Racing News

War Of Aces 6th at Beulah Park
Tomorrows Double 3rd at Penn National
Mr Perfect 4th at Beulah
Savethebestforlass 1st at Charles Town
Crying Poverty 5th at Penn National
Stormin Jon Jon 9th at Charles Town

Fans and employees of New York racing are breathing a little more easily this morning, as it appears that after years of discussion, negotiation, stalling, power plays (not the good kind, that take place on ice; the bad kind, that take place when egos and agendas collide), and overall embarrassment to the Empire State, the state’s racing franchise may—MAY—finally be settled. Read Alan at Left at

El Gaucho is so damn good!! My grandma and aunt came down today to the races and we all went out to El Gaucho afterward. I had met Greg one of the captains there last year, and he's a big racing fan, he was nice enough to save a table for us, with just an hours notice. So the meal starts with their amazing cheesy/garlic bread. delicious!! Then the waitress comes over and makes a tableside caesar. they make the dressing fresh right in front of you, then toss the salad. Its got a strong mustardy flavor, which i love! I enjoyed the Bone In Rib Eye for dinner and the Gaucho style Baked Potato. Such a fabulous meal fit for a President, King, or even a Fuhrer! :)

 

The Green Monkey was retired today. He proved an all important lesson to all those wanting to win the big one. In case you missed it, that lesson is that you cannot pay millions of dollars and receive in return a guaranteed champion. Hell, he couldn’t win a maiden race. I’m going to go ahead and predict they won’t recoup much in the shed either. Forestry colts are notorious for not being able to go past one mile. Why did they think this one would be different? I guess your going to have to ask them.

 Even with this loss, I’m sure they can still sleep well at night. The connections (Sue Magnier, Derrick Smith & Michael Tabor) of this colt are multi-millionaires. Between the three of them they have owned stars such as Rags to Riches, Circular Quay, Scat Daddy, Montjeu, Hurricane Run, Giants Causeway, and Thunder Gulch. The list goes on much further. Some of the current runners owned by these connections are Ravel, Majestic Warrior, and La Traviata.

 As far as The Green Monkey goes I think he will draw some interest at stud given a reasonable price. He drew incredible notoriety due to his $16,000,000 purchase price. Maybe he will produce a runner who is actually worth that ludicrous amount. I’ll be watching for his first racers in 2011.

- Steve Crist, on his Cristblog, breaks down the Risen Star and shows just how slow it was in relation to the two other graded dirt stakes run at Fair Grounds on Saturday. Indian Blessing's first six furlongs was a relatively quick 1:11.40, while Pyro was still last after the leader in the Risen Star was setting a tortoise pace of 1:14.62. Pyro himself ran his first six furlongs (using the approximation of 1 length=0.17 seconds) in something like 1:16.13. It's not too often that you have three graded stakes run at the same distance on the same surface on the same day; it's an unusual chance to match top quality horses up quarter by quarter and really put the races in perspective with each other. Crist's Google spreadsheets show the stark differences in pace between the Risen Star and the other two, particularly Indian Blessing's race. The filly got to the six furlongs in 1:11.40 and came home in 32.35; Pyro went 1:16.13 and came home in an electric 28.55! Crist estimates that he would have gained 20 lengths on Indian Blessing in the last 5/16ths, but adds: It's a lot easier to fire a brilliant final five-sixteenths in 28.80 when you've gone 1:16 than if you've gone 1:12.

Mike Brunker, on MSNBC.com, also sharpened his pencil, and he actually came up with an even faster closing fraction - 28 1/5 seconds. He compared it to some recent Risen Star winners, including our friend Scipion, who came home in a relatively pokey 30 3/5.

Meanwhile, I think you can forget about Wednesday being the last day of racing in New York; it may very well already have passed. It's been snowing and icing since early evening, and there's the promise of heavy downpours in the morning.

        Handwritten Valentine from Sulz For those that regularly come here for horse racing news and tidbits,  I'll share what little bit of information for the day I have here.  For the most part however, this post is really a giant thank-you plug to one of my favorite fellow wordpress bloggers out there.   Let's jump [...]

Curlin, “proving it to me” again, in the Jockey Gold Cup (Sarah K. Andrew) Swifty's comment on my bandwagon post brought up another, somewhat related topic. Oh how quickly they forget… I can't believe that I so conveniently blanked out all of the Derby hype around Curlin last year, albeit, not quite this early. It was everywhere, [...]

