Oh, and Funny Cide and Any Given Saturday were both victors today. Huzzah!

There’s holiday sprinting too — Commentator takes on Istan, High Finance and Saint Anddan in the Tom Fool, also at Belmont. And as mentioned yesterday, Funny Cide will be representing for the New York up at Finger Lakes; good luck to him!

The Tin Man just lost his race by the margin Lava Man won by — but he continues to demonstrate that he certainly enjoys competition (even outside California. Ahem).

Other geldings are in action this week as well — this from the Funny Cide Fan Club newsletter:

IT’S OFFICIAL!

If you’re willing to take a road trip, you can find Funny Cide on the Fourth of July at, of all places, Finger Lakes Race Track.

Funny Cide has been entered in the Wadsworth Memorial which has a $100,000 purse. Funny pulled 5th position of an eight horse race. Be sure to check out FunnyCide.com for results.

‘Of all places,’ indeed! I’m not one of those people demanding that Funny Cide be retired immediately; sure, he’s not racing like he used to, but he’s regularly working bullets — he obviously relishes training. If he needs a race every now and then so that he can continue having fun training, hey, why not?

More on Wednesday’s races tomorrow…

When the colt was born, Jan. 29, 2004, he faced improbable odds of securing one of the 20 post positions for the Derby.

He was, after all, one of 34,642 thoroughbreds foaled in the United States in 2004, and Mrs. Valando was just another owner with the first Saturday in May 2007 circled in her fantasies. By 2006, the colt was one of 10,390 from that crop to make it to the racetrack. Now, as a 3-year-old, he is one of 450 horses, including 27 from outside the United States, nominated for the Triple Crown races: the Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.

Be sure to check out the sidebar elements in the story, they are also well worth reading and watching. (For comparison on the numbers, bear in mind that the Jockey Club had a total of 1.5 million total names registered in 1972; they did indeed do things differently back then) The story goes on to cover Funny Cide’s latest activities (including working with Nobiz Like Shobiz in the mornings) and mentions how Barclay Tagg still feels his past accomplishments are under-appreciated:

“He won stakes every year of his life except as a 5-year-old,” he said. “He won a graded stake as a 6-year-old. No Kentucky Derby winner has ever done that before. And everybody still knocks him and knocks me.”

Given his recent workouts, Funny Cide still clearly loves training (if not necessarily racing) and it certainly makes sense to run your Derby hopeful alongside a Derby winner given the opportunity. I’m leaning more toward jumping on the Nobiz Like Shobiz bandwagon, but I’ll make that call later this week.

The other very interesting article by Jim Squires (breeder of the under-rated Monarchos) will be fun reading for you Green Monkey watchers — the most expensive horses left in the Derby field are the $1.5 million longshot Cowtown Cat and of course Curlin, who recently changed hands for $3.5 million. Squires notes:

It was in the euphoria in the wake of the last three Triple Crown winners — Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978 — that million-dollar yearlings became the norm at public auctions and breeders began producing precisely the wrong kind of horse needed to win three races in five weeks. In 1985, when a half-brother to Seattle Slew named Seattle Dancer set the yearling sales record at $13.1 million, the corresponding record for 2-year-old-in-training horses — known in the industry as juvenile sales — was $800,000.

…[The Green Monkey details omitted here, since the average Superfectablog reader knows them well]…

Yet it is the industry preoccupation with just such horses and the lure of such extravagant prices that has kept breeders from producing in substantial numbers horses physically capable of enduring the Triple Crown grind. And today’s trainers, many of whom weren’t born when Secretariat set the standard, are naturally far more adept at conditioning horses for distances of a mile or less, at which most North American races today are run.

It’s a great article all around — definitely give it a read. It makes me want to wear my Green Monkey t-shirt, which I promise to do in the very near future.

Finally, for those attending the Barbaro festivities at Delaware Park, have a great day! I won’t be able to join you as planned as I’ve been felled by an evil stomach bug thanks to my vector toddler, so please have a drink for me! For others not attending, enjoy this video clip of Barbaro’s latest sibling capering around at Mill Ridge Farm.

This year’s Blue Grass has been described as ‘basically the Derby‘ since it should feature so many heavy hitters — Great Hunter, Street Sense and Hard Spun are just the main headliners — but there’s word that Hard Spun could skip the race as well. It’s definitely still fluid at this point.

Avoiding that field in the interests of gaining more graded earnings is Sedgefield, who will be running at Keeneland in the Transylvania this weekend. He certainly seems one to watch, and it’s presumably not his fault that he’s named after Tony Blair’s constituency. It will be interesting to see in the future if he really takes to dirt (as opposed to Polytrack) as he’s a full brother to turf enthusiast English Channel. Let’s hope this move proves smarter than the Transylvania College students who stole manuscripts from their college library and tried to sell them at Christies, apparently not realizing that when you steal rare books everyone in the field knows about it and is on the lookout for them. They could always watch the race from prison.

