Thoroughbred Racing

[Lou]

6,9,10

: )

[Lou]

What a race. 

I was sure the favorites wouldn't win. Great ride by Castellano.  Good for Chad Brown. 

At least the Frenchie lost

[gotbeer]

Top executive for Stronach Group is being sent to Santa Anita to revitalize track

As someone who goes to the track.  It's about time.  Current management is killing the track.

[Tank]

well, it was an interesting day. @gotbeer invited me to go to santa anita with him today, so we did. there's a lot i didn't know about any of it today, and GB was patient enough to answer my questions with simple explanations. i learned a lot today and enjoyed the experience of it, except for the end. 

i won on a couple of bets, no thanks to @Adam and his sage choices. i won on the second or third race, a show bet, and pocketed a whopping $2.40. i made that track my bitch.

in the 5th race i bet a superfecta on 5-8-2-1. thankfully GB was at the window with me and told the guy to box it for me. and good thing he did - i didn't have the right order but i had all four of the correct horses and walked away with $11.50.

in the 8th race, GB and i went in on a horse named Dr. Troutman. he showed by a nose and we made $25, which we split. i passed on betting on a couple of races as there were 10-11 horses in the field and many of them were running their first or second race. didn't seem like a good strategy for me a novice like me.

the day ended poorly, however. in the 8th race, a horse pulled up lame just before the finish line, and right in front of us. he had a broken ankle, and the more he pranced around in pain, the worse it got, to the point that it became a compound fracture with the bone poking through and his hoof just flopping around like a rag doll. it was disturbing, and it hit me harder than i would have liked. the "Barbaro truck" quickly pulled up alongside him and the staff tended to him as quickly as was possible, then they brought out the green tarps and GB said explained that they were going to put him down right then and there. he hustled me out of there and said you really don't want twitch this. i'm thankful he was insistent on that. what i saw was one of those things i won't forget, and it probably would have been worse had i continued watching.

then in the 9th race, another horse pulled up lame just before the finish line. i looked immediately at his legs but they seemed okay. the rider pulled him up early. GB and i both thought he looked okay as he was walked around and didn't seem to be injured anywhere. unfortunately, while all that had our attention, about 200 yards back down the front stretch, the Barbaro truck pulled up alongside another horse and the huge green tarps were again deployed. i was far enough away not to see any details of this one and stayed until the trucks drove off. never saw how they removed the horse - i was kind of expecting they'd tie him to the back of the truck and just drag him off, but i guess it's a bit more humane than that. two horses put down in the last two races - that was tough to witness. glad my wife and daughter weren't there for that part.

all in all i enjoyed the experience and would go again. adam and @Homebrewer, come and join us next time.

[Homebrewer]

Sorry you had to see that so early in your initiation. We as horse people know that it's sometimes part of the deal, but it's still hard. You know, I have spent literally hundreds of full days at the track in my time, and I can count those episodes on one hand..I can only remember once where I experienced 2 breakdowns in one day. I've seen horses break down at rodeos too, and I've also seen a high school kid paralyzed for life playing football, and I dated a girl who's brother was killed playing football.  

Doesn't make it easier, but sometimes shit like that happens. It's always affected me pretty hard. I've spent a lot of time around horses ...at the track but more away from racing...and horses LIVE to run. It's what they do, and what they love. Jockeys are amazing too. I've seen more of them scraped off the track than I've seen horses taken away.

Breeding, vets on the track, and surface science are all aimed at minimizing the occurrence of breakdowns, and there has been steady progress at keeping that stuff in check...but it still happens. 

[Tank]

[Tank]

i forgot to mention . . . i accidentally spit on a guy. missed my target and sprayed the guy. asked him if he wanted some napkins and he said he wanted a beer. glad it was $1 beer day at the track. i ponied up and made things right with him.

[gotbeer]

@Tank was fun yesterday.  Next time, we should just bet on what we know.  Dr. Troutman and Flying Artie.  I'm actually surprised we didn't see that name and put some money on Artie for the hell of it. 

[Tank]

and flying artie finished in the money. would have been a nice payoff. wiser for next time, my friend.

[Homebrewer]

2 hours ago, Tank said:

and flying artie finished in the money. would have been a nice payoff. wiser for next time, my friend.

I always look for names like that..usually worth a couple bucks anyhow.

[Adam]

Tank, you open an ADW account yet? Getting jacked for the Belmont? Met Mile is in my top 5 favorite races. Hope the field shakes out well this year.

[Tank]

no sir. i'm not much of a gambler and would prefer to spend my money elsewhere. i also have a clause in my employment contract that forbids gambling of any kind. i can't even buy lottery tickets.

[Adam]

Whoa! So you violated the agreement? 

[Tank]

not as far as you know.

[gotbeer]

Tim Ritvo tackles his biggest challenge yet: Revitalizing racing at Santa Anita

Reading between the lines.  Looks like 3 day horse weeks.  Hopefully he will be able to do the bigger field sizes though.  And he's right.  I'd rather have 100 trainers, than 5 Bafferts.

[Adam]

I don't want Santa Anita turning into Gulfstream, but I do think 3-day race weeks would be good, especially post SA Derby. I also like the idea of consolidating Northern and Southern California. Give Golden Gate the old Hollywood dates.

[Homebrewer]

1 hour ago, Adam said:

I don't want Santa Anita turning into Gulfstream, but I do think 3-day race weeks would be good, especially post SA Derby. I also like the idea of consolidating Northern and Southern California. Give Golden Gate the old Hollywood dates.

Thats a lot of horse shipping going on... does GG have the stable area and facilities for a large contingent of So Cal horses? I know many Cal outfits race at both No and So tracks so maybe that would work. I know I'm twice as close to the Bay Area than I am to So Cal so I'd like to see it happen.. I'd go down there for a week of racing and baseball games in the summer if the fields were top notch.

[Adam]

[Adam]

3,7,8 look super juicy to me

[gotbeer]

12 minutes ago, Adam said:

Remember when Mohaymen was a monster of a horse?

[gotbeer]

21 hours ago, Homebrewer said:

Thats a lot of horse shipping going on... does GG have the stable area and facilities for a large contingent of So Cal horses? I know many Cal outfits race at both No and So tracks so maybe that would work. I know I'm twice as close to the Bay Area than I am to So Cal so I'd like to see it happen.. I'd go down there for a week of racing and baseball games in the summer if the fields were top notch.

Pulling the info off of wiki. 

But they say Golden Gate Fields has stalls for 1420 horses.  Santa Anita over 2000 horses.  del Mar 2100, but lowering it to 1900.  So defnitely a smaller barn at GGF.

[gotbeer]

Classic Empire out of the Belmont

[gotbeer]

[Adam]

This race sucks ass. I'm using Senior Investment and Multiplier because all of these horses suck. These two may have more Room to improve and they'll be nice prices.

[Adam]

Using Sharp Azteca and Toms Ready in Met.