- The Racing Form's Matt Hegarty has been far more cautious over the last week about the status of the negotiations and how close they are to being successfully concluded. On Tuesday afternoon, while some other outlets were reporting the agreement as done, the Form maintained its headline of NYRA prepared to shut Aqueduct at the top of its homepage.

As of this writing, the Form has only gone as far as Hints that NYRA deal is close. And since Hegarty's reticence has been correct thus far, it probably behooves us to pay attention when he reminds us that Bruno has insisted since late in 2007 that a long-term deal was imminent without one being reached. (Bruno told FOX Sports that the "framework" of a deal is in place. "Can I tell you this is a done deal? No," Bruno said at a news conference. But, he insisted, "Racing will continue.") The presence of NYRA officials at the Capitol and the silence of major participants in the negotiations suggested that a deal might be in the final stages. Rick Violette, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said Tuesday from Ocala, Fla., that the horsemen's lobbyist had said that a deal was near.

"I think we have a deal," Violette said. "It looks like we'll be racing Thursday." [DRF] Violette also said that the deal would give the horsemen a cut of 5.5% of VLT revenue in the first year of an Aqueduct racino, 6.5% the second year, and 7.5% going forward; that as opposed to the 6.5% (with some weird limits on increases which could actually prove to be regressive) in the MOU. If you average that out over the first three years, then essentially, the deal, as reported here, gives the horsemen an extra percentage point starting in the 4th year, at which point they'll be slots at the Concord, in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, table games proliferating north from West Virginia and Delaware, racino and casino gambling everywhere on the east coast (except at the Meadowlands) and Capital Play will be begging Governor Bloomberg to help bail out their racino at the Big A.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

In the meantime, there's no deal yet, and Hegarty even mentions the possibility of another temporary extension if an agreement is set, but is not officially signed off on by the legislature, which conveniently adjourns for vacation until Feb. 25 (didn't they just get here?) after Wednesday's session. And then we can do this all again.

Steffen Peters and Floriano competed for the USA at the 2004 Olympics. Photo courtesy of Professionals Choice boots. How far should a horse fly? Does it make a difference if it's in a westerly or easterly direction? How many flights in how many weeks can a super-fit horse endure? Internationally-placed Grand Prix dressage rider Catherine Haddad of the United States is based in Europe, where

- Tom Durkin came out of his winter hibernation to join the delegation of NYRA employees that traveled to Albany to try and save their jobs. And I'm told that he was in mid-Saratoga form when he bellowed, "AND HERE COMES JOE BRUNO FROM THE INSIDE," when the Senate Majority Leader emerged to tell them not to worry, that they schlepped all the way up the Thruway for no reason at all. “You’re going to keep right on working,” Bruno told track workers. “It’s pretty well done. I thought we had it done last night. I hope the governor will send up a printed bill. We should be able to pass a bill this afternoon or by the latest tomorrow [Wednesday] morning.” [Thoroughbred Times] Representative Gary Pretlow met with a contingent of workers, and he took quite an aggressive stand on the matter, reprising the old "the state owns the land" posture which the state abandoned long ago. “They [NYRA] don’t have that power and we have those lock cutters....The state police are very apt at breaking in to places.”

Whoa, Gary, chill! Representative Pretlow is obviously not happy about racing these days, which we can understand given the way his casino bill was trampled by his own committee and by some of the harness tracks, including Yonkers. The tracks reportedly wanted another $30 million in addition to the $60 million or so they would have received under Pretlow's bill; a stance that Pretlow adamantly opposed. By reportedly succeeding in tying the VLT splits to the NYRA settlement, the tracks may have effectively gone over Pretlow's head, which I imagine would make him even more bitter. It will be interesting to see what the harness tracks were able to get, if, of course, the reports of the settlement turn out to be accurate.

Reports over the wire indicate that NYRA has closed a deal with Albany and the greatest racing in the world will continue tomorrow (weather permitting). Hopefully in the language of the deal there are some changes to the revenue sharing and NYRA gets to keep some of its profits for facility improvement. More good news is that the Slot shack with only be located at Aqueduct and not Belmont, which keeps that historic facility in tact. Looking forward to bigger purses and the best racing in the world, NYRA racing. See you handicappers on Saturday at our beloved Big-A.

