Having spent about half of this vacation on racing-related activities, it seems mightily unjust that on this Big Day of Racing, here and abroad, I’ll be on the road, with no access to races or results until this evening. Maybe I can find a rest area with wi-fi access and time a stop to coincide with post time…

Earlier this week, The Bug Boys pointed out what was reported in Newsday, that New York’s “stimulus czar” is a racing fan and handicapper. While the rest of the state shudders at the thought, bettors and race fans across New York are no doubt relieved that their money is in the hands of a person who gambles at race tracks instead of with mortgages.

At the close of each week’s racing, NYRA produces a recap show, highlighting both local and national racing; the show is called Thoroughbred Weekly (it used to be called Inside Racing) and airs on MSG+ (channel 48 on Time Warner in New York City). NYRA has now made this program available to non-NYC dwellers by posting it on their YouTube channel; it’s a little clumsy because it’s broken into two sections, but a great look back at the week’s races, often with features such as interviews with jockeys and trainers. NYRA also posts the videos at Raceday 360, so you can follow that feed or subscribe to the NYRA channel so that you’ll know when new episodes are available.

I wrote this more than a week ago—Wednesday, March 18th–when I arrived in Hallandale, intending to post it on Thursday morning but never quite getting there:

In a delightful bit of serendipity, as I sat to read the day’s racing news with a little TV in the background, a repeat episode of House (which I never watch) focused on a patient who plays the ponies. Some of the highlights:

One of the doctors, on said patient: “She’s a regular at OTB. I hardly see her holding down a 9 – 5 and attending PTA meetings.” The patient is played by Cynthia Nixon—perhaps drawing on her role in Let It Ride?

Said patient, on being at OTB: “It turns me on.”

Late in the show, Dr. House is shown in a hospital bed, reading the Form (though its banner is blue and not red). And the last line of the show, Dr. House at OTB: “Last race at Belmont. Put it all on the 5—to win.”

That would be Demaliat, trained by Dominic Galluscio, morning line favorite at 2 – 1.

You got it: Demeliat’s odds drifted higher by post time, and she paid $8.10. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…For those who believe that lightning strikes twice, today you’ve got George Weaver’s Longing for Malibu at 12/1. Good luck!

Finally, in an attempt to get into the Triple Crown spirits I’ve been reading Joe Drape’s To The Swift, a collection of articles from the New York Times over the last hundred or so years, focusing on the horses who have raced in and won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont—though not necessarily all three. As someone who spends a fair bit of time in the New York Times archives, I salivate at the gems that Drape has turned up, and I’m currently reading about Assault.

Drape prefaces each section of the book with a short introduction, not only noting the horses discussed in that section, but also observing trends and changes in the way that races were covered.

In 1946, on the strength of its six previous champions, the Triple Crown was recognized not only as a legitimate achievement but a transcendent one for horses. America was no longer distracted by war. It was ready for what the contemporary Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas calls “Box Office Horses,” animals whose personality and back-story matched their talent.

And in those sentences, Drape captures why I find it so hard to get excited about the Derby—not since Afleet Alex have I found that horse with both the story and the talent to capture my imagination. And I’m not seeing him yet this year, either, though perhaps I can hope that his story has yet to be told…beginning this afternoon?