Making up Minds is hard

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend. I personally had a fantastic one, but it is now time to go back to bussiness.

First off the Queen of Racing returned this weekend, Zenyatta pretty much beat a bunch of listed stakes/G3 stakes horses and her stablemate Life is Sweet. Now nothing to take away from Zenyatta, who is an amazing horse, but her connections are going a bit on the concertive side this year. What do I mean that, I present the following from DRF.com, what her trainer John Shirreffs said. (I should note that his wife, is the racing manager for Zenyatta's owners Jerry and Ann Moss)

"Shirreffs is not interested in trying Zenyatta against males in a race such as the $700,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 11.
'The Gold Cup is a mile and a quarter," he said. "She's never run that far. It would be an ambitious spot and against the boys? Let's make it even harder.'"

To me this sounds like they are trying to avoid the boys, and Rachel Alexandra (IF that matchup comes it will be on the East Coast as Jess Jackson is not too thrilled in bringing Rach to run over the plastic, even though she has a win over it, abeit in an allowance at Keenland. Still she beat her new stablemate (And recent Eight Belles S. winner) Four Gifts in that allowance). Hopefully they will change their minds and maybe point to the Pacific Classic, that will set her up perfectly for either the Goodwood (If they want to go to the Classic) or the Lady's Secret (If they want to go to the Distaff (Sorry I just can't call it the Ladies Classic)).

Here is a vid of this year's Milady with the very uber impressive win by the Queen of Racing.



Speaking of making up minds, Rach's connections have not decided if she will go to the Belmont or not, link. As a fan, I would love to see her go and try to become the first filly to win 2 legs of the Triple Crown. However, the Preakness was a hard race, she did not like the track according to Calvin Borel, and had it been longer, Mine That Bird would have caught her most likely. Luckly, Steve Asmussen and Jess Jackson are letting her dictate what they decide to do. If she does not go, then look for her two weeks later in the Mother Goose.

Does this mean Mine That Bird, gets Calvin back? Not quite yet, link. His connections are giving Borel a few more days to think about it. We might not know who is riding Mine until possibly we know if Rach is going or not. If Cal does ride Mine and Rach is going, look for Robby Alberado to ride. Not a bad replacement though, especially since he beat Rach twice, once on Garden District (who hasn't done anything since that win, my guess is she's injured or retired) and once on Sara Louise (who now races for Godolphin, we should see her later this year). But then again, he was also the rider on her soon to be husband Curlin. However, I really don't see this happening.

Calvin himself, has been very successful since the Oaks and Derby. He got his 900 win at Churchill the week of the Preakness. That put him #2 on the all time wins list at Churchill, behind the one and only Pat Day. It continued this weekend when he won, I believe 5 races on Saturday. One of those races was the Louisville Handicap, and he won it with an old timer. Brass Hat return to the winner's circle for the first time since capturing the 2007 Mass Cap. This is his first stakes win on turf and pushed him closer to 2 mil in earnings (If it wasn't for a DQ in the 06 World Cup, he would be closer to 3 mil). Buff Bradley trains for his dad Fred. Link Calvin also appeared on several morning programs (Today and Good Morning America in perticler), the following video however, is from Pardon the Interruption.



Also run this weekend was the Metropolitian Handicap, aka the Met Mile. This year, the winner was Bribon, a French bred gelding. It's funny, the three major races in May (Derby, Preakness, Met Mile), where won by 2 geldings and a filly. Congrats to his connections. One of my favorite fillies (other then Rach) is the 4yo Medowlake filly, Maren's Meadow. It's been a rough few months for Maren, her trainer's pony was let out of his stall and a blistering agent was put on his mouth (as far as I know Pal (Larry Jones' pony) has recovered). Then she was sponged before an allowance race at Delaware (she was favored to win), and then folded like a cheap suitcase in the Azeri finishing last. She finally returned to the winner's circle yesterday with a win in the Monmouth Beach Stakes, link. One of my favorite former Delaware Park jockeys Kendrick Charmouche won two stakes yesterday at Mountaineer (link), he's based at Philadelphia Park. And last but not least, Autism Awareness shocked everyone again by taking his second stakes win of his career in the Berkeley, link. I've been following him since his El Camino win. Congrats to his connections.

I'm afraid that I have to end this post on a bit of a sad note, and to relize as much as we love this sport, lives can change in an instant. This weekend that happend at Arlington Park in the suburbs of Chicago. Rene Douglas and Jamie Theriot where running in the Arlington Matron. It was then Sky Mom ridden by Jamie, clipped heels with Born to Be who was ridden by Rene. The consquences where catostrophic, as Rene is in a Chicago area hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, and his mount Born to Be euthanized, link. Sky Mom and Jamie where DQ'ed to last after finishing fifth. On yesterday, the IL Racing Board decided to suspend Jamie for 30 days, link. Even though he is sorry and it was reckless riding, it doesn't make up that two lives where destroyed on Saturday. Rene Douglas' and Jamie Theriot's lives will now be intertwinned in this tragedy. My heart goes out to Rene and the rest of his family. There is a Facebook Group for Rene Douglas that you can visit, here.