Handsome Mike? Raced at Keeneland on October 5th? That's gotta be me! Odd, though, that there isn't a Handsome Big Randy on the Breeders' Cup race card. Speaking of Townies, both real and imagined, check out the Dam (mother) for this Breeders' Cup entry:
Hay Jude! Get it? "Hay?!" Even for a Fab Four-hater like me, I found this humorous.
The aspect that I most enjoy about the advance Breeders' Cup edition of the Daily Racing Form is that it provides readers with the lifetime past performances for every horse that is entered, as opposed to the 6- or 8-most recent races that a track program might offer. It is usually way down deep into the lifetime past performance of a European or South American or Japanese or Australian horse that I discover new and interesting (and often hilarious) things about racing beyond the amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesty. For example, this parenthetical inclusion into the so-called "trouble line" of a Euro invader:
A Figure 8 race course?! For horses?! Cor blimey!
Here's an evocative race name and host-track setting that offers a gauzy, halcyonic aura of by-gone pastoral days:
The 1-mile 196,600 British-pound Royal Hunt Cup turf handicap at Ascot on June 20, 2012. Your gauzy, halcyonic daydream ruptures upon the nuclear annihilation of discovering there were 30, count 'em, THIRTY horses that broke from the gate (or the corral or the cavalry garrison or the zoological gardens?) for the Royal Hunt Cup:
Among the more traditional fields of 9 and 15, you see the "30" (upper right, above) that raced for the honor of holding aloft the Ascot Royal Hunt Cup in 2012. I wonder; Did Ascot offer a ten-pence 12-horse superfecta box..... No! A dodecafecta box? I can imagine the scene now: "Oy mate! Gimmie a ten-pence dodecafecta box on 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 24 and 30."
Check, please!
[Bonus points to the first person to correctly identify the significance of the twelve numbers above.]
One horse who, reportedly, did not pick up a check for his in-the-money finishing efforts was Vagabond Shoes.
Twice in the bullrings of Madrid, Spain did Vagabond Shoes scuffle into what evidently was a zero-purse Allowance race. Huh? Reading further, Vagabond Shoes, somehow, managed to finish 3rd in a single entry walk-over with a weightless jockey (one J. Crocquevielle) on September 13, 2009. I will chalk up this past performance line item to "typographical errors" but one can never tell with those inscrutable Spaniards. ¡Dios mío!
On World Thoroughbred Championship days, the staff at the Daily Racing Form becomes comically indignant at some of the no-hope pre-entries as is evidenced by this comment (below):
You have to love a sarcastic handicapper!
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Here's a Pick Six wagering alert from the DRF's Steven Crist for those of you whom are so inclined:
The biggest change could be in the pick six, where there will be no mandatory payout on Saturday this year. Usually, the two Cup pick sixes have been separated from the host track's meet, with a fresh pool starting Friday and no carryover from Saturday even if no one picked six of six.
This year, if the regular Santa Anita six is not hit on Halloween Thursday, there will be a carryover to the Nov. 1 Friday Cup card. If no one picks six on the Saturday Cup card, there will be a carryover to the Santa Anita card on Sunday, Nov. 3, which is the final day of the meet and when there would be a massive mandatory payout. Pick-six enthusiasts might want to arrange their travel and bankroll plans around the possibility of an added day of high-stakes action.
Of course, the foregoing labors under the wildly speculative presumption that The B Team Syndicate does not hit the Pick Six on Saturday. Stranger things have happened before. Like every preceding Breeders' Cup.
There are a number of ways in which you can monitor the potential for this mind-bending reality to occur. One way would be to watch coverage of the Breeders' Cup Classic on the NBC flagship Saturday evening (check your local listings). Another way would be to check the Carryover Corner page at Equibase.com. Also, DRF publisher Steven Crist will keep you updated throughout Saturday at his blog.
If any of you rail birds have an interest in organizing a Sunday Syndicate, shoot me an email (or text).
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