The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) and Nicole Kraft of the the United States Trotting Association have issued a bulletin on an outbreak of the highly-contagious horse disease known as “strangles” at Northfield Park near Cleveland, Ohio. Strangles is the symptomatic name given to horses infected with the bacteria Streptococcus equi. The initial outbreak affected horses in

- Tom Precious is reporting on Bloodhorse.com that there appears to be a deal. Let's proceed with caution though, because we've read stories of an imminent settlement before; and Precious writes that the deal "is still coming together." A source close to the talks said NYRA officials were still reviewing the terms of the final deal, but that its executives believe they can live with the terms of the tentative deal. [Bloodhorse] According to the report, NYRA prevails on the new board, which would consist of 25 members, 14 to be appointed by NYRA. Negotiators cautioned that the final bill is still being reviewed and some terms still could be changed this afternoon.

The story also says that the agreement will include a higher split of VLT revenue to "other tracks in the state." That would presumably be great news for those affected by the shutdown of Vernon Downs. But we'll see if the harness horsemen get their 8.75%, and if "other tracks in the state" means that the NYRA horsemen are stuck with the 6.5% in the MOU.

And, more importantly, we'll see if there's really an agreement.

- Jeff Scott, writing in the Saratogian, is still wondering whether Joe Bruno has had something up his sleeve with respect to his opposition to the MOU. Finally, what connection, if any, does Bruno have with Capital Play Inc, one of the four original bidders on the franchise?

Excelsior Racing and Empire Racing, the other two non-NYRA bidders, have effectively ceased to exist. The Australia-based Capital Play, however, is still very much on the scene and (according to Bruno) is one of two finalists being considered to run the proposed slots operation at Aqueduct. Bruno’s son Kenneth, by the way, is reportedly employed as a lobbyist for — you guessed it — Capital Play. [Saratogian] Way back when this mess was just getting started, the young Bruno was employed as a lobbyist for Magna.

[UPDATE: Associated Press is also reporting that there's an agreement, confirmed by two state officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement hasn't been officially announced.

[UPDATE: The Head Chef writes: "Congrats to NYRA. I just heard on the news." On the news?? What station could she possibly be listening to? WOTB?]

Pyro's victory in the Risen Star was impressive to watch; he certainly made his way through traffic well and seemed professional in handling a bit of adversity. However, his time at the distance was a second slower than that of Indian Blessing in the Silverbulletday, and there is no talk of her switching to the Derby rather than the Oaks trail. I think both horses put in good performances on Saturday, but I wonder if either one really wants much more distance.

Today's biggest headline concerned the retirement of The Green Monkey (pictured); he's off to stud in Florida. However, Ashford Stud's manager Charlie O'Connor noted that, "[m]ost people have already made their decisions with their mares" for this year; one would imagine that breeding to a horse who failed to make an impression in a maiden special weight at Belmont in his most rigorous start would not be high on their list of choices. He will be standing at the farm of Randy Hartley and Dean De Renzo, who pinhooked him (and who picked up a nice check for their efforts); presumably they felt they owed him a shot at another career, although why it should be breeding is rather beyond me. He'd make a lovely (gelded) show horse if he could stay fit enough for it.

- Governor Spitzer is quoted on the Journal News' blog as saying that the franchise negotiations are in the "backstretch." Either the Governor is demonstrating how little he knows about horse racing, or he's telling us that we can expect the negotiations to go until sometime in 2010!

Since it's a slow racing day I took down all the old videos under the Video Past Performance tab. To me, seeing the video of a race is worth hours of reading the form. I of course like to do both in my handicapping. I'll start posting videos of relevant prep races for this years [...]

This is why I love the game.

Doesn't he look grand!

Thanks to Brad over at Brad Buys A Yearling for putting together this partnership.

As Brad says (I'm paraphrasing) "If you have a few bucks lying around, there's no better way to flush it down the crapper than owning a racehorse'

- Could be that some in Florida are seeing what's happening at New York's overtaxed racinos, because there's a move afoot in the state Senate to reduce the tax on the state's racinos in Broward County, and those to be built in Miami, from 50% to 35%. “We are saying ‘not so’ to those who say a higher tax rate means more (slots) revenue,” Geller said.

