Who Are the Unsung Stars?

As if the point of my last post needed further bolstering, another blue-collar horse made the news on Monday—Rapid Redux captured his 15th straight race, an 8.5 furlong starter allowance event at Thistledown. Only a 5-year-old, this Pleasantly Perfect gelding has now run at 11 different tracks in his 35 starts—and as recent as last year, you could have claimed him for $5,000. In fact, he was claimed for $6,250 at Penn National in October; since then, he’s won 16 of 17 starts for new owner Robert L. Cole, Jr. Not bad for the one-time stablemate and running partner for G2 Remsen runner-up Atomic Rain.

Maybe it’s because as a child I was enthralled by Mildred Pace’s Old Bones the Wonder Horse, which chronicled the life of hard-knocking Exterminator—winner of 50 races in 99 starts, from age 2 to 9—but I’ve always had a soft-spot for older geldings who keep plugging away. And we should celebrate them, even if they aren’t the greatest or fastest horses running on the planet, because they win consistently against all who challenge them. They’re not sitting in the barn for extended periods of time, barely raced, or rushed off to stud like so many others. They seem almost like a throwback to another time, a better era for racing, and I’m sure there are more of them out there than I’ve heard of, so chime in with your candidates, maybe from your local track, that people should talk about.

In the previous post’s comments, Nicholas mentioned Star Guitar, a 6-year-old Louisiana-bred son of Quiet American who has been tearing up state-bred stakes for five years now, including a current 5-race win streak dating back to December. In all, he’s won 19 of 25 starts for owner/breeder Maurice and Evelyn Benoit, with total earnings nearly $1.4 million—almost all of which was earned in Louisiana. He finished fourth in the 2010 G3 Texas Mile at Lone Star, but even more impressive was his third-place finish in the 2009 G3 Alysheba at Churchill Downs behind subsequent G1 Whitney victor Bullsbay and G1-placed Cool Coal Man. Not a bad performance considering among those he defeated were next-out G2 Californian winner Informed, G1 Travers runner-up Mambo in Seattle, and next-out G1 Stephen Foster winner Macho Again. According to Mary Rampellini at DRF, his next three targets are the $100k Delta Downs Gold Cup (November 5), the $150k Louisiana Champions Day Classic (December 10), and the $200k Delta Premiere Night Championship (February 4).

What I particularly find fascinating (not to mention compelling) is how many of these blue-collar horses are bred and/or owned by the same connections for their entire career—like Star Guitar. Nine-year-old New Jersey-bred Joey P—a G3 winner early in his career—has now raced 48 times for owner/breeder John Petrini. Owner Mark E. Russell’s 5-year-old West Virginia-bred Russell Road has won 17 of 29 starts, mostly at Charles Town; his sole excursion to Aqueduct saw him finish fifth in the 2009 G3 Gotham—behind the likes of G1 Wood Memorial winner I Want Revenge, G2 Peter Pan runner-up Imperial Council and next-out G3 Withers victor Mr. Fantasy, but ahead of subsequent G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Haynesfield. In Washington State, 9-year-old Cahill Road gelding Wasserman is still plying his trade for owner/breeder Howard Belvoir. In his most recent start (the 63rd of his career), he finished a respectable fifth of 11 runners in the G3 Longacres Mile won by Awesome Gem—a race Wasserman won back in 2008.

So, let’s hear it. From Woodbine to Golden Gate, Suffolk to Canterbury, Calder to Sunland, who are the local or regional heroes—male or female—that we rarely hear about in the mainstream press?

Edited to add: I've begun a Facebook page dedicated to these blue collar warriors; friend us here.

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Shiny Beads and Shallow Flattery

I’m as guilty as the next person of focusing a disproportionate amount of attention on the “stars” of horse racing—namely, 3-year-olds and a diminishing number of older horses challenging the renowned G1 races. All-too-often their stories overshadow those of horses who, in another age, would have been worshipped for their durability. Yes, those types of race horses do actually still exist, and this weekend we witnessed by two of them exactly the kind of performances of which legends are made.

