The Princess and the "P", TheTravers, and Mine, Mine, Mine

-This past weekend saw the return of reigning "Horse Of The Year" Rachel Alexandra in Saratoga's Personal Ensign Stakes. Sent off at a "tepid" 2/5 price, she ran a credible, if not solid second to longshot Persistently. In doing so, questions have manifested into outright concerns as to her ability to get the classic ten furlong distance, and against what level of competition can she get it. She ran another quality race in defeat, but she did seem to "hit the wall" that final eighth.

My gut feeling is we may have seen the last of the "princess", and we will most certainly never see a matchup against the true Queen of racing Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Classic. If her connections do allow her to make the Breeders' Cup, the nine furlong Ladies Classic is the safest, and most likely spot for her always P.R. conscious connections to enter her. Will Messrs. Moss and Shirreffs call an audible? We'll see!

-Discreetly Mine has stamped himself as not only the best three year old sprinter in the country, but possibly this year's favorite for the Breeders' Cup Sprint. His performance in last Saturday's Grade 1 King's Bishop can only be described as scintillating! He was pressured most of the seven furlongs through fractions of 21:4, and 44 flat by Bob Baffert's aptly named Bulldogger. After disposing of that one turning for home, he had to hold off momentous charges from Bank Merger and Latigo Shores. Going seven eighths and enduring the ferocious fractions he faced, he would have been excused if he relented to the oncharging duo. Instead he fought through and held them relatively at bay. Admittedly the horses he faced Saturday wouldn't necessarily be considered top notch sprinters, but the way he did it was quite astounding!



-Another disturbing trend has risen up again. Talented young jockey Paco Lopez and his lawyer has found a way to delay his eight day suspension handed to him by the New Jersey Racing Commision. The suspension would have lasted through the final two weekends of the Monmouth meet.

Arguing before a New Jersey Supreme Court Judge, who obviously doesn't know a horse race from a tennis match, Lopez's lawyer was able to convince the judge that the Monmouth summer meet, with it's bloated purses, is horse racing's equivalent to......are you ready for this......you sure......the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the Stanley Cup therefore if he were to serve his suspension and miss the rest of the meet, the punishment would be "unduly harsh".......WHAT THE???? This is surely another case of people within the industry trampling the rules and regulators within the industry to weaken the overall integrity for self gain. Knowing that a less knowledgeable, more sympathetic ear can be found elsewhere.

Is that what society has come down to? Have we lost all integrity when we can be so self absorbed, and self concerned that it's ok to manipulate anyone and anything as long as we don't have to accept the consequences of our actions. How dare Paco Lopez and his lawyer manipulate the obviously ignorant judge with such a disingeuous argument as this.

-Saturday saw the renewal of two one million dollar races across the country. The Travers Stakes turned out to be the race of the day as Afleet Express held off Fly Down in a desperate finsh to the 141st running of the "Midsummer Derby".----The west coast's top older horses convened on Del Mar for the Million dollar Pacific Classic. The Usual Q.T. sent off as the 9/5 favorite, tired in the lane to finish a disappointing fifth while Bob Baffert's Richard's Kid won his second straight Pacific Classic.

Take That Face!

From the never ending, comedic-tragedy that is California racing, comes another head scratching decision. This past Thursday, the California Horse Racing Board denied a request from the Oak Tree Racing Association to hold it's annual race meeting at Santa Anita. The jewel in the ever diminishing landscape of California race tracks, and arguably one of the finest, and most historic race tracks in North America. This would have marked the forty first racing season that the non profit Oak Tree Racing Association would have been conducted at the famed Arcadia Track.

Siting track safety issues amongst their "concerns", the Thoroughbred Owners of California, and the California Thoroughbred Trainers organizations spoke out forcefully against holding the meeting at Santa Anita. One by one prominent owners, trainers, and race track executives argued that not only would track safety be a concern, but moving the Oak Tree meet to "another location" ie: Hell-Hole = Hollywood Park, would give poor ole Frank Stronach more time to complete his transformation.

Although some reports are stating that the current surface may have some minor "issues", no one has indicated that they would remain unresolved in time for Oak Tree. As for the transformation of the surface, all indications are that it would have been ready well in advance of the Santa Anita winter meet. Three weeks before the meet begins in fact! It remains highly unlikely that anything would occur during that time period that would jeopardize the start of the meet.

What it comes down to is the CHRB, Ca. Owners, and Trainers seized their opportunity to "give it" (for lack of a better word) to the always controversial, outsider Frankie. A plan executed as well as anything we've ever seen conjured up by the Corleone family. Well done California racing industry! In cutting off your nose to spite your face, you found a new way to damage an already ailing sport that in most regions is on life support. After this latest round of egocentric behavior, you're one step closer to giving California racing it's Last Rights.

BTW........Leading Arlington Park Trainer Nick Canani had five more horses test positive for the class 3 medication Etodolac. Although it's a "minor" drug violation, it's pretty interesting how another Frank Calabrese Trainer, who's hitting at about thirty percent, has at least six horses test positive for a drug that's not supposed to be used at all on race-day. I'm sure it's an easy mistake to make. Besides you know he's not using any other illegal drugs on his horses. He's just "spotting them in the right spot"...........right?