In non-Derby-prep news, Funny Cide returns to the races on Friday at Keeneland. He’s been having great workouts — hopefully he feels like running in the afternoon as well.

Japanese star Dance in the Mood did indeed win the CashCall Mile; Sweet Talker made a good run for second, but Dance in the Mood was clearly determined to prove that she could win in the US. The daughter of Sunday Silence was impressive indeed; it will be interesting to see how Japanese breeding continues in his much-lamented absence. (The fact that Sunday Silence and Easy Goer are both dead makes me feel old; they brought on my bad-weather-at-the-track luck when I went to the 1989 Derby — it rained, hailed, sleeted, snowed briefly and the sun came out on occasion. It was quite a day. Ever since, it seems to rain when I go for a big day).

Speaking of milers, I really like Miesque’s Approval, and he is continuing his winning ways. It’s odd to think that he was finishing out of the money in claiming races last year.

Invasor was much the best in the Suburban Handicap; Fernando Jara turned in another smart ride. Clearly, there’s something in the water for his sire, Candy Stripes, down Argentine way.

Team Funny Cide invaded Canada successfully — he won the Dominion Day, becoming the first Derby winner since Secretariat to win a race at Woodbine. Given the hot/stormy weather we’ve been having here, Canada sounds like a wonderful place to be. As Funny Cide has had problems with running in hot weather in the past, this spot certainly seems to vindicate the issue for those who took it as an excuse. I’d rather run in Toronto in the high 80s than here in the high 90s, wouldn’t you? That’s 22 top-three finishes for the Gutsy Gelding; he’s clearly enjoying himself now that he’s found the winner’s circle again.

Eight-years-young The Tin Man came back (again!) to win the American — a repeat of his 2002 performance. Consider this point — this year’s three-year-olds were still in the planning stages when he won it the first time. True, the field was small after a few notable scratches, but it’s nice to see another older guy winning.

If you are waiting to watch the Irish Derby on ESPN, you may want to look away now. If not, here’s the result:

Dylan Thomas won, with Kieren Fallon aboard. I’m sure I had some sort of clever allusion to the poet’s drinking habits to insert here (or, having lived in rural Wales, I could drop in some Welsh if I really thought about it), but the heat (and lack of air conditioning, an issue that will be corrected next week) saps my strength. Instead, I will point you in the direction of an article or two on Fallon’s potential legal woes, here and here.

And last but certainly not least, Barbaro’s latest cast change went well. He had three new screws put in and word is that his x-rays are looking very good indeed. There are new photos at Penn’s site; he certainly looks healthy and alert as he goes in for the procedure. Hopefully the positive reports will continue.

Tags:
Horse Racing, Dance in the Mood, Funny Cide, Sunday Silence, Barbaro

If the larger issue is truly one of whether or not racehorses should be medicated at all, let the industry discuss that; piecemeal regulations and the odd local suspension or disqualification is not going to change the way the sport operates.

Despite ongoing issues like these, there is a good weekend of racing coming up. The Suburban is going to be a bit lighter if Bandini is indeed out (as was rumored), but the CashCall Mile should be exciting as it heralds the US return of Japan-based Dance in the Mood, a very impressive second in the 2004 American Oaks. Her countryhorse, Asahi Rising, will be running in this year’s installment of the American Oaks. If she is anything like Cesario, last year’s winner (and fellow grand-daughter of Sunday Silence), we are in for a treat.

Another interesting race this weekend will be the Dominion Day at Woodbine; Funny Cide will be making the trip north of the border. I always enjoy watching the few races from Woodbine that ESPN opts to show; it looks like a beautiful track. The indefatigable Alex at Tim Woolley Racing chatted with Funny Cide’s trainer, Barclay Tagg, about Showing up and Barbaro — once again, Tagg had very positive comments of the sort we’re not used to hearing from him.

They have also set up a separate page for comments and suggestions from people who would like to rally around Barbaro to help raise money for other horses in his name — it’s well worth checking out. All seems to be well with Barbaro as of now — he is deemed a ‘happy, healthy horse‘ and I found it encouraging to hear that New Bolton has a Thompson’s Gazelle with more plates and pins than Barbaro; scroll down to update 138 for details. Which reminds me, it’s back to specialist vet #17 for my bionic cat tomorrow; we’re having a regular dermatology intervention which will hopefully see him come off the steroids for a while. If there were races for adorable (if somewhat gimpy) cats, he’d certainly be disqualified for drug use.

edit: Check out the new additions to the gallery at Tim Woolley Racing for some new pictures of Barbaro’s dam, La Ville Rouge, and his full brother. They are really great photos; she’s a lovely mare and he’s really a cute colt.

Tags:
Horse Racing, Brass Hat, Funny Cide, Showing Up, Sunday Silence, Barbaro