On Sunday, 8-year-old Awesome Gem won the G3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs with jockey David Flores aboard for trainer Craig Dollase—the very same connections associated with this Awesome Again gelding since his first race at age 3. With 46 career starts and earnings now nearing $2.7 million, he’s still plugging away, having finally garnered that elusive G1 win last year (Hollywood Gold Cup). Remember his third-place finish behind Curlin and Hard Spun (and ahead of Street Sense, Tiago, Any Given Saturday and Lawyer Ron) in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth—and how relatively-quickly those competitors retired to the breeding barn? Not an option for him, but he’s still performing at a high level. The form of his G3 Lone Star Park Handicap win back on May 30 was franked when runner-up Flat Out subsequently won the G2 Suburban and then ran second in the G1 Whitney; third-place finisher Game On Dude next finished second, a mere nose behind stablemate First Dude, in the G1 Hollywood Gold Cup. I’m not sure where Awesome Gem will turn up next, but I’m looking forward to it regardless. 

In winning the Remington Park Sprint Cup on Saturday night, 7-year-old Ravalo came within .18 seconds of setting a new 6-furlong track record, not to mention he posted his 16th victory in 45 starts, with earnings of $1,121,522. How long ago it seems since his juvenile campaign when, at 34-1, he finished second in his maiden effort at Laurel. Since then, he’s had one trainer—Donald Barr—and one owner—Lindy Redding, the kind of consistency that Awesome Gem also enjoys. A multiple-G3 winner, the Mutakddim gelding’s greatest moment may have occurred when coming within a half length of defeating Vineyard Haven in the 2009 G1 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash. Now ungraded, the De Francis returns after a year hiatus, and is being considered for Ravalo this fall. Not bad for a $30k yearling purchase. You can view a replay of his Remington Park win here.

These are the proven warriors we should be celebrating, far more than the flash-in-the-pan types that litter so much industry press today. Whether mere state-bred legends (like Russell Road in West Virginia, Joey P. in New Jersey, or Wasserman in Washington) or those like Awesome Gem and Ravalo who regularly trek across country, these are truly the horses that fans can follow with a passion. They are the horses the industry needs to built its image upon, not those that come and go like the latest fad. People (fans) want to be emotionally invested in horses that stick around.

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Kelso' Greatest Fans

The passing of Hall of Fame trainer Carl Hanford brought to mind fond recollections of Kelso, a horse who raced before my time, but one that makes my top 10 list of those whose exploits I wish I could have witnessed firsthand. 

Of all his achievements, winning the 2-mile long Jockey Club Gold Cup five consecutive times arguably best demonstrates Kelso’s greatness, but he also often took on the best turf horses as well, epitomized by his three second-place finishes (1961-63) in the Washington D.C. International—before capturing the 12-furlong event in 1964, in a new American record time. On his excellent blog Colin’s Ghost, Kevin Martin wrote about Kelso’s performances in the International, and it’s well worth re-reading if you missed it the first time around. The conclusion of the race is viewable below:

Like Seabiscuit before him, Kelso was a mega-star, even inspiring a pre-teen girl named Heather Noble to form a fan club dedicated to him. The Kelsolanders (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like Zenyatta, does it?) wore Bohemia Stable’s yellow and gray colors, and followed him all over the country whenever he ran. Here’s a link to a February 27, 1966 Parade article by John Devaney on Kelso’s legion of fans, and below is a photo of Heather Noble with her hero. His connections even named Kelso’s half-sister after his biggest fan. Now, that’s the kind of passion we need more today! I wonder whatever happened to Heather Noble; did she grow up to be a life-long horse racing fan?

Before Kelso made his first International attempt in 1961, Sports Illustrated did a cover story on the 4-year-old reigning Horse of the Year (surprisingly, the only time he made the cover), and for several reasons the accompanying article by Whitney Tower is intriguing. First, it highlights a fact that those knowledgeable of racing history already know—before the Breeders’ Cup, there were races that clearly stood out as championship-caliber events, but it also took a body of work to crown a champion:

If there were such an event as the world championship horse race, only three classics around the globe could rightfully contend for this honorary title. They are the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in mid-July at Ascot, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in early October at Longchamp and the Washington D.C. International at Laurel on Veterans Day. All three are run over the mile-and-a-half distance and over the internationally accepted grass surface.

