News from Oz

Sarrera (4-1) won the Doomben Cup over Rampant Lion (50-1), with Like It Is (15-1) third, and favorite Viewed (2-1) well back. I had Sarrera and Viewed paired with Like It Is in the trifecta—that’s the story of my life, I swear! Two of three in tris, and usually the 1st and 3rd horses (is there a shot I can get for this affliction?). Still, I did have a $2 show bet on Like It Is, so at least I got a decent $10.00 payout (and came out $2 ahead). I also had a $2 show bet on Bella Grande in race 7B which netted $8.00.

My best payout of the night by far was a WPS bet in the $150,000 Glenlogan Park Stakes at Doomben, when longshot Quizzical Lady won ($6 bet paid total of $72.70). Lesson to share here is universal: whenever a horse is 3 for 3 over a track, has won 4 of 8 races in the last year, and won 7 of 14 lifetime—you gotta take them seriously! I have no idea how I got her at 22-1.

While Big Brown's stud deal is still undefined, Australian champion 2-year-old Sebring (More Than Ready out of Purespeed, by Flying Spur) was sold this past week for $30 million to Widden Stud. However, he will not be retired just yet:

"Widden looks forward to racing Sebring on as a three-year-old and plans to retire him for the 2009 breeding season," [Widden Stud's Antony] Thompson said. "The owners are a terrific group of people and they look forward to continuing to enjoy his racing career and his stud career."

Sebring's trainer Gai Waterhouse has a fascinatingly-intimate website where she noted in today's diary entry that Sebring had his, uh, "boy parts" measured today and a sample taken of his sperm because, as she was told: "we can't really have the young potential sire serve a mare as he may not want to go back to the stable and continue being a racehorse."

Ah, boys are so easily distracted...Reminds me of that Dairy Queen ad currently running where the little girl tells her mom to order only one sundae, and then another is delivered courtesy of a little boy she made goo-goo eyes at as they walked in. She then tells her rather-appalled mother “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.” Hysterical! Enjoy: