I think they should rename the King’s Bishop the Lost in the Fog.
[QUOTE=lizathenag;2608581]
I think they should rename the King’s Bishop the Lost in the Fog.[/QUOTE]
Maybe if Harry was a bigger player or at least he shipped more runners to NY it could’ve been possible …
The KING’S BISHOP is named for Craig F. Cullinan Jr.'s colt of the same name. He was purchased as a yearling for $72,000 at the Keeneland Summer sales. As a three-year-old, King’s Bishop won seven of his 15 starts, including stakes victories in the Pontiac Grand Prix and Michigan Mile for earnings of $203,742.
Two headlines the NYRA folks will not be danicng about and again they look at Todd Pletcher and say “Et tu, Brute?” …
DRf 8-6-07 “Rags to Riches will likely skip the Alabama”
Meaning no Rags to Riches running before the Spa crowd … a big blow …
and for Todd’s 1-2 punch
DRF 8-6-07 “Travers unlikely for Any Given Saturday”
This despite it being somewhat customary for the Haskell winner to race in the Travers …
As expected and only reinforced by the poor showing on Sunday, Curlin will not race at Saratoga but will be pointed towards the Jockey Club Gold Cup (Sept. 30 ) at Belmont before the BCC on Octover 27th back at Monmouth.
Worth pointing out: if Street Sense romps in the Travers - as is very likely - on top of the Jim Dandy victory, then he very well could cinch 3-yr old HOTY.
And if you scroll down in the Rags article posted by Glimmerglass, you’ll see that Matz was on par questioning Chelokee. He is out for the year.
Not so good, the 38 Special song of Hold on loosely (but don’t let go) comes to mind 
From Tuesday’s edition of the Times Union:
Velazquez’s bad luck
Jockey John Velazquez’s tough luck continued when he was [url= “http://timesunion.com/shared/graphics/newsdb/070807phonehome.jpg”]unseated by even-money favorite Phone Home coming out of the gate.
The stewards determined Velazquez was unprepared when the gate opened. The horse was declared a non-starter, and bets on him were refunded.
It’s the third time Velazquez has been thrown from a horse this meet. He walked off unassisted.
I’m glad Hard Spun will go in the King’s Bishop instead of the Travers. He is such a trier and I would like to see him get another win. I think this is more likely at 7 furlongs than 1 1/4 miles.
With Any Given Saturday, Curlin, and Hard Spun out of the Travers, is there any chance Todd Pletcher might put Rags to Riches in the Travers? The distance wouldn’t be a problem and after the Haskell, the Travers field is looking like it will be a lot smaller.
[QUOTE=ravenclaw;2609625]
With Any Given Saturday, Curlin, and Hard Spun out of the Travers, is there any chance Todd Pletcher might put Rags to Riches in the Travers?[/QUOTE]
My guess is that chance is less then 0%. Todd is skipping the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes (for fillies only) for reasons that she isn’t entirely back into her schedule quite yet. It would be a delightful shock (but beyond remote) to throw a curve like that with a Travers entry.
I’m sure the NYRA folks are going to be begging him to look at it. Again I think it is in their interest to round up some money for a bonus if she did race and win it. Otherwise there is no incentive to put her up against Street Sense for $1M when he could’ve raced in the Alabama for $1M against a field not nearly as tough as Street Sense.
The last entry in “her” blog is August 2nd and it was more about her hanging out with her new stable pony, Thunder Chicken.
[QUOTE=JER;2611246]
And today, Nobiz wins on the turf.[/QUOTE]
psst …yesterday … to coincide with the induction in the so-named turf race 
Today (Tue) is the dark day on the schedule
Actually Jer, that was yesterday.
You must have missed the 8 page thread on it, full of in depth analysis of the race, critiques of Velasquez’s ride, posted interviews with Barclay and Robin, and pages of musings on where he’ll go from here (stay on the lawn? can he stretch out to 12f? is he really a Turf Miler in disguise? Perhaps a suprise shot at the QEII at Ascot is on the cards??).
You know, the usual stuff you see on the Racing forum.
[QUOTE=Drvmb1ggl3;2611295]
Perhaps a suprise shot at the QEII at Ascot is on the cards?[/QUOTE]
Surely you tease us, Drvmb1ggl3, with such possibilities!
Tagg did make the remark that like Showing Up (the horse the Barbaro fans and even Jacksons seem to ignore) Nobiz very well might just go out to Cali and race in the Hollywood Derby (G1) in December. I doubt he’ll surface for the Breeders’ Cup festivities which is fine.
This is funny. I thought today was the 6th.
Which means I missed my sister’s birthday. Egads. I’m an equally failed racing fan and sibling.
I guess I’ll go stick to talking about retired racehorses, like Teofilo, but I guess I missed that ad nauseum discussion as well.
Interesting … reconfirming what we knew about not running but …could the filly, Panty Raid, run in the Travers?
Doubtful but at least there is a sliver of hope At least, Todd, toss us dogs a bone with running The Green Monkey, please!
Times Union 8-8-07 “Haskell winner out of Travers ; Pletcher stars bypassing Saratoga”
Trainer Todd Pletcher said he was ``99 percent sure’’ that Any Given Saturday next will race in the Grade II Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 22. That race, with a $150,000 purse, is run at 1 1/8 miles.
(The Travers) is just too close,'' Pletcher said this morning outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. Our main focus is on the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Oct. 27 at Monmouth). The Brooklyn gives him like five weeks to the Breeders’ Cup, and I think that is a good setup.’’
