Blinkers Off – Thursday
Special Railbird correspondent Blinkers Off checks in from the backstretch. Today at Churchill …
So, the horsemen think they’re getting a bad deal from Churchill Downs with the splits on the advanced-deposit wagering sites like Twinspires.com? How about the track’s employees who are being told to park off-site this week at the University of Louisville football stadium and then pay $10 for shuttle bus service to their own jobs?
As everyone tuned in knows, Big Brown blew out this morning, three furlongs in :35 2/5, and he looked like he was doing his best to back up every bragging word out of Richard Dutrow’s mouth. When exercise rider Michelle Nevin took him out to the track, a swarm followed, some breaking into a full run to keep up.
“It was worse when Arazi was here,” one reporter said. “Like a combination of the pope and Elvis.”
“This makes you thank God you weren’t in the Beatles,” a reporter said to Jerry Bailey.
Leroy Neiman, the, um, artist, could be seen winging around the backstretch this morning in the passenger seat of a golf cart. They used his mustache as a directional signal.
Now I know why the whiskey is called Early Times … they were pouring it in abundance to a long line of people next to the backstretch media center at 8:00 a.m.
Nevin on Big Brown: “He lengthens out but you really don’t feel like you’re flying … You don’t feel like you have to get down and work.”
Mike Iavarone, head of IEAH, owner of Big Brown, admitted they would have preferred the No. 15 hole, the first slot in the auxilliary gate, for the spacing it provides between horses.
Things were nice and kicked back at Eoin Harty’s barn in contrast to the yellow police tape criss-crossing the Dutrow zone. WinStar honcho Bill Casner talked with a stable hand bathing a horse and trainer Eoin Harty entertained a lot of folks wearing Tiznow hats.
Casner is a big fan of synthetic tracks and sees it as the future. Asked if Churchill will some day switch to an artificial surface, he said, “I hope it happens.”
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