All Over the Place
In case you haven’t had your fill of Eclipse Awards coverage yet, do check out Jay Hovdey’s account of the awards cereremony. “For a moment, it was 1952 all over again, and Richard Nixon was trying to save his political hide by playing down slush fund allegations and diverting attention with references to his wife’s ‘good Republican cloth coat’ and his daughter’s dog, Checkers. A few beats later, Merv Griffin appeared from out of a misty cloud of talk show nostalgia … Then, at some point John Wayne entered the hall, closely followed by Will Rogers, who between them provided a bedrock, down-home reality that felt like the whole place had suddenly become Kansas, circa 1948.” (Daily Racing Form)
Also: Photos, courtesy of the Blood-Horse.
Ken Ramsey’s apology for attempting to bribe another owner to scratch a horse from a race, an infraction he was punished for by the Kentucky racing board last week, reminded Bill Christine “that parties without party-poopers are hard to find.” (LA Times)
Bill Finley reports on the outcome of the Ghostzapper-Smarty Jones HOTY contest, and suggests that some votes for Ghostzapper may have been cast as payback for Smarty’s disappearance from the track. “Some voters might have chosen Ghostzapper because of the circumstances of Smarty Jones’s retirement after winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.” Some voters? I wonder who Finley’s talking about. (New York Times)
