JC / Railbird

Miscellany Archive

Zippy Knows the Deal

From a Times-Union story on 0-for-100 Zippy Chippy:

The Peppers fashioned a winner’s circle out of flowers and bales of straw, and posted a sign next to it that read: Cabin Creek Winner’s Circle.

They thought it’d be fun to have Monserrate parade Zippy Chippy into the winner’s circle and let people take all the pictures that the horse missed out on during his racing career. The only one who didn’t like the idea was Zippy Chippy. He kicked the sign over.

I’m reminded of the close of Joe Palmer’s “Common Folks,” on recently retired Stymie parading at Jamaica in 1949 (Stymie and Zippy Chippy being about as far apart in career accomplishments as racehorses can be):

As he stood for the last time, before the stands, people around the winner’s enclosure were shouting … “Bring him in here, for just for one more time.”

The groom didn’t obey, and probably was right. Stymie never got in a winner’s circle without working for it. It was no time to begin.

Posted in Miscellany on September 10, 2010 / Tagged Champions, Horse Sense, Lovable Losers, New York, The Winner's Circle, Zippy Chippy

A Horseplayer’s (Culture) Diary

A rumored riff on a legendary handicapper and Stendhal doesn’t appear, but Moshe Diane* at Saratoga does, between Yves Klein and silent films.

*If you don’t get the name …

Speaking of well-named horses, Crown of Thorns returns in the Pat O’Brien at Del Mar on Saturday. I remember thinking the now 5-year-old would be a factor in the 2008 classic races. Instead, he was away 19 months due to injury. This time, he’s coming off a layoff of nearly 10 months. His last race was the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, in which he finished second by a nose.

There are so many reasons this won’t happen any time soon, but give Alan Shuback credit for tossing the idea out there: To save America’s graded stakes, eliminate pari-mutuel clerks and outriders.

Posted in Miscellany on August 25, 2010

Ghostly Memories

1. How is it that I hadn’t heard of the Holy Ghost or Ecuador betting systems before? After Bill Christine’s latest, I’ll be watching for the double-double:

Pack gave pre-race handicapping seminars called the Paddock Club at the New York tracks. One day at Saratoga he told his audience: “If by some miracle today, in a later race, the same horse qualifies as both the Ghost and the Ecuador, you are permitted to leave the track, go to the Adirondack Trust on Broadway, rob it, and get back in time for this big score.”

2. The summer 2010 issue of Trainer magazine includes a story by Bill Heller on the decline of fair racing. Seeing a Twitter exchange with @sidfernando on the subject, a correspondent emailed with tales of larceny past, like this one:

… the best story I can tell you is one that an old trainer I worked for at Suffolk told me. Summer of 1964, Brockton Fair, a mean old horse named Honest Count. They take him down there to run and the jockey bounces into the paddock and tells them, “Don’t waste your money betting on your horse today — I can’t let him run.”

Bill Finley wrote a marvelous column on the end of Northampton fair racing in 2005: “Thanks for the memories. They were something else.”

Posted in Miscellany on August 3, 2010