Railbird 2004–2019

Archive for 2006

Second Season

– With the Triple Crown season well past, racing’s second season begins: For three-year-olds, that means prepping for the Travers Stakes; for all the divisions, the Breeders’ Cup.
– After four weeks off, Brother Derek returned to training at Santa Anita last Saturday. The colt is being pointed to the August 6 Haskell. “We’re looking forward to running at Monmouth Park,” said trainer Dan Hendricks.
– The Boston Globe publishes yet another article about how gloomy things are at Suffolk Downs (although, in fairness, the mood around the struggling track hasn’t been all that upbeat recently). At least a couple of people are happy: Trainer John Rigattieri and jockey Dyn Panell teamed up to win five races at Suffolk on Monday.
– This is just a nice story: “Amid the organized chaos in the morning at Canterbury Park, the 2-year-old bay colt gallops by, its head held high, the exercise rider easing him down the backstretch. From the viewing stand, trainer Todd Hoffrogge watches keenly for any signs that Bold Bulldog isn’t ready to race. There are none.”
– It’s been quiet around Railbird lately, and probably will be so for another week or two, owing to a couple of upcoming deadlines, but I’ll be back before too long with a summer reading round-up and a Saratoga preview …

Posted in Races/Results on June 20, 2006

Tuesday Hit-and-Run

– The Jockeys’ Guild continues to recover from the frayed relationships and depleted coffers of the Wayne Gertmenian era. “It has been difficult,” said jockey Jon Court, one of 27 jockeys elected to the Guild’s Senate last week. “Some people like to hang on. But we were literally able to take that skeleton and throw it out.”
– At Woodbine, 35-year-old apprentice Dean Deverell wins four races in a week.
– Happy Ticket will face top older distaffer Oonagh Maccool on Saturday in the Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs. “Obviously, the other mare is awfully good,” said owner Stewart Madison. “But one thing I know for sure is that my horse will definitely show up.”
– In the first Belmont since 2000 without the Derby or Preakness winner entered, the race’s TV ratings dropped 22% from 2005.
– What people really want to know about racing: “The people out there want to know what a horse eats, how a horse exercises, how he lives, what she does when she’s not training or racing. They long to find out about the people on horses’ backs or at their sides. People want to read Michael Matz’ life story. They want to hear what Edgar Prado thinks. They want Peter Brette to tell them what Barbaro feels like when he trots. What does a Kentucky Derby winner trot like? Now there’s something they can identify with at the PTA meeting.”

Posted in Jockeys' Insurance, News on June 13, 2006

Belmont Day Results

– As usual, Alan at Left at the Gate has a superb post up covering all of Saturday’s stakes action at Belmont, and Steve Haskin painstakingly details Jazil’s Belmont victory in the Blood-Horse. About all I have to add is that Jazil earned a 102 Beyer speed figure for his Belmont win, and that the colt will be pointed toward the Travers at Saratoga on August 26, as will runner-up Bluegrass Cat and third place finisher Sunriver.
– Gary West wraps up this year’s Triple Crown season: “It was a long five weeks.”
– Lava Man became a Grade I winner on the dirt and turf on Saturday with a brilliant wire-to-wire victory in the Charlie Whittingham at Hollywood. “He reminds me of a horse like John Henry,” said jockey Corey Nakatani of the gelding, claimed for $50,000 in 2003 and now undefeated in four starts for trainer Doug O’Neill and with earnings of more than $2.5 million.

Posted in Triple Crown on June 12, 2006

Paying for Housing

I lived in one of the backstretch dorms at Saratoga last summer, sharing a 9 x 11 room with two other women. We kept our cramped room tidy — there wasn’t enough space for anyone to get messy — but the common areas of the dorm quickly fell into filth. Muddy puddles stagnated in the moldy shower room. Trash overflowed the too small buckets placed in the bathrooms, and the toilets clogged so often that people threw their used tissue into stall corners rather than risk flushing (until the cleaning crew started leaving a plastic bag in the corner, which made the situation slightly more tolerable). The cleaning staff came intermittently — there were times they would come two or three days in a row and then then they wouldn’t come for another three or four days. The women’s dorm was also unsecured, and it wasn’t unusual to step out of the bathroom and find a man lurking in the hall.

Unfortunately, those unclean and unsafe conditions aren’t limited to the Saratoga backstretch. So, that Barbaro’s owner Gretchen Jackson is even bringing the issue up is a good thing — backstretch workers deserve safe, well-maintained housing — but Jackson is very, very wrong about who should be reaching into their wallets to pay for this housing:

“This needs to be brought out, not with the wagging of fingers at people, but more like, ‘Look what’s happening,’ ” Jackson said. “If everybody who went to the track reached in their wallet and spared five dollars instead of placing a bet and put it in for new living quarters for grooms.”

Why should bettors, who already provide for little things like purses by wagering, donate to the cause of better backstretch housing? While I’m sure many would if appealed to, housing really isn’t their concern. Those who most directly benefit from the cheap labor provided by backstretch workers — owners, trainers, and tracks — are the ones who should be reaching into their wallets and sparing some money for decent accommodations. And there should be finger wagging, lots of finger wagging: Racetrack executives should be ashamed of the barely habitable living conditions offered on many backstretches, and trainers and owners should be ashamed that the hotwalkers and grooms who labor seven days a week year round caring for their animals often live worse than those animals.

Jackson, much to her credit, has been using her recent media prominence to speak up about some of the darker issues that haunt racing — not just backstretch conditions, but horse slaughter.

Posted in Track Notes on June 11, 2006

Belmont Day

It looks like a beautiful afternoon in New York, but 300 miles to the north, heavy rain is falling for the fourth day in a row and Suffolk Downs is closed due to a power outage, so I’m watching the races at home and playing along on TVG. So far, the racing on the Belmont undercard hasn’t disappointed. (The Just a Game was especially exciting, the way Gorella pounced on pacesetter Pommes Frites in the final yards to win by a neck.) I’m playing a Pick 4 today — a rare wager for me — and won the first leg with Songster in the Woody Stephens. In the Acorn, I’m playing Bushfire, Teammate, and Ermine; in the Manhattan, Relaxed Gesture, Grey Swallow, and English Channel; and in the Belmont, just Bob and John. That’s right — I’m leaving out both of trainer Todd Pletcher’s starters, passing on Steppenwolfer, and singling Bob and John. I’m willing to forgive him for finishing 17th in the Kentucky Derby …

Posted in Triple Crown on June 10, 2006