Joe and Steve, along with Castle Village Farm partners Paddy O'Hara and Vinny DiSpigno, got to Belmont around 7 am on Sunday. It was already pretty warm -- the temperature reached the mid-90s by the afternoon -- but it was the last day of the Belmont meet, and the horses, riders and trainers were in good spirits. With the Saratoga meet just around the corner, there was lots of talk about vans packed with horses, SUVs packed with kids and lawn furniture -- and, getting back to business, of how Saratoga might do against the newly energized Monmouth summer meet.
(As it turns out, even Belmont didn't do too badly against Monmouth, with substantially higher betting handle than the Jersey track. See Steve's analysis at http://businessofracing.blogspot.com .)
Our four-year-old NY-bred gelding, Talking Blues, back from some R&R at the farm, breezed for the second time since his return to the race track. Even without changing leads, and without a lot of urging from the exercise rider, Talking Blues had a "bullet" work, the fastest of the day at the distance, going three furlongs in 36.09 seconds. The work marked a huge improvement for Talking Blues; he'd never even had a breeze that was in the top half of the horses working that day, much less a bullet. And he's looking much bigger and stronger than before he got some time off.
After that, it was off to contemplate claim prospects for our 2010 Claiming Partnership. The partners had done really well with our first claim, Good Law, who had a win and a second in two races for us before he was claimed back by his prior trainer, Tom Bush. But now they're anxious to get a replacement, and we've been looking actively for a claim at Belmont for over a month. Bruce Brown and Steve thought they had one today, with the three-year-old NY-bred filly Australis Princess, entered in the 9th race for $25,000. On paper, she had lots to like: good speed figures, in the money in seven of her 10 lifetime races, able to run on both turf and dirt (though not on a wet track), and with her New York allowance conditions still available. And the replays of her races looked pretty solid; sometimes she tired in the stretch, but she didn't give up.
Her race, though, wasn't till the 9th, so it was a long afternoon of waiting. Plenty of time to watch the Yankees beat Tampa Bay in a mere 3 hours and 47 minutes. And time to catch up with a few more trainers on their way out the door, heading for Saratoga. Time to watch another Jimmy Ferraro longshot get in the middle of a carefully handicapped exacta.
Then down to the paddock to check out our claim prospect. Bruce and Steve watched her walk in from the detention barn. (That unloved facility was celebrating its final day; the concept is being retired as of the start of the Saratoga meet.) What they saw -- at first -- was a nice big filly, who looked race ready and alert. All systems go.
Oops, doesn't that look like an offset knee in the right front leg? Sure does, but that's not disqualifying, right? Lots of horses just stride right through an offset knee. Hmm, but she's not really striding right through it. More like shifting her weight to compensate.
(Department of Way Too Much Information: A horse's knee is offset when the forearm bone above the knee and the cannon bone below the knee don't line up in a straight line; the more offset the knee is, the more stress there will be at high speed.)
And then the coup de grace. Bruce's system of inside information -- talk to someone who knows someone who used to work in the other trainer's barn -- came through -- with about five minutes left to the claim deadline. Yes, there was something to worry about -- and it was something about that knee. So, the decision was made: better safe and sorry. We'll pass this time around.
It was a long day. Ten hours after we'd arrived at the training track that morning, we were -- finally -- back in the car, heading back to the city -- with nothing to show for it -- except a couple of exacta tickets cashed.
Like Harvey Pack always said, it isn't the last race -- or the last claiming possibility -- that counts, it's the next one. So, on Friday, it'll be on to Saratoga, where we'll still be looking for horses to claim. All in all, a bit of a letdown at the end of the day.
But, still (and, this time, the quote is from William Murray -- though Harvey probably agrees) -- Even a bad day at the track is better than a lot of other days in a lot of other places.
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