I see your little belly.

Stopped at Dutchess Views Farm in upstate NY to pay a visit to Nautical Agent. We were on our way back from Saratoga and thought it only right to see how she's getting on. From the look of her, it seems she's doing quite well. Aside from the hazing she gets from older broodmares in the paddock while out at night, she's none the worse for wear. She was pretty frisky during our visit, as she thought it was time to go out and roll around in the field. I could see how sitting around with us would be the bit of a disappointment. Sometimes when I'm forced to spend time with myself, I feel the bit of a letdown, too. We brought carrots, but Donna (spotted above) told us that she loves these horse mints you see my mom offering up.

Farm was about 25 miles off of route 87, located in very pretty country. If we go up for the NY Breeders' Sale in October, we'll stick our heads back in to say hi. Staff there very friendly and they were good to have us for the visit. Nautical maybe a little bit taller and only just showing (w/ Gold Fever's love foal). With some of the purses for NY-breds we saw up at Spa, hope is that she keeps up good work.

we're walking, we're walking

Snuck up to Fair Hill this morning to meet up with my parents and pay a visit to Veiled Reference. She looked really good and has matured nicely as a three year old. Perhaps she's a bit too proud of her big belly these days, but that can be sorted out once she's started back in training (next week, I hope). You can check out her out, big bellzer and all, in the video above. Note how she longs for the extra camera time before heading back into the barn. "No, wait, we can take another take! I'm free all day! Call me!" Folks at Tim's barn were kind to have us, and were somehow getting through the morning despite the unbearable heat. I might have gone too far when I asked around for a glass of ice water with lemon; I took all the shaking heads to mean that they were fresh out. Garden hose did the trick, no problem.

mais non

Check out this video of the 1999 running of the Arc. Quite the cast of runners that came out for it, which is reason enough to watch, but I mainly raise it to help frame the debate surrounding Curlin's plans to ship out for this year's running. Frankly, I doubt he'll ever set hoof on French soil, but even if he does, I don't see him conquering French racing as he has here in America. It's the ground that will do him in. Sure, it might not be the bog that it was in '99 (remember how Daylami came back in Turf once on firmer footing?), but it sure as heck will be deeper than the US (and UAE) dirt tracks that he's dialed up to the tune of $9m. Big boy is a hard-pounding, dirt-loving, beast and I think he'll struggle to stay against top class going over conditions that aren't to his liking. While it looks like he'll get the really firm turf that he needs in NY tomorrow, which should help, I'd be surprised if he does enough to get his ticket punched for the trans-Atlantic flight. (Better Talk Now seems to be coming into this thing the right way; we'll see if there's a price to be had.)

So, no France for Curlin, which means Asmussen will have to back into the Classic. That means a race over the fake stuff as a prep (remember, they like to do things twice with him), so I guess Turfway or someplace like that followed by the Classic. There he has to deal with that Santa Anita track (both its surface and configuration), which really doesn't play to his strengths. Can't blame these guys for wanting to go to France instead, but it looks like they're stuck between a rock and a stale baguette! I'd take the California option over the turf, but Jackson stopped consulting me on spotting his horses a long time ago. I still drink his wine, though, because I'm not the kind of guy to hold a grudge.

she looks familiar

Was real thrilled to watch Ouchy Night run off in her debut last week at Belmont Park. Filly is daughter of Cactus Ridge that we went after last August at Saratoga when up there with Tim. Bidding stopped at $95,000 (we were out at $75,000, I think), so kudos to her breeder/owner for hanging on to the really nice prospect. I would have had a tough time going to a $100k for her, no matter how good she looked (and she was rock solid, man), so no hard feelings. Good to know that we were on to a nice one, anyway. Next time, I'm spending the money and rounding up dollars from readership via paypal. I figure that gets me about an extra 30 or 40 bucks, maybe, but I'll take what I can get. Can't touch the filly for less than $250k now, I'd imagine.

Barclay Tagg is happy with Princess Jess, winner of the Boiling Springs on Saturday at Monmouth, but feels that Joe Bravo moved too soon with her (scroll down in article). I'm no fan of Joey B., but I thought he actually rode her perfectly. She's a bigger filly with a more sustained run than an explosion and he did a good job to move with her on the turn and beat the quicker closers to the punch. She's more suited to the wide, sweeping turns of Belmont than she is to MP or the Spa (where she'll likely go in the Lake George), so I'm inclined to play against her next out, especially if Tagg is intent on having her, sit, sit, sit and make a run. She's a nice filly, but she'll get out-kicked to the wire playing that game against legit fillies. We'll see how it plays out later this month.