Unbridled Treasures

I'm not the world's biggest Unbridled fan. Partially because his son Empire Maker defeated Funny Cide to deny him the Triple Crown. However, I am a fan of a grandson of his in Rockport Harbor. It was a great weekend for the 1990 Kentucky Derby winner, his granddaughter Royal Delta (by Empire Maker) won the Black Eyed Susan. Then his grandson Shackleford (by Forestry out of one of his daughter's Oatsee) upset Animal Kingdom to win the Preakness. It was the first win for all of his connections, which include jockey Jesus Castanon, co-owner Mike Lauffer (you may have heard his name before, back in 2009 he co-owned a certin filly before selling her to Jess Jackson) and trainer Dale Romans.

It's Dale that I'm estatic for. Back in 2004, he had a great turf colt by the name of Kitten's Joy. He could have had 2 Eclipse titles to his name, if it wheren't for a gelding named Better Talk Now. BTN upset KJ to win the BC Turf. While he still won Champion Turf, had he won the race that may have had more then enough to pass Smarty Jones for Champion 3yo. BTN was trained by Graham Motion who of course trains Animal Kingdom.

Great job by the Derby winner, but it just wasn't his day. The winner reminds me quite a bit like Hard Spun. A speedy horse who a mile and quarter was probley a little bit too long for his taste, but had a heart of the champion. Now here comes the hard part. Since 2001, all the Preakness winners have gone on to be Eclipse Champions at the end of the year (this includes three HOY's, Point Given, Curlin and Rachel Alexandra). Shackleford will have to prove himself that he is the real deal in the next race (which could be the Belmont possibly, although personally I think it's a bit too long for him).

Astrology was third, I think his mini duel in the stretch with Shackleford did him in. Still, a nice effort out of him.

So once again, no Triple Crown. But you know what, I'm okay with that. There was some comments made by Barry Irwin before the race that I agreed and disagreed with (he regrets saying what he said about trainers lieing to him, but he wants the FBI involved with steroids? I do think the goverment needs to get involved, but I think Congress has the keys to that, not the FBI. And that he compared it to BALCO which was wierd, because the BALCO people got slaps on their wrists (Barry Bonds is likely not to serve any jail time because of his purjury convinction).

Subnote, it appears that the $10 mil that Lauffer and Dolph Morrison sold Rachel for is true. And one more note, HOW ABOUT THAT STORM CAT! Sure Forestry is Shack's sire, but the big guy finally gets back in the winner's circle in a TC race.

Injuires, retirement and Mine That Bird

First off, G1 winner Mi Sueno's career is could be over before it really got started. Lets hope that this daughter of Madcap Escapade (who I was a huge fan of when she was running), makes a full recovery. Mi Sueno won the Darley (formally the Del Mar) Debutante last time out. Also on the front page of RockportHarbor.com, you can read that Winslow Homer will not be in the Champagine next week after devoloping a quarter crack.

One horse who won't make a return from injury is Better Talk Now, who will call it a career at age 10. I will admit, that while I was a fan of his, there where times where I rooted against him. One of those was in the 2004 Breeder's Cup Turf where he upset one of my all time favorite turf horses Kitten's Joy, "Blackie" as he was affectionaly called was set to wrap up his career in Saturday's Turf Classic, when this injury came up. No word on weather he's going to stay at Fair Hill or go to a farm (i.e. Kentucky Horse Park, Old Friends ect.). Here is one of my favorite wins of his the 2007 Manhattan Handicap where he beat that year's Breeder's Cup Turf champ English Channel and the late Shakis.



Finally, Mine That Bird had a workout this morning with Joe Talamo in the saddle. Calvin Borel is still named to ride him in the Goodwood. Speaking about Joe, he was on Conan O'Brian last night. I didn't see it except from a clip, and I'll be honest. I shut it off, as frankly Conan annoys me big time (I'll take his predasor Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel over him any time). With that being said, hopefully this puts some interest back into horse racing. Interesting enough this was the second time in 5 months that a jockey had been on the Tonight Show. Calvin was on shortly after his Derby win this past May. Here is Joe's interview:



I couldn't find a vid of Calvin' interview with Jay, if anyone can find it I'll be very greatful. Also you'll be seeing a new little feature at the bottom. This makes it easier for people who would like to retweet my post. Mary Forney uses this feature for her blog posts.