On performance alone it would be hard to pick against Kelso next week. Some few do not like his chances because this will be his first start on a grass track...As a matter of fact, Kelso’s accomplishments have been so outstanding this year (seven wins in eight starts) that he has already earned our Horse of the Year title for the second season in a row—no matter how he fares at Laurel.

You’ve got to love the sporting attitude of his owner Allaire du Pont who justified her entering of Kelso in the International by saying:

Kelso has already proved he can run any distance from sprints to two miles. He has proved he can carry all the weight in the world. To those who claim that Kelso has yet to prove he can handle all kinds of tracks I say that we’ll run at Laurel and show that the grass won’t make any difference to him.

We rarely find that kind of daring in today’s owners. Jess Jackson was such a man. So too is Rick Porter, whose Eight Belles took on the boys in the 2008 Kentucky Derby and recently stated the Breeders’ Cup Classic is the ultimate goal of his talented filly Havre de Grace. How great is it that both she and Blind Luck regularly knock heads? This is exactly the kind of rivalry that horse racing needs, tapping into fans’ deepest passions for truly competitive racing.

In that 1961 SI article, I also found this passage of particular interest:

When Comte d’Ornano was advised that foreign horses seem unable to make much of an impression at Laurel unless they are fitted to American shoes with calks or toes (disallowed in France) he replied, “People who have raced at Laurel have told me the same thing. For your type of course and with the predominance of speed in your races, it is probably true that unless a European horse is five or six lengths the best of his field, he should wear American plates at Laurel. Misti will wear them."

This past weekend, Euro trainer Aidan O’Brien shipped in Cape Blanco and Treasure Beach to capture the Arlington Million and Secretariat, respectively. Both raced on Lasix for the first time—a fact that the industry press was quick to point out, as if somehow O’Brien’s capitulation was either a ringing endorsement for Lasix use, or it epitomized the hypocrisy of Europeans’ continuing condemnation of American drug use in racing. As noted in the earlier quoted passage, it’s not a new phenomenon that folks recognize when an advantage is had, and will do everything in their power to negate that advantage whenever necessary to win. Today it’s still-legal drugs; then it was toe calks. C'est la vie!

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Will the Last Horse Racing Fan Please Turn Out the Lights?

Reading accounts of Sunday’s Round Table Conference at Saratoga makes me wonder just how much money The Jockey Club wasted hiring the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to write a report that basically regurgitated every single idea that bloggers and racing pundits have been advocating for years. 

“Fewer, better races and better scheduling to increase field size and showcase the best product” and “racing integrity reforms” have been particularly popular points of contention for fans, as have no-brainer issues like “increased television coverage”, “a free-to-play website” and “innovative wagering platforms.” Why did it take some pretentious insider-connected firm to finally make our long-argued complaints legitimate? 

Let’s hope The Jockey Club, not to mention the industry as a whole, takes more serious and immediate action on this report than they did the last one in 1991 on drug testing. According to The Jockey Club president and CEO James L. Gagliano: 

“We now have in our possession a comprehensive and clearly defined strategy for growth. When the initiatives you heard about today have progressed from recommendation to reality, you will see sustainable growth for thoroughbred racing and breeding.”

No offense, Mr. Gagliano, but what malarkey! Taking on only the superficial issues of television coverage and creating a social network game (which apparently would be primarily geared towards women) is merely putting a bandage on this industry hemorrhaging fans. According to their wastrel report, McKinsey estimates that, if current trends continue, “thoroughbred racing will lose fans at a rate of 4 percent a year, and, by 2020, the fan base will be only 64 percent of what it was in 2010.” Considering the fact that horse racing fans are, by far, an aging demographic—one that is quickly dying out—it’s not likely they will be replaced by younger fans if all the industry plans to do is apply a little blush and lip gloss to its product.

