as the old saying goes...

I'm all for serving up revenge nice and cold, but we probably took it a touch too far waiting the close to two years before having another go at Shesdebonairess (btw, I refuse to spell check that one; figure I'm close enough). Veiled Reference gets her shot, anyway, on Sunday down in Charles Town. The two fillies, plus six others, are scheduled to go 6 1/2 furlongs in the seventh. Live feed of the approximate 3:20pm post can be found at usual site, espn.com, here.

Caught up with Tim briefly this afternoon and he reports that Veiled Reference is well. Breeze last weekend at Fair Hill was at a good clip going 5/8ths, and she took it all nicely. Blacksmith was by today to put on some new kicks.

We'll see what kind of pep she has coming out of the gate. Figure the work, plus the first one back at 4 1/2 in April should have her much sharper. Ideally, would like to see her sit off one or two before making a run. If she wants to go altogether, not too keen to fight her; like a lot of horses, she seems much more comfortable w/o the dirt in her face.

Any speed she does have will be more and more effective as the distances increase. After all, we saw the role that Rachel Alexandra's tactical foot played in the Preakness. Sure, it helped that her main pace rival, my man, Big Drama, cast in his stall that morning, broke through the gate in the afternoon and was an overall mess leading up to the race (ummm, yeah, just a few negative pre-race indicators, which you can bet Borel didn't miss), but the filly still had to have the foot for Borel to put to use. Mine That Bird had no such speed, of course.

As a sidenote, it was shocking that Mike Smith, of all jocks, would wind up taking him wide (not that it was his fault, or anything). My favorite bit after the race was Smith talking about how he was looking for a rail trip. He said it with the same pained expression that he uses when talking marriage w/ Chantal Sutherland, so you knew where his head was at ("This is believable, Mike. You're doing great.") Man, I'm pretty sure Smith hasn't scraped paint since Holy Bull carried him around the oval, though I'm confident the relationship w/ Chantal is strong.