Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Wine that Cooks Off

How is this fair?

Here he is, Big Brown, surrounded by three Australian beauties (Kate Waterhouse, Alexandra Agoston O’Connor, and Rachael Finch) and what looks to be Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. The last time I had three women smile at me I had to pay for it.

I find it no such coincidence that two of the women have the both Rachael and Alexandra in their names.

Big Brown’s not the only one who seems excited by this photograph, but it just goes to show you what flash-in-the-pan brilliance delivers, no low and slow here.

Hopefully his flight back from Australia is better that Oceanic Flight 815. But what if he were to suddenly crash on a mysterious island in the Pacific? Who would he run into? Ghosts of racing’s past? The Smoke Monster? Maybe Vincent the yellow lab would find him in the bamboo thickets and lead him to the beach where he be forced into a leadership role, the same role he possessed as 2008 Champion Three Year Old.

Big Brown’s precocity seems mirrored by another two year old who ran Monday at the Spa by the name of Kantharos—a colt named after a type of Greek pottery used for drinking which possesses large looped handles that extend above the lip of the pot. What is the significance? Who knows. His owner also named a horse Kensei—an honorary title give to a warrior of legendary skill in swordsmanship.

Yes, Stonestreet Stables has what looks to be brilliant young colt and how bad do you think JJ wants to get to the Derby? After watching Kantharos burn up the sealed highway in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special to win by 7 ¼ lengths JJ won’t need his Cialis for a week.

“You like a horse a lot,” said winning trainer Steve Asmussen, “and like how he’s doing, but it’s the variables you have no control over. Garrett [Gomez] said it took him awhile to get into it — he thought he was cautious going over the track when he was warming up. He said that during the first 50 yards he wasn’t on the bridle much at all, but after he went a little ways he got into himself. I thought that he came into the stretch well. He hesitated a little bit when he first left [Bail Out the Cat], but late he really looked good and smooth and like he’ll go further, which is what everybody wants to know right now. What he’s done at these sprint distances is very impressive and brilliant, but we want to be greedy and get a little bit more.”

What does it mean to have a talented two year old? Not much. It gives you hope, the same way a fast-maturing 12-year-old Little Leaguer with a 5 o’clock shadow looks: mighty tough to beat.

About this time last year Dublin was the mare’s nay and now look at him: singing in a poorly-formed ABBA-style quartet with Drosselmeyer, Hot Dixie Chick, and Stardom Bound.

I have to imagine it is exciting to think that you’ve got the nation’s best juvenile colt, a colt that makes it look pretty darn easy. His daddy, Lion Heart, went hoof-to-hoof with Smarty Jones in the Derby and Preakness so you know he’ll like the distance and dirt. So what’s next? The Hopeful is too close so perhaps the one-mile Champagne at Belmont would be a good fit. More importantly it is run on October 9, seven weeks away.

So, like anything, Kantharos’ win should be praised in perspective. Daily Racing Form’s Mike Watchmaker has the right idea: “You'll have to excuse me if I don't run right out and buy a Kantharos t-shirt and fitted hat just yet. Kantharos might be a very special horse, but you just can't tell off of the Saratoga Special, a four horse race (including one first time starter) run on a tricky, slow, sealed, muddy track. I want to see more, against better, on a fast track, before I start thinking about Kantharos being the next great savior.”

If he is, he may just be taking his picture alongside a few babes and he won’t have to pay a lick for that kind of attention.

Brendan O’Meara blogs about horse racing here at HRI and at The Carryover. He also blogs about narrative nonfiction and his book project “Six Weeks in Saratoga” at The Blog Itself. His Web site is http://www.brendanomeara.com.

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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Nineteen Ninety-Four

Is interleague play good for baseball?

I think that the consensus is that, yes, it is good and it allows people to see matchups that they would not ordinary witness should their teams not square off in the World Series.

I’m one to lean against interleague play since it waters down the National League versus American League rivalry. Beats the strike-shortened 1994 season, I suppose. Just a thought. I mean, even Bayside and Valley got old in Saved by the Bell ... or did it?

Zenyatta ... well, she did it again. She swung wider than a slow-pitch softball bat. She won by a neck and let everyone look at that enormous backside that Sir Mix-A-Lot would be proud to call his own.

Hey Ladies!
Yeah?
Wanna roll in my Mercedes?
Yeah!
Turn around. Stick it out! Even white boys got to shout, Zenyatta got back!


Her thundering win in the Clement L. Hirsch did a few things. One, it means that when Zenyatta’s connections shoot for the Breeders’ Cup Classic they plan to aim for 20 wins in a row—assuming she wins her next start, the, er, Zenyatta Stakes (oh, Lady’s Secret, you’re so 1986.)

Meanwhile on the East Coast Rachel Alexandra readies for the 1 ¼ mile Personal Ensign—a true test as to whether this filly will go to the Breeders’ Cup Classic or the Ladies’ Classic. She turned a 1:12.96 ¾ drill at the Oklahoma Training Track Monday morning. That deserves a Joey Lawrence “Whoa!”

Let’s pause. Think about it. I can hear it now. Say, hypothetically, that Rachel doesn’t put in a monstrous effort in the Personal Ensign, which, let’s face it, she won’t, because the other girls have hit puberty and the competition is tighter. But what if she loses and Mr. Borel comes back and says, “She just got tired at the end.”

Next, the Sportsman JJ comes out and says, “Rachel told us that ten furlongs was too long ... and she is still in the middle of writing her amazing legacy alongside the likes of Curlin.”