The McKinsey presenter concluded that all this can be done without a “commissioner” and without wide-scale national regulatory action. So, here we are, once again paying lip service to the real issues—and once again fretting about what is seemingly beyond anyone’s control, the self-destructive nature of arrogance and power. 

What must be addressed is the lack of national leadership when it comes to scheduling and conducting racing, as well as the lack of uniformity in terms of racing regulations and wagering. The Jockey Club isn't the group to lead this fight, despite their apparent arrogant belief that they can. The bigger problem is no one entity wants to give up their autonomous decision-making, regardless of how much this lack of homogeny hurts the sport—and the industry as a business. Until that day arrives, nothing can right this sinking ship, merely prolonging the agony.

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Saturday's Grade 1 Turf Orgy

Some terrific turf races on tap today, especially the big three at Arlington—the G1 Secretariat, G1 Beverly D and G1 Arlington Million—where the Euro invaders are getting a lot of respect. The G1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga looks short on substance—exactly why it sucks that there is no larger vision for horse racing this country, given that two important G1 turf races are being held on the same day in two different states.

In the Secretariat, I’m not on board with Treasure Beach who looks to want firmer ground than he’ll likely get on Saturday. That Irish Derby victory wasn’t against the strongest field, and he really didn’t look good in his last race, the FR-G1 Grand Prix de Paris. The DRF’s Marcus Hersh reports that he worked up quite a lather Friday morning, something that just doesn’t strike me as particularly positive, so I’m taking a stand against him. It’s actually the Americans who look best to me here, especially Banned and Willcox Inn. Garret Gomez has had good success with Banned, including a facile win in the G2 American Turf, and he appears to like soft turf as well as firm. I’ve been on the Willcox Inn bandwagon since before last year’s Breeders’ Cup, and there’s no doubt he loves his home track. I’m also not counting out Derby Kitten for a piece, now that he’s back on turf after his ill-advised dirt run in the Kentucky Derby. Also of interest is Suntracer, second behind Willcox Inn in his last two outings, but one who should appreciate stretching out to 10 furlongs. His half brother Free Fighter (Out of Place) won multiple times at 12 furlongs on turf (G3 Stars & Stripes, G3 Louisville Handicap), and this son of Kitten’s Joy has defeated Banned earlier this year; soft turf will be to his advantage.

In the Beverly D, I do like Stacelita who didn’t get the best ride in the G1 United Nations last out, yet still finished a close third to Teaks North and Chinchon. She likes it soft, and the distance suits her. One must respect Michael de Kock and River Jetez, but she would prefer firmer going; if she wins, give a HUGE boost to Wigmore Hall in the Million (although I really like his chances regardless). Of the Americans, Fantasia appeals to me, not only because she’s trained by Jonathan Sheppard, but especially due to her G3 Modesty victory last out. From the far outside post, Never Retreat may pop a surprise—she’s an absolute mud-lark—but the distance is a query. Still, her dam is a half-sister to 12-furlong G2 Orchid victress Sweetest Chant, second dam of Distorted Humor. I’m also a huge fan of Upperline, and although she’s never attempted the distance, I think she has a big chance.

For the Million, I’m betting on Wigmore Hall to repeat his strong performance behind Paddy O’Prado in last year’s Secretariat. Cape Blanco would be an appropriate victor, but likely too short a price, especially the softer the ground. However, French-invader Zack Hall looks like an upset chance cutting back in distance—and I think I can get a good price on him. What a cool story it would be if Mission Approved won! He’s been working well in advance of this, so if he gets the lead and then Jose Espinoza slows him down, he could be dangerous. I’ve never been a Gio Ponti fan so I can’t get excited about him, but have no doubt he’ll be in the top three—anything less would be a shocker.

In the G1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga, I find it interesting that Bill Mott is putting Drosselmeyer back on turf, where he began his 2-year-old campaign. The 12-furlong distance certainly isn’t a question and I love Jose Lezcano, so a big chance to upset. The “other” Distorted Humor colt, Boisterous intrigues me, especially considering his form against Cape Blanco and Gio Ponti. His second dam also once ran third behind 1988 Sword Dancer victress Anka Germania which I take as a sign (yes, one of those intuitive things that surely makes me a joke as a handicapper, but...). I’m still concerned about Teaks North getting the distance, and now 6-year-old Winchester may have lost a step or two.

