Hi, Baby!

Nautical Agent with Disco Rico filly foaled last week. Mom and baby both well. Plotting to take trip up north for a visit in few weeks. Veiled Reference, in foal to Alphabet Soup about a month and half now, is coming down to NY from Canada shortly, so we'll be able to see her, too. I just hope NA and VR get on well enough. Would be hard to have family in-fighting at the farm.

Re: Kentucky Derby, have to shake head after scratch of favorite, Eskendereya. Zayat thought he'd be able to hold him together for resale after the big Wood win (after all, they did give him the extra week for the NY race, not the Derby), but poor colt came back so off that they couldn't even have him vetted for a sale. That must have been a fun call between Pletcher and Zayat..."Umm, yeah, don't bother driving up the ask price, Ahmed, can't even get him to the track." Where will Zayat get the $34M now? I'll have to see what I can dig up in the couch cushions.

Ice Box in the Derby, even though I never cared for Zito's act after his Strike the Gold win (not in video, but you get a little taste w/ his gesticulating). Lookin' at Lucky most likely winner. Will use him up and down in exotics.

shocking

Yep, the troops went for the proverbial last cigarette rather than come up with anything that might actually address fundamental challenges facing the industry. Like, how do we move toward more racing dates, and more horses bred in state? I know, let's cut dates instead and hand out over-inflated checks to Todd Pletcher. You don't think the NYRA crowd isn't making it clear to NY outfits that they'll have to play nice if they want to partake in the slots fun when Cuomo takes office? Those conversations aren't happening? Was really too easy for Christie; he gets the one-time pop in numbers at MP; racing officials buy another year; Atlantic City interests are satisfied (both dodging the slots issue AND helping w/ final nails in racing's coffin). The shame is that NJ horsemen were only too happy to take the one time shot of cash with little to regard to long-term consequences. "Great, let me ship my mares down to NJ to foal! Oh, wait, umm, guys? What's the plan for 2011, 2012, and 2013? Anything? Guys?"

Don't worry, folks, we have everything under control here.

bad, bad signs

Had always heard noises about it, but this piece in Star Ledger not good news for the future of racing in NJ. Unless, of course, watching Pletcher pick up major cash w/ his C-string floats your boat. Cut to 71 days pretty much tells anyone even considering dropping a NJ-bred to forget about it. Sure, the top in-state outfits will do okay given their numbers, but the lower-level operations just won't have the chance to get out on their so-so stock. 71 days? In this day and age of 30-45 days between starts, how does that add up? Even with the meet spaced out, you're looking at significantly fewer opportunities to earn purses. Knock it down to 120 if you must, but be a little more creative than just buying into the nonsense sold by the trainers wintering down in Florida. Will be curious to see, too, how racing execs handle loss of income for those seasonal workers that make the MP meet go? Wonder if they'll step forward and take a 40% pay cut, too, all in the spirit of solidarity.

So, yeah, I'll ship in to chase NJSEA's purse money (if it can manage to stick around until '11), but you can bet that all the ancillary dollars (and open space) associated with my stock will stay out of state. Maybe even out of country, soon enough, given the state of affairs in NY, but you get the idea...

I guess curtains have been a long time coming for NJ racing. Still sad, though, to feel like final act just about to get underway.