Cutting the state tax rate would enable pari-mutuel facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to use higher retained revenue to expand and improve their casinos, and spend more money on marketing and promotions, [Senate Minority Leader Steve] Geller said. That should result in increased slots play and revenue, to the extent that tax payments at a 35% rate would be higher than payments at 50%, he said.
....
“This would give us incentive to move forward with our plans for a new casino building,” [Magna gaming VP Steve] Calabro said. “It would put us not on a level playing field (with the Seminoles), but closer.” [Bloodhorse] The current tax rate at New York's Vernon Downs is now, of course, 0% of $0, which ain't doing anyone a whole lot of good. And while I'm certainly not defending Jeff Gural's business decision to open a racino virtually next door to an Indian casino, we're seeing how the other racinos in the state are struggling to compete as well.

Another bill in Florida would allow the remaining pari-mutuels outside of the two counties, including Tampa Bay Downs, to have the Class II VLT's that the Seminoles are currently upgrading from as per their compact agreement with Governor Crist.

- The two-year old in training sale season starts today at Ocala. Two sales companies, Fasig Tipton and Keeneland, are making a change this year, cutting back the number of under tack shows from two to one. The Bloodhorse's bloodstock editor Deirdre Biles, in a column about the reduction for a sales supplement to the current issue of Bloodhorse, spoke to pinhooker Carl Bowling about just how tough these workouts are for young two-year olds, and I thought his response is worth reprinting here: "The public doesn't realize it, but we are actually blistering (working) them three times before a sale....We breeze one time for ourselves and get them used to the track. We say 'Oh, they're not going so hard,' but they go as hard as heck. Then they come back and we blister them again (in the first official under tack show). If they stumble or do anything wrong, we work them back again (in the second under tack show). Not only do they work an eighth or a quarter, they gallop out as fast as horses can run." Sounds like a lot of blistering for these very young thoroughbreds.

The Ocala breeze shows were conducted on its new synthetic surface, Safetrack, and though the times were fast, including a Cuvee colt that got his furlong in 9 4/5, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Pinhooker Murray Smith told Bloodhorse: "I've been working horses here since November, and I'm delighted with it," she said. "You can train every day. It's consistent every day. It doesn't matter if it pours down rain. It doesn't matter if it's cold. It doesn't matter if it’s hot. It doesn't matter if it's 7:00 in the morning or 11:00 in the morning or 4:00 in the afternoon; it's consistent, and the horses get over it nice." There's certainly a future for synthetic tracks in the industry, even if they ultimately don't work out at racetracks.

And I guess it's fitting that The Green Monkey was "retired" on the eve of the juvenile sale season given that it was at the Fasig-Tipton Calder two-year old in training sale in 2006 where he fetched his record $16 million price. I say "retired" because I don't know exactly what he was retired from. Certainly wasn't winning, and it barely qualified as racing. The Green Monkey will have the rest of the year off from doing nothing, as he won't be bred until next year. Dean De Renzo of the Hartley/De Renzo farm at which he will stand, said: "He had the feeling of a champion; he thinks he’s a champion." And that makes one of him. Good luck to all involved in that.

As the New York racing franchise creeps closer Defcon 1 -- Kentucky is getting closer to finding out just what Governor Steve Beshear has up his sleeve regarding Casinos.

Beshear met with members of the House task for on casinos for final input on the bill, which he is expected to release to the public on Thursday.

While most states have added slot machine gaming at race tracks, Beshear is expected to propose full-fledge casinos with tables games. However, as I said over at Velocity, I don't think his plan should stop there, and sportsbooks should be included too.

I think that such a move could actually turn Kentucky's casinos into into destination spots for East-coast gamblers looking to bet legal coin during the NCAA Tournament, World Series, or Superbowl. Instead of just drawing from cities like Nashville and Cincinnati, the addition of sportsbooks could draw gambling money from cities as far away as Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburg, St. Louis, and Cleveland.

While I concede that there will need to be limits -- like not be allowing bets on any team located in Kentucky or that a Kentucky-based team is playing that day -- I don't see many conflicts since there are no professional sports teams in the Commonwealth.

You can read my entire argument here, but I think that if you're in for a penny, you should be in for a pound. You don't just kind of go to hell. If gambling is morally wrong then it's all wrong -- limiting the type of gaming to just slot machines isn't going to change anything.

There were some races I missed pretty badly, but while trolling for long shots I found one in the third race. Military Bride won at 40/1 and I used her with Bondi Baby who I liked to win the race, Ale's Pride and Bella Castagna. The combinations returned a nice $269.50, and the dollar trifecta [...]