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How Do We Get It Done?

The worst-kept secret in horse racing became official on Wednesday—the Breeders’ Cup is returning to Santa Anita in 2012. Was this decision made for the greater good of the sport? Surely you jest. Everything the Breeders’ Cup does these days is done solely for the benefit of a select number of individuals—and for as big a potential profit as possible. It has nothing to do with presenting the best horse racing possible, nor drawing the interest of fans. They’ve added too damn many races (over one too many days), and now they've pissed off New Yorkers by ignoring Belmont again. And it's all about needing to select a warm-weather site, my ass. How about a return to Lone Star then? Please, the "warm-weather" explanation is lame, not to mention disingenuous. Yes, I froze my tuckus off at Churchill last year, but that's hardly likely to happen again this year. Personally, I'd rather there be a slight chill in the air rather than roasting at 90 to 100 degrees. And besides, attending the races isn't about revealing as much boobage as possible, is it?

The Breeders' Cup organization has completely ignored the original mission of moving the event each year to various tracks, thus engaging a variety of local fans and boosting regional interest in the sport. Seriously, does anyone really think that it’s merely a coincidence that former Breeders’ Cup president Greg Avioli now works for Santa Anita (Frank Stronach) while current Breeders’ Cup president Craig Fravel last worked for another California track, Del Mar? I don’t think so. An inside job if ever there was one. What a joke!

Woodbine and Arlington have two of the finest turf courses in North America—and each has sponsored the event before. Why weren’t they considered? Oh, they could have applied some would argue, but the fact is, they knew better than to bother wasting time, as the BC is fixated on California and Kentucky, period.

Other than Californians, not many people are happy about the decision, if comments on forums and in the press are any indication. Most vocal in his outrage is Uncle Mo’s owner Mike Repole who suggests NYRA host its own championships by moving its top season-ending races to run head-to-head against the Breeders’ Cup. I don’t think it’s necessary to move them to the first weekend of November—simply moving key races to, say, Saturday October 20, and bumping up the purses would draw a significant group of prime contenders. And no stupid two-day event with diluted races. One day only with a pure, unadulterated orgy of racing. Can you imagine this 11-race card at Belmont?:

1. G3 Pilgrim (2yo, 8.5f turf)
2. G3 Miss Grillo (2yo fillies, 8.5f turf)
3. G2 Kelso (3up, 1 mile)
4. G2 Gallant Bloom (3up fillies/mares, 6.5f)
5. G1 Vosburgh (3up, 6f)
6. G1 Frizette (2yo fillies, 1 mile)
7. G1 Champagne (2yo, 1 mile)
8. G1 Flower Bowl (3up fillies/mares, 10f turf)
9. G1 Beldame (3up fillies/mares, 9f)
10. G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (3up, 10f turf)
11. G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup (3up, 10f)

What more contests do you need? These existing races cover it all. Oh, they could toss in a maiden special weight and maybe a couple of allowance races before and after to flesh it out a bit, but this would be an amazing card! It's about time someone stands up to the monstrosity that the Breeders' Cup has become.

Now, how do we get it done?

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Gotta Love the Grinders

Once upon a time it was common to find warhorses that raced dozens of times per year, often with mere days between races—and it wasn’t just cheap low-class horses that did so. While not the most dramatic example, the great mare Gallorette who made 72 starts in 5 years once raced (successfully) three times in the course of 12 days—winning the 7-furlong Bay Shore, followed five days later by a runner-up finish behind Stymie in the 9-furlong Edgemere Handicap, and a week later captured the 9-furlong Beldame. In 1962, Kelso followed up his two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup win exactly one week later by contesting the 12-furlong Man o’War over his less-than-favored surface (turf) and finished second. Devil Diver won both the Metropolitan and Suburban in 1945, exactly five days apart, and during her 1944 campaign which culminated with a new track-record setting win in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Happy Issue ran 21 times.

