The Day After

Well…

The two Louisiana horses ran second and third (Nehro, Mucho Macho Man). The third Louisiana horse, Pants on Fire ran 9th, and it turns out that he bled pretty badly and will be rested and rehabilitated until July or August (they’re saying the Haskell).

Dialed In ate dirt for the whole trip and never fired, finishing eighth. I’m disappointed but I think he’ll be a factor later in the season. They’re going to take him to Baltimore.

Brilliant Speed finished up the track, as did Midnight Interlude. They will race again another day.

Shackleford finished fourth, after running his heart out. I will look for better things as I think he is still growing and improving. I like his trainer, Dale Romans.

Santiva, Soldat, Stay Thirsty and Decisive Moment did not distinguish themselves, or have an excuse.

Twinspired, Twice the Appeal, Derby Kitten and Watch Me Go did not run well at all and I don’t think they belong in this company.

Master of Hounds finished fifth. Hard to tell with this one. They’ll take him back to Europe.

Comma to the Top and ArchArchArch suffered injuries (thankfully not life or career-threatening).

Animal Kingdom ran his last quarter in 24. That was the most impressive part of his run. John Velazquez did a fabulous job on the best horse and managed not to get him beat. John knew he had the winner on the clubhouse turn when AK was running so relaxed, and when the button was pushed as they turned into the stretch, he ran away and hid from the rest of the field and was never touched by the whip (he was even eased a bit). There was no problem switching from synthetic to dirt. I cashed a nice ‘place’ ticket, and I’m always grateful to cash a ticket.

I suppose I wish I’d had him to win. I thought Dialed In would run around this field, and that one of the four longshots would run behind him. I was pretty sure that Arch3X would be unable to do anything with the post #1, even though I think he’s a quality colt and look forward to his complete recovery.

I never thought the Lousiana horses would show well, but they ran second and third. Good for them. Now that I’ve gotten a better look at Mucho Macho Man, I think he’ll become a dominant horse later this year when he starts to grow into his legs.

As for the coverage; Versus was a welcome addition and I especially liked their trainer interviews with Laffit Pincay, III and Randy Moss. Bob Neumaier and Mike Battaglia were also entertaining, and Mike Battaglia picked the winner. I hated the stuff they did with celebrities and women and their hats. It’s fun for some, but some of the interviewees (with the exception of Bobby Flay) were very silly people.

The NBC coverage was pretty good. They didn’t do too much sappy stuff. The camera coverage on the race was a bit dodgy. It looks as though they had five or six cameras; the switch from one to the next was visually jarring and it took a second or two to reorient and pick up the field again. I couldn’t figure out the logic of when they made the jump. That’s a big problem.