Monday, December 31, 2007
Selection for Monday, December 31st
Pantara Phantom runs in the 4th race, the colt and gelding division of the Louisiana Futurity. In his previous start, Pantara Phantom ran an impressive third in the Champions Day Juvenile, which was his first start in nearly four months. Pantara Phantom pressed a fast pace in the Juvenile while along the inside, lost his position on the turn to drop back to sixth, lacked room early in the stretch, then rallied strongly when able to get clear. Albarado is back in the saddle for Pat Mouton.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Selection for Saturday, December 15
Mara's Time is entered in the 6th race on Saturday at Fair Grounds. It is a La-bred MSW going six furlongs. This will be Mara's Time second career start. In her debut on the second day of the meet, Mara's Time was bet down to be the second choice at 5-2 in a race with the same conditions as this race, but she disappointed when finishing a well-beaten seventh behind the even-money winning favorite. She drew an outside post that day and had a fairly wide trip.
Mara's Time has had two solid works in the interim. Most importantly, she has a very positive rider switch to Albarado. At 8-1 ML, she is worth considering.
Mara's Time has had two solid works in the interim. Most importantly, she has a very positive rider switch to Albarado. At 8-1 ML, she is worth considering.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
It is funny how things sometimes work out
I came home from Mass on Friday evening to find my front yard looking like a lake. After a few minutes of searching with a flashlight, I found the telltale bubbles that showed the spot where an underground pipe was broken. I figured it was probably a broken sprinkler line that I would take care of on Saturday morning. I shut off my water at the main and went inside to catch the remainder of the Delta Jackpot card. In the Delta Jackpot, Golden Yank ran well through the short stretch while between the dead-heat winners, and for a moment there I thought I might at least get an exacta saver behind the 39-1 Turf War, but the photo showed it was not to be. The jockey aboard Golden Yank lodged a claim of foul against both winners, and the head-on reply showed Golden Yank was squeezed on one side by Z Humor and by a greater degree on the other side by Turf War, but the stewards let the outcome stand.
Saturday morning started with some digging. After going through about 18 inches of soil, I reached some sprinkler pipes. The sprinkler system had been installed by the husband of the family that had previously owned my home. I was soon to learn that he should have left the installation up to the professionals. Although I couldn't see exactly where the pipe was leaking, I figured that I had the suspect pipe, so I called a plumber to cap it and I figured that I would worry about it in the Spring when I would start using my sprinkler system again.
The poor plumber arrived and quickly realized that he shouldn't have taken my call. He said the leaking pipe was actually deeper, so he began digging. He found more sprinkler pipes, but none was the problem. Finally, he said that the leak was probably along the main line. So more digging was done until the hole was about four feet deep. All the plumber could do was to shake his head at the installation of the sprinkler lines. I'm not exaggerating when I write that the exposed sprinkler lines looked like a monument of PVC scaffolding. The plumber said he had never seen anything like it in all his career. The leak ended up being where the sprinkler system had been tied into the main line. The plumber remarked that the original owner had not known what he was doing as evidenced by the maze of PVC and the shoddy connection.
I wasn't very happy to hand the plumber a check for $525 for his work, but I try to be optimistic about things and realized the bill would have been much higher if the leak had been under my house. By this time, the Champions Day Turf had been run and I was down for the day, so I headed inside to focus on the last four races and possibly turn my day around. But not much changed as my remaining selections fizzled. Champions Day was a losing day for me.
But Hollywood was still open and the Native Diver was later on the card. Looking at the past performances, I saw that Heatseeker was competitive in the field and was 20-1 on the morning line. I had bet Heatseeker in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar when he made a bold run to get the lead in the stretch before tiring late. I made some small wagers on Heatseeker and left to take care of some tasks that had been delayed because of the earlier issues. I forgot about the race until much later that evening when I checked the Racing Form website to see if there were any news about Fair Grounds. Much to my surprise there was an article about Heatseeker paying $63 to win the Native Diver. My winnings did not cover my plumbing bill or my losses at Fair Grounds today, but it was still a nice chunk of change. This game is funny sometimes. Just when you are overwhelmed by the frustration of making bad selections, or making good selections that end up encountering racing trouble or bad rides, up pops a $63 winner.