Today, in American racing it’s extremely rare to find such durability, but it’s definitely visible abroad, particularly in Australia where, come carnival time, horses are running much more frequently than we normal see here in the U.S. Perhaps that’s why I find it pitiful that recent Test winner Turbulent Descent (apparently without any physical issues to conquer) won’t likely start again until the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint—three months away. Blah! Yet another unfortunate consequence of the disproportionate and, indeed, sport-damaging impact of the Breeders’ Cup, with owners and trainers feeling it necessary to “save” their horses for one year-end race, one big effort. While perhaps financially beneficial, this tactic doesn’t do much to whet fans’ appetites as top horses are raced all too infrequently.

That’s why I love the grinders, horses that plug away regardless of their class level. For that reason, I’m intrigued by an English-raced 4-year-old gelding named Collect Art. By the extremely lightly-raced Footstepsinthesand—a Coolmore-owned son of Giant’s Causeway who only ran three times in his career—Collect Art is out of the Scenic mare Night Scent, which makes him a descendent of Foolish Pleasure. Trained by Andy Haynes who’s based near Bath, Collect Art is a handicap horse who, between January 13 and July 14 of this year, has already run 20 times, mostly in 6-furlong sprints, carrying between 120 and as much as 136 pounds!

What most caught my eye about him, though, was when I started to repeatedly see his name appear in race results in May. A third-place finish on May 2 (just one length back of the winner) was followed by a narrow 3/4 length second-place finish three days later, on May 5. Then he won by over two lengths on May 12, followed two days later by a third-place finish (in a 19-horse field), and then another win on May 20, followed eight days later by another narrow runner-up effort. If that frantic spurt weren’t already impressive enough, how about two consecutive victories (the first carrying the afore-mentioned 136 pounds)—on two consecutive days, on June 7-8! Just three days later, Collect Art was back, finishing a half length back in second, carrying 128 pounds, in a 20-horse field. Now this is the kind of horse that inspires fans!

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Drinking the Kool-Aid, Bill Finley

Like so many others these days stressed out by the state of the world, I’m cranky. Yes, I confess, it’s the little things that are starting to piss me off because I have no control over the bigger issues.

Such as the glut of bad “reality” television on nearly every channel. It’s bad enough that the testosterone-laden History Channel (where apparently only men do things of historical importance like forage for antiques and collectibles from somewhat mentally-challenged hoarders, or from those who must resort to pawning their valuables) has regressed to airing something as completely non-socially redeeming as “Swamp People.” Even Animal Planet is in on the action with the oh-so-culturally-interesting “Hillbilly Handfishin’.”

So-called “chick” channels are no better, where “reality” is filled with nary a working woman, just bad-girls, sluts, cheerleaders, teen moms or beauty pageant mothers. And isn’t that the kind of woman we all want our little girls to grow up to be?

This flood of poor-taste “reality” television is mind-numbing and dim-witted, perfect for a culture blatantly—and proudly—anti-intellectual. God bless America!

In that context, I was repelled by the notion of Del Mar’s recent “match race” between former fiancées Mike Smith and Chantal Sutherland. Seriously, what was the point? It was the horses they rode that ultimate won or lost the race, not them, and did we really need to see either of them awkwardly promoting the event in interviews? It was uncomfortable to watch, pathetic to wager on and just plain demeaning to both jockeys. Yet, over at ESPN.com, Bill Finley “found it to be a lot more entertaining than anything else that happened in horse racing over the weekend.”

Let that sink in for a moment. Yes, a guy who covers horse racing actually said that. Wow, talk about drinking the company Kool-Aid. It was just another in a series of bad ideas by those "leading" the industry, and classy Del Mar should be ashamed that they actually lowered themselves to this level. Then again this is the same track that hosts the not-in-the-least-offensive-or-demeaning Miss Cougar contest...

