Barn Report, Sunday May 16th

Lots of worried horsemen and women leaning on the training track rail at Belmont on Sunday morning. Everybody’s talking about the possibility of no racing in New York. Consensus at the rail was that NYRA isn’t crying wolf when they say they are running out of money. Neither New York State nor NYC OTB are paying what they’re supposed to. Worse, we’re still, after nine years, waiting for slots at Aqueduct. It’s beginning to look like NYRA really might have to shut down some time during the Belmont spring-summer meet. If that happens, it’ll be hard to gear up again for Saratoga. You know it’s bad news when even the jockey agents – those guys whose job it is to be incurable optimists -- are nervous.

After all that gloom, Joe, Steve, and new claiming partner Vinny DiSpigno, were only too happy to quit the rail in favor of Bruce Brown’s shedrow, where they got to say hello to Good Law. Our recent winner was acting much more frisky than the railbirds, and wanted to do more than the jogging he’s been limited to since his last race. In Bruce’s absence, Kay, who rides Good Law in the mornings, said that he’d be getting some stronger gallops the next few days, and that we’d be looking for a race in early June. We like that timing for another reason: Bruce will be back by then.

We also saw Strings and Arrows gallop by on the training track, looking very strong. Leah wasn’t at the barn, but Assistant Trainer (and grill chef at CVF summer parties) Herbie Castillo said that Strings and Arrows is ready to run right back – maybe as early as May 22nd, but definitely, assuming the racing office obliges by using a race for us, before the end of the month.