This And That

Scanning the headlines over at Bloodhorse this evening, my breath caught when I saw “Prado Hospitalized…” followed, fortunately, by “Released After Spill.” A big fan of Prado’s, I’m glad to see he appears to be fine. A well-deserved congratulations on his recent election to Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame.

The recent works by Tale of Ekati (KEE 5f 1:00.20) and Court Vision (CD 4f 46.20) look promising, as does the nice long 7f work (1:25.80) by Smooth Air. You can view Tale of Ekati’s work here (courtesy of Keeneland)—he never lowered his head and looked to do it with ease. Impressive.

In all honesty, though, the Kentucky Oaks is shaping up to be a far more interesting race, with Eight Belles posting an impressive 4f 46.60 work at Keeneland on April 20, and then Golden Doc A (59.00) and Bsharpsonata (59.80) posting smokin’ 5f workouts at Churchill Downs today. While Golden Doc A posted the faster work, I find it fascinating that my girl Bsharp would not let her pass when she ran up to her during the work; you can read about it over on the Kentucky Oaks website.

Speaking of the Oaks, nice story over at Bloodhorse about the confirmed-pregnant Rags to Riches and a bit about how she is adjusting to retirement.

Kudos to the connections of Turf War for resisting the temptation to go in the Derby (for which he has the necessary earnings) and instead entering this full-brother of Grasshopper in the Derby Trial this Saturday. His two races this year—the G3 Southwest and G2 Lane’s End—were terribly disappointing, but, much like his big brother, I think this one will only get better with age—if handled correctly.

Finally, harness driver Dave Palone set a record on Monday, driving 11 winners on The Meadows’ 14-race card. I’ll have to embarrass him one day by posting our Little League team picture—yes, we played together on the Dry Tavern Reds in the mid-1970s. Seriously, that was the name of our little town, too small even for its own post office. You’d think we’d get teased about it at school, but considering another town in our district was called Pitt Gas (doubtlessly a reference to the particularly foul smell that permeated this mining town), Dry Tavern wasn’t so bad.