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Racing Archive

Restored

The Breeders’ Cup announced today that it’s bringing back the Distaff, which was cast aside for the Ladies’ Classic in 2008. Alicia Wincze called the news “the most popular name restoration since Prince,” and for at least an hour on Twitter, that seemed true. It may be minor, but restoring the Distaff for the 30th running of the BC is a feel-good, fan-friendly bit of change, a return to a classic word with resonance in the game, evoking greats such as Personal Ensign and Azeri. “I couldn’t help doing handsprings,” cheered Bill Finley. Thanks to the Breeders’ Cup, or, as Exacta-Mundo says much better,

… hats off to the Breeders’ Cup for proving themselves yet again to be an organization that takes fan feedback seriously and WELCOME BACK DISTAFF, WE MISSED YOU!

Celebrate by enjoying three great Distaff moments.

Posted in Racing on August 8, 2013 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Distaff

In the Fractions

Handicapper Brad Thomas critiques the 2013 Whitney Handicap results:

“Nothing illustrates the weakness and over-the-hill nature of the handicap div like the unaggressive way speed horses have been ridden in …

“races like the Foster and Sat’s Whitney. No one had the guts to test Fort Larned in the former and Cross Traffic got away with a cheap …

“first quarter in the latter-effectively turning the 9F Whitney into a sprint with a galloping run-up. This decaying div is wide open …

“to any developing 3YO still ambulatory late in the year and to Royal Delta …“

Watching Cross Traffic and every other contender but Successful Dan drift, list, and stagger across the wire (replay), it’s hard to argue otherwise.

The DRF Formulator Whitney fractions:

Cross Traffic was given a Beyer speed figure of 108 for his Whitney win.

(Thomas tweets via @superterrific.)

Posted in Racing on August 4, 2013 / Tagged Beyer Speed Figures, Cross Traffic, Pace, Saratoga, Successful Dan, Whitney Handicap

Monzante’s Legacy

It’s been more than a week since the Louisiana Racing Commission concluded its investigation into the death former Grade 1 winner Monzante at Evangeline Downs in a $4,000 claiming race on July 20, determining that all regulations and safeguards had been followed and that there was no action to take. The furor that followed his euthanization, which began subsiding as details of Monzante’s circumstances and final injury became known, has abated.

But Monzante’s fate still reverberates. Sometimes explicitly, as in Esther Marr’s OTTB Spotlight on Sandburr, retired at 10 when he became uncompetitive at the $25,000 claiming level, and sometimes quietly in the thoughts of those for whom he became a symbol of the holes in racing’s safety net. He crossed my mind while reading Jay Hovdey’s column about the 1973 Whitney, which ends with trainer Allen Jerkens reminiscing about the retirement of Onion:

“We gave him the whole year off and then brought him back, and he won a couple of races, for $25,000 or something like that. We never ran him real cheap. Eventually he went to the owner’s farm, where he had a nice field with all the other old geldings. He lived to be 26.”

We never ran him real cheap … he lived to be 26. An echo across decades, of the decisions that humans make, and the consequences that horses bear.

Posted in Racing on August 3, 2013 / Tagged Monzante