He will say that nine furlongs—a distance we all know she relishes—is her race and will thus run in the Ladies Classic and dodge Zenyatta, who opened up Breeders’ Cup Classic Futures wagering as the favorite, this according to A.J. Ryder’s story for bettingchoice.co.uk.

Zenyatta’s win the Clement L. Hirsch also insured that a bout with Rachel Alexandra would happen no sooner than November—a time that I petitioned should have been now. But I got to thinking, and it all comes back to how you feel about interleague play: don’t you want to see the best square off against each other one time for all the marbles and on the biggest stage in their respective sport?

I used to crave for racing to come up with a modern-day rivalry the likes of which haven’t been seen since Easy Goer and Sunday Silence, as well as Affirmed and Alydar. I want to see Rachel and Zen race like anybody else, but would it mean as much in April (Apple Blossom) and August (Personal Ensign) as it would in November? Of course not. So maybe all of our attention when we knew the two would be running in 2010 was misguided. Hey, this is OUR Brett Favre story.

Some proposed that R and Z should run multiple times, others said they wouldn’t race at all. If we get one, let’s be thankful. Maybe Blame will get up to be the sweetest overlay this side of Invasor.

I get the sense that with every waning race a rivalry gets watered down, the Kool Aid gets thin, my Sam Adams morphed into a Michelob Ultra, the ice in my margarita melted.

So what can happen in 50 yards? That’s how much longer Rachel has to run than she has ever run before. Remember, she won by a diminishing head in the 2009 Preakness at 1 3/16 miles. In that 50 yards, perhaps Mine That Bird catches her. But what will happen in 50 yards at Saratoga? A track that will likely be skimmed such that she can burn it up like she did in 2009’s Woodward.

It will be interesting to note. A less-than-stellar effort will undoubtedly point her away from THE Classic and away from the one horse in the one race people want to watch.

It’ll be worse than interleague play. It will be1994 all over again.

Brendan O’Meara blogs about horse racing here at HRI and at The Carryover. He also blogs about narrative nonfiction and his book project “Six Weeks in Saratoga” at The Blog Itself. His Web site is http://www.brendanomeara.com.

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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

The Sportsman finally sportsmanlike

Which was the bigger shock? A Jim Dandy-Curlin Stakes double both won by trainer Tony Dutrow or Jess Jackson announcing where his 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra will be racing three Wednesdays before entries are due?

Of course the answer is the latter, though the former was quite impressive, but just when your hopes get up, “That earns him a start in the Travers,” said Dutrow of Curlin Stakes winner Winslow Homer. “That’s what we were looking for. He was impressive and scooted away from them, and he loved the distance. We’re hoping he goes into the Travers as well as he did today. He’s bred to go the distance and I think that he proved today that the distance will be a friend.”

Then a condylar fracture to his left front will sideline him for the Travers. Such is life.

Back to Jackson. The wine magnate who wants to rename a Black Mountain to Alexander Mountain in Cali has seen the peaks. For example, when he announced that Curlin would race as a four year old at the Eclipse Awards. Then he sank to the valley when he pulled Rachel out of the Apple Blossom. The Sportsman was suddenly the Sportsman ... so-long-as-it-works-in-my-favor. Even a year ago (as documented in the hopefully-soon-to-be-published Six Weeks in Saratoga) Jackson had the racing industry on a string. Rachel had been nominated to four races following her body slam-win in the Haskell: the Alabama, the Woodward, the Travers and the, gulp, Pennsylvania Derby won in 2008 by the demonstrative Anak Nakal.

Every week clicked by and the steam in the press box shot from the ears of turf writers, most notably Claire Novak, who was most prominent in her disdain among writers about Jackson’s vagueness.

The brass at the New York Racing Association suffered from impatience as well. Rachel deserved a good show—one being denied her by the short notice. And racing secretary P.J. Campo had trouble filling races since the presence or absence of Rachel determined where a slew of other horses would be running.

Whatever the reason Jackson decided to announce her next race in timely fashion. Perhaps he threw a bone to NYRA to give folks like Neema Ghazi, Dan Silver and Campo a chance to effectively do their jobs.

Also, in so doing, Jackson turned the table on Zenyatta’s owner, Jerry Moss. It was just a few months ago that the Apple Blossom was bumped to $5 million pending the attendance of both Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra and eight other horses and a partridge and a pare tree.

Moss committed thus putting the pressure on Jackson. Jackson ducked (which, let’s face it, was the right move. Rachel wasn’t fit and she would have been demolished. Would she have hit the board???).

Not since “Charlie’s Angels” have two or more females looked so good together and the time is now. Why? Anything can happen to these athletes. If they are sound and fit, run them against each other now. We can’t bet that they’ll be ready or healthy in November (remember Big Brown v. Curlin?).

Jackson put the pressure where he likes it: on other people. And he put it right on Moss’s nose to bring his mare to New York sans Security Barns.

Meanwhile, Zenyatta’s trainer John Shirreffs readies his alpha mare for the Clement Hirsch.

So NYRA must also ratchet the pressure by making the Personal Ensign a run for $1 million. Should that lure both connections and handful of others, fans may have their dream race.

Too much can happen between now and November. Let us not forget that.

Thanks to Jackson, at least we actually have three weeks instead of three days to think about it.

Brendan O’Meara blogs about horse racing here at HRI and at The Carryover. He also blogs about narrative nonfiction and his book project “Six Weeks in Saratoga” at The Blog Itself. His Web site is http://www.brendanomeara.com.

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