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Truly Meaningless Polls

The fact that Tizway is now within striking distance of being the NTRA’s top-ranked U.S. thoroughbred is so utterly ridiculous that it strongly calls into question the very existence of such a meaningless, utterly subjective poll in the first place. Jumping on the bandwagon of the latest G1 winner regardless of their body of work appears to be the modus operandi for industry voters—look how many Eclipse voters give disproportionate weight to Breeders’ Cup winners (Dangerous Midge, anyone?). So, in the long run, what possible benefit does such a blatantly biased poll serve the sport?

And it is extremely biased, favoring male routers (who are truly middle-distance horses, at best) over sprinters, turf horses and especially females. But five of the horses in the top 10 are fillies/mares you say? True—and rightly so, as their performances have so far outshone Tizway’s this year that we shouldn’t even be having this conversation. Both Blind Luck and Havre de Grace unquestionably belong in any Horse of the Year discussion, as does Turbulent Descent and It’s Tricky; between the four of them, only once (in a combined total of 20 races) has one of them finished worse than second.

Yes, Tizway won the G1 Met Mile and this past Saturday’s G1 Whitney—but his previous two races this year were hardly worth writing home about. And, yes, the Saratoga track was slowing on Saturday, but his final time (1:52.43) was by far the slowest time since Pilon’s 1:53 in 1959—surely the track wasn’t the slowest it’s been in over 50 years! Given the sad state of the older horse division—the lingering consequences of retiring male horses to stud way too early as has been the practice in recent years—his competition was about as good as it gets. Sadly, that isn’t saying much, but it should. Too bad the NTRA voters don’t have enough sense to consider that.

Among the horses better than Tizway that don’t appear in the top 10? Winter Memories comes to mind, as well as sprinter Sassy Image. Others that should be in the conversation: Courageous Cat and Inglorious, not to mention Euroears. If basing selection merely on G1 wins, Get Stormy should be there, and what about Zazu and St. John’s River, both of whom apparently received no votes at all?

Listen, I love Goldikova as much as the next person, but until a horse runs in this country during this calendar year, it’s seriously moronic to include her on the list. If you include her, why not Frankel, or So You Think, or Black Caviar, or Nathaniel, or...you get the point (I hope).

Bottom line: this poll is just one more dysfunctional thing wrong with how the powers that be approach “marketing” the sport, one more ineffective tool that distracts fans from fully appreciating truly stellar performances whenever and wherever they may occur. That also means we need to seriously rethink the current graded stakes system, since its definition of "quality" certainly appears questionable, not to mention disproportionate.

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Plodding Along

Amidst all the weekend excitement—surprises and upsets galore—the G1 Bing Crosby fell off my radar, and ended up being one of the best races by far. It’s hard to recall that he began his career with a 6-race win streak, but the lightly-raced and now 7-year-old Euroears followed up his nice runner-up performance to world-class Rocket Man in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen with a track-record setting win over last year’s Golden Shaheen victor Kinsale King and 3-time G1 winner Smiling Tiger.



Last weekend, longtime blog favorite Mambo Meister thrilled with a facile victory in Calder’s Primal Stakes. Of course we aren’t talking about top-notch company, but not all good performances occur in graded stakes. The 6-year-old King Cugat gelding won geared down as Fernando Jara never moved a muscle on him. Very impressive.

It’s these kinds of hard-knocking types, those that just keep plugging along year after year, injury after injury, that interest me most. Not the flash-in-the-pan types that win a couple good races. And it’s oh-so-tiresome to hear how these “it” horses are obviously the best horses in training, because we all know (or at least we’ve been programmed to think so since the advent of the Breeders’ Cup) that one race far outweighs a body of work. I'm sick of it.

The 3-year-old division in particular this year has become tiresome. Not exciting. Tiresome. I don’t even want to recite the list of those that have come and gone in terms of “achievement”—honestly, at this point, I don’t give a damn which one of these colts wins end-of-year honors. It’s all going to come down to the Breeders’ Cup Classic anyways, isn’t it? While competitive enough with one another, there’s just no one horse (or two or three...) that stands out as worth drooling over. And what if a mare wins the Classic, with nary a 3-year-old colt in sight? When the Eclipse Awards are announced next January, can we just vacate this category?

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