By Thomas Chambers
I am not a gambler. I am a horseplayer.
Horseplayers like to think that through experience, diligent research, finding the key elements of a horse’s past performances and just plain following the game, finding a winner is more intellect than guesswork. But don’t tell me that after a 42-1 shot wires a bunch of $5,000 claimers. After races like that, either your hindsight sharpens to Superman levels or you still wouldn’t have picked him in a million years.
Relatively speaking, I haven’t played the game on a serious basis for very long. I would say my first real campaign was in 2002, the year War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness after bursting on the scene in that year’s Illinois Derby in the last big event for old Sportsman’s Park. I remember Dancer’s Image being disqualified after winning the 1968 Derby (his good-old-boy owner always maintained that he just wasn’t enough of a good old boy for the good old boys of Kentucky), everyone getting caught up with Secretariat, and I can remember like yesterday Bill Shoemaker guiding Ferdinand like a Ferrari in the 1986 Run for the Roses. (Ferdinand was unceremoniously slaughtered by his Japanese owners because he just wasn’t “useful” anymore and, hey, there’s only so much square footage in an island nation).
But the real impetus for getting into the game was losing my last straw of tolerance for athletes of the human genus. They’re never paid enough, in either respect or money. Too many of them dog it to first base or play alligator in the crossing pattern. Ownership isn’t particularly bright and coaching decisions leave me scratching my head. We here in Chicago experience the strongest symptoms of these ills. I don’t bet on the humans either. That was cured when Wannstedt made a half-assed attempt at scoring seven at the end of a half when a field goal would have been quite nice, a lot nicer than the zip-zero points he did get. And is Lovie Smith any different?
Flip 180 degrees: a horse will run as fast and as far as he possibly can for you, looking only for a splash of water afterward to cool down. And the jockeys? How about balancing on the balls of your feet trying to control a 1,200-pound animal while cruising along at 40 miles per hour? Now those are some athletes. And it’s a piecework profession!
* * *
So we’re into yet another Triple Crown season. Since my early-millenium epiphany, we’ve had four horses (War Emblem, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Big Brown) win the first two legs of the Triple Crown, only to be denied (two were short horses, one a short human who got in the way, the fourth a story from bizarro world) in the grueling Belmont Stakes.
The Kentucky Derby is a very peculiar race. It’s too easy to get into, evidenced by the 20 starter-fields of recent years. It’s a big traffic jam and some of the best horses have real problems with it, not to mention the horses that really don’t belong. It’s the irony of being one of the most prestigious races in the world that actually does require a lot of guesswork. And you don’t fall in love with a Derby hopeful now, for he may not even make the race. Commitment comes only at the betting window. See Saratoga Sinner below.
Some random thoughts on three-year-olds who ran last weekend:
Looking Good
* Saratoga Sinner
* Bear’s Rocket
* Masala
* Take the Points
* Capt. Candyman Can
* Hello Broadway
* Mr. Hot Stuff
* Warrior’s Reward
* Mr. Fantasy
Looking Not So Good
* Saratoga Sinner (suffered a knee chip in the Holy Bull Stakes and is off the Derby Trail)
* Nicanor (The full brother of Barbaro started well in a maiden special weight but grabbed a quarter – stepped on his own hoof – and was shut down by jockey Edgar Prado. The first-time runner was hammered on the tote board down to 2-5 at one point, simply because of his famous brother. And you thought that only happened at City Hall.)
* Checklist
* Dubinsky
* Idol Maker
* Rockland
* Stately Character
* Well Positioned
* Break Water Edison
* Danger to Society (owners ripped him from Kenny McPeek’s barn and sent him to Richard Dutrow, Big Brown’s man behind the curtain).
Races to Watch This Saturday
* Bob Baffert’s 3-year-old Pioneer of the Nile in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Santa Anita. Baffert likes him. A lot. Filly Stardom Bound is most certainly pointed to the Kentucky Oaks and goes Saturday in the Las Virgenes.
* Big day of stakes racing at Fairgrounds, including the Grade III Risen Star Stakes (a prep for the Louisiana Derby) and the Silverbulletday Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Illinois-bred(!) Giant Oak is the morning-line favorite in the Risen Star (Dust Commander in 1970 is the only Illinois-bred Derby winner). Also look for Friesan Fire, Indygo Mountain, and Soul Warrior. I hope to get a price on Chamberlain Bridge in the Colonel Power Stakes.
On The Local Scene
Chicago gazillionaire owner Frank C. Calabrese and trainer Wayne Catalano have divorced again, this time FOR GOOD. Something about Catalano disrespecting Calabrese down at Gulfstream Park recently. These two can’t live together and they can’t live apart. They won many owner and training titles at Arlington and Hawthorne primarily by playing the claiming game. That is, claiming a $30k horse and dropping him down in class to $15k or $10k, just to get the win. It’s like putting your hulking high school senior son into a Pee Wee game.
But the question is, will Frank’s new trainers be as good as Catalano? I thought Catalano did a great job with Dreaming of Anna (Breeders Cup two-year-old winner in 2006 and U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Filly) and her full brother Lewis Michael, who won a bunch of purse money after they targeted him for synthetic-track races. On a day of industrial racing at the local tracks, that makes a big betting difference.
–
Thomas Chambers is the Beachwood’s man on the rail. He brings you Track Notes every Friday. You can reach him here.
Posted on February 6, 2009