The First Saturday in May, and Take 10! standings

Great news from the Hennegan Brothers: The First Saturday in May, their film about the road to the 2006 Kentucky Derby, is going to be released in theaters for a limited run on April 18th. If it’s playing in a city near you…GO! It will be shown in eighteen major markets. Nice coverage of this…

Summit on Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse

Dateline: Lexington, KY As Railbird noted yesterday, this week’s Blood-Horse reports on the proceedings of the second Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, held in Lexington earlier this week. The summit was coordinated and underwritten by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Jockey Club, and hosted by the Keeneland Association. There were a…

Andover Way

Dateline: Asheville, NC Arrived here yesterday to pick up my friend Wade, and within literally minutes of pulling into town was drinking pink champagne at a cool little wine bar nestled into the Grove Arcade, a beautiful old building that is one of the highlights of the downtown Asheville landscape. Vacation is good. The serious…

What’s in a name?

If Greg Avioli, president and CEO of Breeders’ Cup, pays any attention to the Thoroughbred Bloggers’ Alliance, he must feel mighty chuffed at how his little plan is working out. Here we are in mid-March, fresh off a weekend of Derby preps with some big-name colts running, and while we’re certainly talking about those races,…

Friday quick picks

I don’t know why I even look forward to posting the weekly Take 10! standings; it’s an exercise in repeated humility, and at this point, I just may be humble enough, at least as far as this game goes. 26. Trip’s Triple Crown Stable…………..1,820,00030. Stafford Stables……………………….1,571,75048. Sleipneir Stables……………………..1,562,75097. Quinella Castle…………………………..1,253,750111. SecBar Stable……………………………..1,170,750114. Superterrific Stables……………………1,142,000137. Val’s…

Thursday morning quick picks

Well, Wednesday might not have been such a great day for Eliot Spitzer personally and professionally, but if he had taken my betting advice, he’d have had a decent return on his investment—much better to invest in the horses than in, ah, other forms of entertainment. Of the nine horses listed on yesterday’s post, six…

Spitzer Day at the Big A

I’m not particularly inclined to discourse much about the shenanigans of the Honorable Eliot Spitzer, but in perusing today’s Aqueduct entries, we have: Race 1: Divorce Court Race 2: Fast Million and E Z Dollar Race 3: All Night Labor Race 4: Skipping Class Race 5: Mister Alimony Race 6: Yes It’s the Truth Race…

A summer morning with Kiaran McLaughlin

On Monday night I attended the Sampras/Federer exhibition match. Had Sampras won, I’d have been certain that it was fixed; Federer won in a third set tiebreak, so I’m only 99% sure. My tickets said 7:00; the match maddeningly started at 8:30, and I got home far too late to generate anything new, so herewith,…

The weekend recap

I didn’t get to Aqueduct until the fourth race on Saturday, and after watching the first race on television, I nearly decided not to head out. Poor John Imbriale—the horses broke, and unable to see anything through the dense fog, he pretty much stayed quiet until the horses were nearly at the finish line. Even…

The Morning After

I’ve already received at least three condolence messages following Saratoga Russell’s performance in the Gotham, and I can’t say that it wasn’t awful to be there, to watch him in the paddock (though I didn’t think he looked great, and his intestines didn’t seem to be exactly calm, if you know what I mean), to…