Any Given Saturday’s absence most likely will leave Pletcher without a starter in the Travers.
``It’s looking sort of doubtful,’’ said Pletcher, who won the Travers with Flower Alley in 2005 and was second last year with Bluegrass Cat.
Pletcher said he will nominate horses for the Travers, Saratoga’s biggest race, but doubts any of them will go. He said he will nominate Any Given Saturday, Cowtown Cat and Sam P. in addition to fillies Rags to Riches, Octave and Panty Raid.
It also is very doubtful Belmont winner Rags to Riches will run in the $600,000 Alabama a week from Saturday. Pletcher said he is pointing Rags to Riches to either the $300,000 Ruffian on Sept. 8 or the $250,000 Gazelle on Sept. 15.
[i]Dear Green Monkey,
I know how it is as I cost a lot too for my owners. $4.6 million at the Keeneland Yearling Sale (Sep 2006) but Mr. Bob Baffert was kind enough to get me to the races at Saratoga for my first start. I guess my owner was tired of the West Coast and I was kinda board anyhow there where the surf meets the turf. Like your workouts they said I was slow too but I think it was that rubbery ground.
Anywho, I just won this afternoon a $62,000 maiden special weight race! I think that is pretty good as I didn’t see another horse near me when I crossed the finish line. The rest were almost 12 lengths back which is great as I knew I would get back to the barn before them for an extra share of the sweet feed.
Don’t worry pal, I know you’ll get your shot too.
Your friend,[/i]
Maimonides
Haha! Is the Green Monkey even still at Saratoga?
But, this, “I guess I’ll go stick to talking about retired racehorses, like Teofilo…”
Seriously, did Teofilo retire? Oh no.
Yes, and sad indeed that we didn’t get to see him race as a 3yo, as he looked like the second coming of Nijinsky.
The interesting part of it all is Jim Bolger, his trainer and owner, will retain ownership, but he will stand at Darley’s Kildangan Stud. Interesting on two counts, that Coolmore didn’t get him, and that Darley have now got their hands on a second Coolmore sired stallion/racehorse of the year (Derby winner Authorised, whom they purchased, being the first). So there’s definitely somewhat of a softening in the boycott.
I saw Maimonides in the paddock and wasn’t overly impressed with his looks. Goes to show what I know. Of course he came wth a string of bullet works so he figured, but he wouldn’t win a beauty contest.
9 yr old Evening Attire to race Friday (8/10)
On “Funny Cide Day” at Spa - where Funny Cide will actually lead the post parade [alas in the western saddle] for the fourth race, a maiden event for New York-breds at seven furlongs - his old chum will be racing: Evening Attire!
Had Funny Cide not been retired, he would have been eligible to run in Friday’s fifth race against his old friend Evening Attire. Friday’s fifth race is a classified allowance race worth $79,000 that could easily be a graded stakes.
In 2004, Evening Attire beat Funny Cide in the now-defunct Saratoga Breeders’ Cup. Overall, Evening Attire is 5 for 10 at Saratoga, and despite being a 9-year-old, he won the Stymie Handicap in March.
“He loves it up here,” said trainer Pat Kelly. “He’s been leaning on [exercise rider Danny Vogt] pretty good. You don’t know he’s 9 years old. He goes crazy in the afternoon when he hears the races, He jumps, he kicks, he’s worse than the babies.”
A lot of characters we’ve grown to know over the years are in this one!
Fri 5th Race (3:08 EST) include Hesanoldsalt, Malibu Moonshine, Student Council, and Minister’s Bid.
For those who forgot, last year Minister’s Bid finished 2nd to Bernardini in the 2006 Jim Dandy - in what was just his 3rd career start! The Bid name link comes from him being by Deputy Minister out of Princess Pietrina (by Spectacular Bid).
“The interesting part of it all is Jim Bolger, his trainer and owner, will retain ownership, but he will stand at Darley’s Kildangan Stud.”
Didn’t Darley make a similar arrangement with Jim Tafel and Street Sense? I recollect something about Darley purchasing SS’s breeding rights, but Tafel would retain ownership of the horse?
Too bad about Teofilo, he was FAST.
A nice article from the Times Union today regarding the 9-yr old warrior, Evening Attire, and his similarities to the late uber beloved Saratoga favorite, Fourstardave.
“He just likes it up here,” said Mary Grant, co-owner of Evening Attire. “There’s something about it, I don’t know.”
He’s won 50 percent of his races at Saratoga, 17 percent (8-for-48) everywhere else, which continues a tradition of thoroughbreds who seem to run better at Saratoga than they do at any other track.
Fourstardave and Evening Attire shared the same love of looking out the back window of their stalls, a feature that Belmont and Aqueduct don’t have because of the cold.
“(Fourstardave) used to stand there all morning, watching other horses training on the Oklahoma training track,” O’Brien said. “I think he was really relaxed in Saratoga. He’d almost be like a human.”
And evidence again the old warriors love being near the game vs. being put out to pasture …
Evening Attire, who broke his maiden as a juvenile at Saratoga, notices the difference. He was standing at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater in semi-retirement last summer when his owners decided to put him in stall at Saratoga just so they could say he’d spent a seventh straight year at the Spa.
Evening Attire reacted as soon as he got off the van in front of Patrick Kelly’s barn.
He began bellowing, went straight into his stall and rolled around in the hay.
“They couldn’t control him,” said Joe Grant, Mary’s husband. “He was just so happy.”
