Along The Rails

As it’s never too soon to start concentrating on mint juleps and all that come with them, Steve Haskin over at BloodHorse.com revs up for post- Sunshine Millions season with his pre-Derby Dozen.  He lists a healthy handful of young’ins to watch in the run up to the Roses.  But it’s a qualified list, addressing only colts who haven’t showed up in the gates of a stakes and are also maiden or allowance winners. 

And if have the mind of a twelve year old boy, which tend to do at exactly the wrong times, you’ll be pleased to know that the nominees include horses named Shafted and Well Positioned. Awesome.  

The last time (and, okay, only) time I attended the Eclipse Awards, I ate well, drank happily, and returned to watch the tape delay several days later to watch some sort of… chopped up version of what remotely could have been the same thing several days later on ESPN.

So it’s right nice that TVG is broadcasting the proceedings.   Problem is, though, it doesn’t much help those of us who don’t have TVG.  And, well, us uber- fan and writey- types?  We’d kind of like to know the results as they happen, because we are internet spoiled baby brats.  Plus, jockeys in tuxes is always a good time.

Wow.  Ouch.  If you sat out your senior prom (we here at Along The Rails are all too familiar with the feeling), you might have an inkling of how Azeri’s connections are feeling this afternoon.

Last month ATR noted that the supermare was going on the block at Keeneland; today, she stood there.  And stood there.  And stood there.  No one met the reserve to start the bidding.   When no one’s stepping forward to buy a former Horse of the Year, you know your industry is feeling the economic pinch.

Then again, it probably didn’t help that said reserve was in excess of a whopping 4.4 million dollars.  True, she’s in foal to the mighty Ghostzapper, and it’s tough to put a price on that.  But still.  Have pity on the girl standing in the corner next to the punch bowl!

D. Wayne Lukas hath issued his pronouncement on his choice for Horse of the Year, and it’s Curlin.

He had an explanation for the four year old’s first non win, place, or show finish of his entire raing life.  That took place last year at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup, and Lukas is blaming the synthetic turf, which he characterized in USA Today as “a nightmare.”  Oh, and it will also cure gambling addicts as well as, I don’t know, create a disturbance in the Force:

“The synthetic track’s a nightmare. You know that hot line that they have … if you’ve got a gambling problem, you call it? Well, synthetics will take care of that. You can disband that line now. They’ll cure the gamblers… And it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do. The injuries are just changing a little bit. You get different kinds of injuries. … It is not the cure-all on the injuries thing. We’re always going to have that a little bit.”

That was how legendary horse racing writer Joe Hirsch, founder of the National Turf Writers Association, would answer whenever he was how he was doing.  He was doing an extraordinarily good job of describing himself.

The Daily Racing Form’s Joe Hirsch passed away this weekend at the age of eighty .  Just as the Form is considered indispensable to the Thoroughbred racing industry, so was Hirsch to the Form itself.

As Crist writes in the Form’s blog on January 9, “Always wear a necktie when you go into the paddock.”  Hirsch was a man who understood hard work and dedication to the industry.  His long running column “Derby Doings” was an essential aspect of pre- Triple Crown season for decades.  Struggling with Parkinsons, he retired in 2003, but not before leaving an indelible impression on the sport he loved.

And that’s a pretty good life.

Lookit, when I was a small racing fan, I had me some Breyer horses.  Breyer is very good at constructing model horses (unless, of course, they are the color of sherbet vomit and sport terrifying wings.)  But people?  Nooooot so much.

I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION,  BREYER PEOPLE.  First of all, this chick ain’t riding any of my horses.  Not when her head is settled on her neck facing her back.  What th–  She’s either absolutely helpless in making her way any farther than the paddock, or she’s evil and that head is whipping back around in the proper direction when we least expect it.

Don’t even get me started on the whip.

The focus of industry writing/commentary/betting/general jumping up and down and freaking tends to focus at the sunshinest tracks with the biggest purses.  There’s a reason why Jockeys is set at Santa Anita (or, as we like to call it here at Along The Rails courtesy of Toby Mcguire in Seabiscuit,  “SAAAAANTA ANIIIIITA!”)  I mean, there’s a reason Bo Derek isn’t filmed staring at a Pick 6 at the G.W. Bridge Bus Terminal OTB.

Otherwise, you’re a Triple Crown race, or you ain’t nothin’.  There’s not even a great deal of attention played to the Breeders’ Cup in the mainstream media, because the MSM, it fears oddly placed apostrophes.

With the opening of Gulfstream, we may now engage in some Sunshine Millions talk.  The Breeders’ Cup to Derby “over the hump” event will take place at the end of the month– January 24.

The signature event is the Sunshine Millions Classic, restricted to Thoroughbreds bred in California and Florida.  This one is for the big boys:  Four year olds and up.  The purse is one million dollars.

The ladies get two races.  Fillies and mares get a turf event.  Same as the gentlemen– mile and an eighth for Californians and Floridians.  The girls also get a sprint for six furlongs.

Last is a derby, the six-furlong Sunshine Millions Dash for three-year-olds.   TV coverage is on HRTV.

With many industry writers firmly announcing that they had cast their Horse of the Year ballots for four year old fan darling Curlin, the New York Daily News‘ Vic Ziegel is casting his vote for Big Brown.

It is officially cool amongst racing fans, if not the general public, to dislike Big Brown, what with his corporate connections, his “multifaceted racing entity” owner conglomerate, and his “I (Heart) Talking!” trainer– not to mention the colt’s utter collapse in the Belmont after a previously perfect racing record.  Some were actually happy to see him fail to take home the Triple Crown.

Ziegel, however, runs against the grain thusly:  “Big Brown created buzz, excitement. He made people care.  Curlin was nothing close to Mr. Charisma. If there was buzz about him only a dog could hear it. He won five times, with two races coming in Dubai… He won four Grade I races in 2008. Same number as Big Brown. He’s the biggest money winner in this sport, $10,501,800. Does it always have to be about money?”

Well, no.  There was buzz about Big Brown, all right, but despite the horse’s talent, an awful lot of it sounded like backlash.

Oh, what a good time it is to be a racing fan in Florida.  Not only is Tampa Bay Downs up and running, the gates have swung open down at Gulfstream.

Yesterday’s grand entry into the 2009 live racing calendar saw about fifteen thousand fans through the turnstiles.  And despite the economy, wagering figures were actually up over last year’s total.

Every parking space was taken.  There were some renovations to the Jameson Jockey Club, and the patrons were witness to the Spectacular Bid Stakes for three year olds.  Notonthesamepage, ridden by Elivs Trujillo, grabbed his share of the hundred thousand dollar prize in 1:08.48.