Saturday morning started with some digging. After going through about 18 inches of soil, I reached some sprinkler pipes. The sprinkler system had been installed by the husband of the family that had previously owned my home. I was soon to learn that he should have left the installation up to the professionals. Although I couldn't see exactly where the pipe was leaking, I figured that I had the suspect pipe, so I called a plumber to cap it and I figured that I would worry about it in the Spring when I would start using my sprinkler system again.
The poor plumber arrived and quickly realized that he shouldn't have taken my call. He said the leaking pipe was actually deeper, so he began digging. He found more sprinkler pipes, but none was the problem. Finally, he said that the leak was probably along the main line. So more digging was done until the hole was about four feet deep. All the plumber could do was to shake his head at the installation of the sprinkler lines. I'm not exaggerating when I write that the exposed sprinkler lines looked like a monument of PVC scaffolding. The plumber said he had never seen anything like it in all his career. The leak ended up being where the sprinkler system had been tied into the main line. The plumber remarked that the original owner had not known what he was doing as evidenced by the maze of PVC and the shoddy connection.
I wasn't very happy to hand the plumber a check for $525 for his work, but I try to be optimistic about things and realized the bill would have been much higher if the leak had been under my house. By this time, the Champions Day Turf had been run and I was down for the day, so I headed inside to focus on the last four races and possibly turn my day around. But not much changed as my remaining selections fizzled. Champions Day was a losing day for me.
But Hollywood was still open and the Native Diver was later on the card. Looking at the past performances, I saw that Heatseeker was competitive in the field and was 20-1 on the morning line. I had bet Heatseeker in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar when he made a bold run to get the lead in the stretch before tiring late. I made some small wagers on Heatseeker and left to take care of some tasks that had been delayed because of the earlier issues. I forgot about the race until much later that evening when I checked the Racing Form website to see if there were any news about Fair Grounds. Much to my surprise there was an article about Heatseeker paying $63 to win the Native Diver. My winnings did not cover my plumbing bill or my losses at Fair Grounds today, but it was still a nice chunk of change. This game is funny sometimes. Just when you are overwhelmed by the frustration of making bad selections, or making good selections that end up encountering racing trouble or bad rides, up pops a $63 winner.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
A look at some maiden winners at Fair Grounds
Looking at the results through the first eight days of the meet, I think three juveniles ran particularly noteworthy races when breaking their maidens. The first is the La-bred colt, Star Guitar, who crushed a state-bred field for the Al Stall barn on Thanksgiving. Star Guitar, who will run on Champions Day, is by the good miler Quiet American and out of the Malagra mare, Minit Towinit, who was a multiple stakes winner against La-breds as a 3yo.
Another impressive winner on Thanksigiving was the Mike Stidham runner, Sagaponack. Although Sagaponack's winning time was 2/5ths of a second slower than Star Guitar's, Sagaponack won in a very professional manner as he finished well after being pressed early through a fast opening quarter. Sagaponack fetched $525,000 at Keeneland's April 2yo in training sale.
Stidham debuted a promising 2yo filly, Tizaqueena, on Sunday in a one mile MSW. Tizaqueena faced two obstacles in her first race. She was racing around two turns, and the pacesetter opened up a huge early advantage. But Tizaqueena passed with flying colors. She settled in third, moved up to challenge the leader midway on the turn, and then pulled away in stretch. It was a very impressive performance.
Another impressive winner on Thanksigiving was the Mike Stidham runner, Sagaponack. Although Sagaponack's winning time was 2/5ths of a second slower than Star Guitar's, Sagaponack won in a very professional manner as he finished well after being pressed early through a fast opening quarter. Sagaponack fetched $525,000 at Keeneland's April 2yo in training sale.
Stidham debuted a promising 2yo filly, Tizaqueena, on Sunday in a one mile MSW. Tizaqueena faced two obstacles in her first race. She was racing around two turns, and the pacesetter opened up a huge early advantage. But Tizaqueena passed with flying colors. She settled in third, moved up to challenge the leader midway on the turn, and then pulled away in stretch. It was a very impressive performance.
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