ExactaGirl

RIP Giant Ryan. He will be sorely missed; what a cool horse he was.

I wonder about this. One of the reasons I subscribed to the NYT, years ago, is because Joe Drape wrote such fantastic racing articles; they were incredibly invigorating. It seems that now he only writes and retweets negative articles about the industry, yet claims he’s reporting the news in a balanced way. He only reports on the dark side of racing these days. Today he retweeted an article on Yahoo that brandished a conspiracy theory; basically the author said that Doug O’Neill couldn’t drug IHA because of the heightened security, and that’s why the horse was scratched. Talk to the vet! Surely he wouldn’t lie about tendinitis. Give O’Neill some credit. He doesn’t stand to make any money if IHA goes to stud, and he scratched him anyway. It shows that he is concerned for the horse’s well-being.

My friend Steve was gracious enough to take this pic of the set of glasses I expressly bought because I thought I’ll Have Another would win the Triple Crown. Now I’ll probably drunkenly drop them on my floor and break them.

I met a girl at a party a couple of weeks ago and talked to her for couple of hours. She and her husband were really cool; they live a few hours away from here, in Austin. I found out today that she bought me this fantastic vintage purse the following day! I’ve looked all over (we’re talking YEARS) for a horse racing purse! This makes my heart GLOW. Seriously.

I’ve never seen a photo of a triple dead heat before now! It probably isn’t the only one. Pretty cool.

Saw this horse last week while I was in Louisville for Breeder’s Cup. He stands at stud at Claiborne. Resplendent!

Wow! Winter Memories won today in Zenyatta-like fashion at Belmont’s Garden City Stakes today. She was blocked by a solid wall of horses, so her jockey pulled her to the far outside on the far turn. She rocketed past the field like they were standing still. What an incredible performance!

startinggate:

Winter Memories (El Prado x Memories of Silver, by Silver Hawk) is the heavy favorite in today’s Lake Placid Stakes (II), where she faces six other fillies including graded stakes winner Kathmanblu on the Saratoga turf. This will be the first time the filly stretches out to 1 1/8 miles for the first time and has been looking unstoppable all season.

Post time for the event is 2:39pm on TVG.

(via startinggate)

In yesterday’s Lake George Stakes at Saratoga, Winter Memories put in an incredible performance. Her jockey had to check her hard in the final turn because she almost clipped heels with the horse in front of her. All her momentum was gone, and then he led her to the outside, where she flew from last to first in the field of seven and won the race by four lengths! She’s a gorgeous gray three-year-old who has only lost one race (last year’s Breeder’s Cup Juvenile). Looking forward to seeing her in person at the BC in Louisville this fall!

Happy Preakness Day! Who do you like for this race? Give me 2 across the board on Flashpoint! Plus I bet a few exactas not involving him, and a few superfecta boxes. What’s not to like about dime super boxes? Nothing!