137th Preakness Stakes

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=dressagetraks;6326960]
Didn’t Charismatic finish the Belmont? I seem to remember all the scene with jockey holding leg, etc., taking place just AFTER the finish line. So he would be 3rd or 4th or something, not DNF? [/QUOTE]

Correct - 3rd (although for the point - still lost)

As for this year - I’ll Have Another encountered trouble en-route to Elmont, NY (LI).

Due mainly to an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, it took I’ll Have Another nearly 5 1/2 hours to van from Pimlico. The trip usually takes around four hours.

I’ll Have Another, along with three stablemates and stable pony Lava Man, arrived at Belmont at about 2:45 p.m. They took up residence in Barn 9, which houses horses trained by Mark Hennig and is the closest one to Belmont’s main track.

“We kind of got held up for about an hour and a half,” said assistant trainer Jack Sisterson, who accompanied the horses on the van ride to Belmont. “The horses were just looking out the window the whole time. Him and Lava Man were together and they were just chatting away the whole time.”

Lava hasn’t tweet yet about the trip

[Glimmerglass]

Regarding Larry Collmus’ call with enthusiasm and how our neighbors to the North almost are put claim on IHA as theirs

There are race calls, and then there are race calls. Saturday, Larry Collmus of NBC took it up to 11 on the Spinal Tap scale as Canadian-owned chestnut I’ll Have Another came from off the pace in a second consecutive thrombosis thriller to nip Bodemeister at the Preakness Stakes.

“Here’s the wire. … I’ll Have Another did it! He rode down Bodemeister to win the Preakness,” exulted a fevered Collmus as the three-year-old won by a neck. “And the Triple Crown will be on the line at Belmont Park.” This for a horse that has never been favoured in any of its races. Hollywood wishes.

In his voice-cracking exuberance, Collmus (born in Baltimore, site of the Preakness) was a herald for a lot of excited Canucks nursing mutuel tickets on the Canadian owned colt, who now has a chance to be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. While NBC went light on the Canadian connection, you’d have thought Collmus was lobbying for free health care as he urged I’ll Have Another, a horse almost no one had heard of a month ago, down the stretch in a preposterously exciting photo finish.

Horse racing doesn’t deserve the glorious dramas it sometimes concocts. It has receded to the fringes of the sports world, more defined by its slots than its trots. (The fault lies not in its stars like I’ll Have Another, it rests with the suits who’ve marginalized it.) But there was something in Collmus’s call that came through our 52-inch HD/Dolby TVs like a lost radio transmission from the 1930s, when horse racing was the sport of kings, not something to watch till the Los Angeles Kings game.

[Glimmerglass]

In addition to I’ll Have Another, Optimizer, and Paynter, the Belmont field could include Alpha, Atigun, Dullahan, Five Sixteen, Guyana Star Dweej, Mark Valeski, Rousing Sermon, Stealcase, Street Life, and Union Rags.

The O’Neil crew should be worried about facing Mark Valeski.

Looks like Rosie won’t get a crack at the Belmont either - Larry Jones is indicating Mark Valeski will skip the Belmont for The Dwyer, Grade 2 $200,000 at 1 1/16 miles, on June 30.

“Mark’s actually doing OK, but he got a little tired after the race,” Jones said Monday from Churchill Downs, where Mark Valeski was sent after the Peter Pan. "He doesn’t have the same energy level. It’s looking like the Belmont is more and more doubtful. He’s not showing a lot of sparkle.

“He’s acting like he’s a little knocked out,” Jones said.

[Glimmerglass]

Better get your Belmont tickets soon

TB Times 5/21/12: Belmont tickets sell out online in less than five minutes

Reserved seat tickets to the Belmont Stakes (G1), fairly easy to get when no Triple Crown is on the line, sold out at a rapid pace as thousands of fans and undoubtedly scores of ticket brokers snapped them all up after Ticketmaster offered them online starting at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday.

The New York Racing Association communications office and Jerry Davis, NYRA’s director of admissions and parking, said the allotment tickets offered on Ticketmaster sold out in three minutes.

[vineyridge]

With The Bid, we must never ever forget the pin in hoof the night before. Skulduggery? Maybe? Probably?

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;6328820]
With The Bid, we must never ever forget the pin in hoof the night before. Skulduggery? Maybe? Probably?[/QUOTE]

It was the morning of that the discovery was made by Herman (“Mo”) Hall (Bid’s groom) with the pin firmly into the laminae. People of the modern era and Velcro forget of the use of safety pins with wraps.

The late Bud Delp explains in this interview (see at the 3-min mark)

Folks have suggested the Bid and pin was a ruse. However a ruse doesn’t result in a hoof having to be drilled and drained with a severe infection. Published reports at the time said the infection was actually life threatening. Hence he didn’t race at Saratoga that summer, but his rival General Assembly did and set the Travers record held to this date. Bid only returned to race in August at Delaware Park in an allowance and set the track record at 1 1/16 mi.

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;6323813]
Breaking - Kent Desormeaux off Tiger Walk due to failing a Breathalyzer test at Belmont and Ramon Dominguez picks up the mount.[/QUOTE]

And - as expected - he’s lost the mount on Dullahan as well in the Belmont.

Donegal president Jerry Crawford confirmed this morning that jockey Kent Desormeaux will not ride Dullahan in the Belmont on June 9, reports the Des Moines Register. The colt will instead be ridden by Javier Castellano.

[Glimmerglass]

Union Rags in the Belmont appears to be potentially matched up with JV. John Velazquez is the most prominent jockey currently without a Belmont mount. Could be a very strong combo.

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;6329287]
Union Rags in the Belmont appears to be potentially matched up with JV. John Velazquez is the most prominent jockey currently without a Belmont mount. Could be a very strong combo.[/QUOTE]

That rumor was confirmed today: John Velazquez will ride Union Rags

No tweet from Julien although he’s been rather sparse on twitter after the Florida Derby maybe he’s just gearing up for the move and wedding. Although I think the ugly remarks about his ride to anti-French nonsense by the ‘internets’ must have worn thin.

[Glimmerglass]

Odd comments from Matz on the change, although the subject of dropping anyone can be awkward:

“What happened before, in the last two races, it can happen to any one of them. He doesn’t look like he’s difficult to ride."

“This is what we came up with. I hope we made the right decision,” said Matz. “We wanted somebody that was up in New York.”

Isn’t Julien now based in NY?

[Glimmerglass]

By the way is Johnny V. up on Union Rags in the Belmont a positive? Eh, have you seen his record?

Velazquez 1 for 15 in Belmont. Only worse records I could find Jorge Velasquez 0-13 and Angel Cordero 1-20. Mike Smith 0-12 before Drosselmeyer.

[Mali]

[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;6331830]
By the way is Johnny V. up on Union Rags in the Belmont a positive? Eh, have you seen his record?[/QUOTE]

Ah well, that can be our new excuse if Union Rags doesn’t win the Belmont