Arrrrr!
– Skipped the track this afternoon to watch the races on Capital OTB while doing homework in advance of the forum on synthetic surfaces scheduled for Tuesday, which begins at 9:00 a.m. and opens with a panel featuring racetrack executives, then moves on to panels with veterinarians, trainers, riders, and researchers, wrapping up at 5:00 p.m., leaving just enough time to grab dinner downtown before heading to the Ride On! exhibit preview at the National Museum of Racing (hosted by Fran of Hoofcare). Fortunately, little was lost hearing this call on TV instead of on-track:
What especially amuses me about this call is that after Tom Durkin growls, “Arrrrr! Arrrrrrrrr! Arrrrr!”, he comes back to announce the place and show finishers straight.
– We’ve been warned: “If he throws a dud [in the Haskell], there was something wrong that we missed, and it could very well be the end of Big Brown’s career” (NYT). As for the Travers, Nick Zito will point both Da’ Tara and Anak Nakal to the midsummer Derby, despite disappointing finishes in the Jim Dandy; Todd Pletcher is reportedly planning on sending Prince of Wales winner Harlem Rocker.
– Weather, the economy, no bobblehead: The reasons are many, but all add up to declines in Saratoga numbers.
– Favorites won 34% of all races at Saratoga during the meet’s opening week, and finished in the money 61% of the time. Of the 10 races on turf, four were by favorites. Even with the rain, slop, and scratches, form holds.
– I’ve been meaning to get to the Blood-Horse report, “Losing the Iron Horse,” but haven’t had much time lately to read through hundreds of pages of data. Superfecta made more progress. One random observation from what I did get through: The increase in the number of 2-year-old starts, across stallion categories, concurrent with a decrease in the number of 4-year-old starts beginning in the 1980s is striking. Evidence of the breeding industry’s effects?
– Put Music Note in the Travers. Why not? The 3-year-old males this year are an ordinary, weak lot (with the possible exception of Big Brown, depending on how he runs next Sunday), and the Travers offers a better purse than the Alabama, which will feature several horses the Godolphin filly has already beat.
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