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Did I Miss Anything?

Regular service will resume tomorrow, but I have indeed returned from the farthest reaches of Kentucky. Among my discoveries: downtown Lexington seems to largely consist of a stadium and a hole in the ground; Kentucky Horse Park is somewhat light on the ‘horse’ part of their mission at the moment; Kentucky Light is a vastly […]

Speculation

This week has already seen its share of speculation about Lava Man’s future after his last-place finish in the Eddie Read Handicap; his connections seem to be leaning very strongly toward his retirement.

It seems clear that the 7-year-old gelding is past his peak as a racehorse; his recent effort was his sixth loss in […]

A Digression

While watching a long-forgotten bit of Animaniacs the other day, I noticed the following exchange between Pinky and The Brain in an episode about attempting to win the Kentucky Derby (from there, of course, taking over the world):

The Brain: By analyzing the velocity-based paceline, mile turf win and Beyer speed figures, we’ll find […]

Reversal of Fortune

Joey Chestnut brought the Mustard Belt back to the US for the first time in six years, just beating valiant champion Takeru Kobayashi, who suffered what we term in the trade a ‘reversal of fortune’ in the final moments of the event. The new record, 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, can only inspire patriotic […]

Holiday Roundup

The Fourth of July means fireworks and the Dwyer Stakes; this year’s installment certainly looks like a lot of fun on paper. While Nobiz Like Shobiz and Any Given Saturday are the headliners (and rightly so), it’s a very interesting field all around. Phipps homebred Sightseeing is also back in action and the intriguing Helsinki […]

Geldings Gone Wild

Lava Man proved once again what a gutsy horse he is; his threepeat in the Hollywood Gold Cup may not put him in the same company as John Henry at this point, but let’s celebrate what he has accomplished nonetheless. Despite perhaps having lost a step in the trip to Dubai and back, he clearly […]

They Smile When They Are Low

The New York Times is in full pre-Derby mode with three feature stories (and more to come); one on Michael Matz and a nicely detailed piece on the road Nobiz Like Shobiz has followed to get to the Derby. It includes some interesting statistics which are probably not news to most hard-core racing fans, but […]

Changing Plans

While I cannot agree that this year’s Wood Memorial is ‘the last major Kentucky Derby prep race — and the biggest‘ (that honor goes to the Blue Grass) it will still be fun to watch. Although I’ll be out of town and will miss watching the race live, I fully expect my TiVo to show […]

Delayed Weekend Roundup

Our rundown of the weekend’s events was a bit delayed thanks to yesterday’s short-but-powerful storm which knocked out our television, internet connection and commuter line until a good 24 hours after the event. I’m sure I had a number of witty and/or clever comments which have since left my brain, so here are the remainders:

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Just Say No?

Brass Hat’s DQ was upheld by the Emirates Racing Authority; while it’s not an unexpected outcome, it is disappointing since he truly deserved his second place finish and the resulting purse. Stateside, trainer Steve Asmussen’s suspension for ‘medication infractions’ was similarly upheld in Louisiana. While the types of drugs in question are quite different in […]