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.

remember war emblem?

Thought it worthwhile to post the two pics, one each of War Emblem and Big Brown, both right after the start of their respective tries for the Triple Crown. Both horses stumbled at the break and went on to run poorly. More often than not, a shaky break, where the horse goes sideways, up or down from the bell, can portend of other issues at hand, whether they be physical, mental or a combination of the two. Some of you wise guys are recalling Rags to Riches, of course, who stumbled, as well, but went on to win the Belmont over Curlin. I'd argue that the stumble actually helped her, setting her up to sit off a slow pace and then explode for the few furlongs (her best game, especially against Curlin), but in the larger scheme, remember that she only ran the once more, months later in the Gazelle, before retiring due to injury. Was she dealing with the ailment way back in June? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, after his bad break in the Belmont, Big Brown's performance wasn't much of a surprise. He got frustrated, then the jockey got frustrated and then they both decided that they'd rather not play anymore (though Kent D. isn't allowed to pick up his ball and go home like the horse did). The IEAH guys, whether you like them or not, deserve credit for managing the horse really well, bringing him along as they did, and, most importantly, pressuring the Three Chimneys crew to ink the deal before the whole house of cards came crashing down. Had he won the Derby, do you think Baffert pushes to sell w/ Point Given before or after the Belmont, let alone the Preakness? After, of course. IEAH knew it was on borrowed time and put the screws to the Clay kid to maximize the score. Now Three Chimney's is in a spot where they need to restore some of the shine before shipping Big Brown off to Kentucky. My gut is that he romps in the Jim Dandy and is subsequently retired. No sense in trying him again at the 1m 1/4 in the Travers against some of the late-comers. Obviously, the Classic against older, Curlin or no Curlin, isn't in the cards. Just have to do enough to make the $100,000+ stud fee stand. I don't get it, what with the way the colt moves (not as the heavens drew it up, I assure you), but that's got to be the plan.

one and done

Great news out of New York today. Word came back that Nautical Agent is in foal to Gold Fever! Awesome stuff by our girl. She only had the one cover, obviously fairly late in the season, but it was enough to do the deed. The Agent never ceases to amaze. We're thrilled that she's caught and hope she gets on well through the summer now. Hope to sneak up there to pay a visit, maybe on the way up to the Spa in late July.

Veiled Reference is now back at Fair Hill to start up on a hand-walking program. She's doing well - radiographs a few weeks back were good. Plan is to walk her 30 days, see where she stands and go from there. Ballpark goal is that she progresses well enough to shoot for a return to the races later this year. It's been mildly painful to watch the 3yo fillies through the spring and early summer so far; just have to keep fingers crossed that she can join the fun sooner rather than later. No reason she can't have a big 2009 if she comes back in good form. She's only an hour away these days, so I really should make plans to see her, too.

Settling in ourselves down in Baltimore. Have to get some pictures up of the new digs. We've got a nice little rowhouse about 10-15 mins. from the Inner Harbor. It's great to walk to most everyplace and not have to fire up the car each time we're out the door. I've had fun sharpening up my parallel parking skills these past few weeks. My basic strategy is to slam the car behind the intended space at a good 45 degree angle and clear up the necessary room to land the old Sentra along the curb. I'm still perfecting my craft and managed to flee quickly from the one near-brawl that I set off last out, not knowing that the owner of the targeted vehicle was watching in his window. Kate suffered a few minor scrapes fleeing from the scene. She tripped and fell making her escape, but in her defense, I had her carrying the bulk of the groceries (and that milk and OJ combo can really weigh the bags down). I always make a point to carry the bread when making the move back to the house, so I was long gone when she went down. The guy was nice enough to just tell her that she married a moron and didn't take any cheap shots, or anything. Classy crowd down here, I tell you.

commendable made a comeback?

Things set up perfectly for Da Tara's wire-to-wire job yesterday in the Belmont. The inside had been playing well all day, Tale of Etaki looked bad in the post parade (all washed out from the heat) and couldn't muster up any real pressure, and Big Brown had but fumes in the tank after the two bang-up efforts. I wish I could report that I made some money, but no such luck. My favorite part of yesterday was catching footage last night of the IEAH guys giving hugs and kisses to Big Brown while peeking over every so often to see if the cameras were catching it all. Their PR people might want to have them take lessons from Brittany Spears, or somebody along those lines, on how to properly work it for the media. Too funny.

Poor Big Brown was just a tired horse coming off of the first two legs of the Triple Crown. The distance, track and timing of the race all worked against him. He hated the dirt (real dirt for the first time) on the first turn and was pretty miserable from that point on, even after getting out. Doubt that the lack of steroids meant much (they had served their purpose) and the biggest impact of the quarter crack was the lost training time. Fact that Da Tara pulled off the theft up front only confirms what the first two legs of the series had suggested: this is a mediocre crop of 3yos, at best. He ran slower and slooower each quarter and his Beyer Speed figure of 99 has to be one of the lower winning figures in some time. I'll have to dig up what Commendable ran when he pulled off a similar feat. (Can't find it readily, but I'd bet it was in the low 100s.) I hear that they had water issues at Belmont, but haven't seen reported that they didn't water the track as usual.

Horrible job by ABC covering the race, btw. It was all Big Brown before and after the race, with some ridiculous questioning immediately after the colt was pulled up. I don't like what Desormeaux did at all, especially given the fact that he said that he didn't feel anything wrong; he just knew he wasn't going to get 5th money so there was no sense in carrying on. Now, I've had my fair share of horses run that weren't in line to finish eighth, let alone fifth, but the routine is fairly simple for the jock: throw a few half-hearted crosses and maybe a love tap or two of the whip before galloping to the wire. None of this BS with pulling the horse up. I mean, that was just grandstanding. I don't know if that was on orders from Dutrow and IEAH to cover the mysterious ailment that will undoubtedly surface in the coming weeks, or what, but it caused a level of hysteria that was unwarranted and plain silly. Plus, it took away from Zito doing his shtick for the cameras, which I find fairly annoying most of the time, but would have infinitely preferred to the Big Brown nonsense, or, worse yet, those folks in the winner's circle.

Fact that connections have been so quick to target the Jim Dandy with Big Brown only plays into the notion that the colt is done. He gets beat badly and you're so puzzled as to why it happened and you've already got him spotted in, like, 45 days? Whaat? Maybe Kent will pull him up after a quarter mile in that one and he'll go straight to Three Chimneys right off the track. Bet those guys are thrilled with that $50m valuation these days. Young Clay, who put the deal together, will be a busy man talking up Big Brown at $100,000+ a pop next year. Sad thing, though, is that he'll get his 100+ mares and we'll have dubiously constructed offspring to watch race five times a year in no time. That is, the ones that make it to the races, of course.