning, on noticing that Man of God, eighth to stablemate Frankel in his winning August 13 debut at Newmarket, had won at Yarmouth yesterday, I clicked over to that one’s Racing Post profile, with one question: Had any other horse in that race come back to win? There, I clicked on the race date, then on each finisher’s name, getting a pop-up window with each of their complete career records, and in five minutes — without logging in, entering credit card information, or downloading any PDFs — I had the answer. It was a breeze, as it is every time I visit. The site is data-rich and user-friendly. More advanced features require registration and/or payment, but elementary research can be accomplished with ease.
“We’ve embraced the internet as openly as any sport that I’m aware of,” said NTRA president Alex Waldop in a recent TDN interview. “When it comes to the horse stuff, I think we’ve done a good job,” Equibase president Hank Zeitlin told the Paulick Report. Never mind the DRF, which has invested considerable resources in developing Formulator, a powerful handicapping tool hobbled by an outmoded card-based navigation and subscription model, while letting products such as Simulcast Daily stagnate. All it takes is a few minutes with the Racing Post to realize how far the American racing industry has to go to bring American racing fans an online tool as simple and useful.
Congratulations
To Ramon Dominguez: The rider reached a milestone on Friday, earning win #4000 aboard Fortyninegeorgest in the second race at Aqueduct. Dominguez, who began riding in 1996, spent his first full season at Saratoga in 2007, and moved his tack full-time to New York in 2009, won an astounding 376 races on the circuit last year, sweeping every riding title. Should he keep up that torrid pace, Dominguez can look forward to hitting win #5000 by 2013.
To Rosie Napravnik: The 21-year-old jockey scored her first graded stakes win in the Cicada Stakes on Liam’s Dream at Aqueduct on Saturday.
To the NTRA: After the embarrassing fizzle that was the March 13 launch of NTRA Live!, the organization rebounded on Saturday with a near-flawless webcast of the Florida Derby, which was displayed on a clutter-free page with clear, helpful links above and a live chat running alongside. NTRA vice president Keith Chamblin told the Thoroughbred Times that the NTRA “added some servers” and did additional site testing in advance of yesterday’s show. The NTRA also apparently removed the requirement to register or login before viewing (perhaps they took Superfecta’s advice?), as it was possible to pull up the page without being prompted to do either. Although demand was probably lower for the Florida Derby webcast than it was for Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, the steps the NTRA took to bolster their capacity to host viewers surely helped make Saturday’s live video a success. Well done!
Saturday Line-Up (Updated)
Oaks prep, Derby preps, and two big stars making their first starts of the year:
The NTRA, which unveiled a fresh new web site look last Friday, launches a new feature, NTRA Live!, a series of webcasts hosted by Randy Moss, this Saturday. Beginning at 6:00 PM, racing fans with an Internet connection anywhere in the world will be able to watch a live video stream — free! — of both the New Orleans Ladies and Santa Margarita Handicap. Very cool. (And not just because the video venture was inspired by “Take Back Saturday!“)
Also Saturday: 2009 Tampa Bay Derby winner Musket Man tries something new, starting in the five furlong Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa (4:57 PM). Musket Man, making his second start off a long layoff, has never finished out of the money, but he’s also never raced at less than six furlongs or on turf. [9:50 AM: Just saw this post on PaceAdvantage, in which someone familiar with the connections' intentions reports Musket Man has breezed over turf once before and that the race is a prep (a prep they expect to win) for the Carter at Aqueduct. DRF shows trainer Derek Ryan with a .38 percentage (out of eight starters) in turf sprints; Musket Man is the 5-2 morning-line favorite.]
Three potential Omnisurface Stars to watch: In the New Orleans Ladies, Zardana — trained by John Shirreffs, shipped in to take Rachel Alexandra’s measure — makes her first start on dirt [in the US]. The 6-year-old mare won the 2009 G2 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood (Cushion Track) and the Swingtime at Santa Anita (turf). Also trying dirt for the first time is Noble’s Promise, who makes his first start of the year in the Rebel Stakes. Noble’s Promise won the G1 Breeders’ Futurity last fall at Keeneland (Polytrack), and broke his maiden over the Ellis Park turf. At Santa Anita, Interactif makes the move to synthetics in the San Felipe Stakes. The Todd Pletcher-trainee won his maiden debut on the Monmouth dirt and boasts two 2009 turf stakes wins, the G3 With Anticipation at Saratoga and G3 Bourbon at Keeneland.
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Jessica Chapel is a writer, editor, and web producer living in Massachusetts. Railbird is a thoroughbred horse racing blog published since June 2004. More ›
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