9/10 ATR: MA Fair Special w/ Welsch, Mirahmadi, Figueroa, Blowen..
 

Rollicking Massachusetts Fair Special ATR has..

9:00 Mike Welsch
9:20 Michael Blowen
9:40 Frank Mirahmadi
10:00 Tommy Skiffington
10:15 Jim Cornes
10:30 "King of the Fairs" Carlos Figueroa
11:00 Andy Serling
11:35 Night School's Jeremy Plonk

SiriusXM & Capital Off-Track Betting TV 6-9a Wednesday; Archive, etc., www.stevebyk.com..

How about having Carlos Figueroa back to compare training methods of the past to training methods now, with say Linda Rice? ;)

I loved the steak to rice and beans.

The King of the Fairs! Thought that was pretty memorable. Tried hard to get some questions in, but clearly wasn't having much luck and just had to let him go wherever he wanted.. You definitely hit on the best moments... the track kitchen line and the women trainer/rider thoughts. Could probably do a week with nothing but people who went through the fair circuit on their way up or down in the game. Do have to find some of the jocks that were brought up..

The whole Fair topic was great!

Carlos Figueroa spot required subtitles.

:tro:

Marshfield Fair
 

I am really enjoying listen to these stories, very entertaining.
One year I was at Marshfield with my wife and very young daughter, I can't remember the distance of the race but one of the horses collapsed on the jockey and dropped dead right on the spot. Out comes the equipment to remove the horse which consists of a front end loader and a tow truck. Quite the introduction to the sport for my daughter.

Here is a direct link to the uproarious chapter in Beyer's "My $50,000 Year at the Races", Barrington Fair: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime. (Perhaps the greatest chapter title in publishing history)..

http://books.google.com/books?id=3jX...0crime&f=false

:tro: great show...great stories Steve, nice photos on Facebook also

will always be grateful to the king for helping my father into the winners circle in a monsoon to take what would be his last picture there.

side note, when this hoss ran, the comment in the paper was "comes from a sharp betting outfit". I remember telling the trainer " i wonder who they're talking about, cuz it sure ain't us. Hoss gets dusted at 4-5. Next start 13-1 she wins by a pole. Too funny.

Nice, agreed, but to me very sad . . .

While I am of the opinion that there were too many races run at Saratoga this year (but given the state's involvement, a very complex discussion), in leafing through the book excerpt to which you linked, Beyer contained discussions about Saratoga races that included a $10,000 maiden claiming steeplechase and a $45,000 maiden claiming race for 2YOs. With all the columns containing hand-wringing about the quality of the racing at Saratoga this year, one would have thought that those sort of races were never contested at Saratoga in "the good old days."

"I could never decide whether to bet on the basis of logic or larceny." :tro:

best jockey to get to talk about the fairs....Howard Lanci. He was featured in TD Thornton's book, but is still the only jock I ever saw that standing ovations whenever he won a race at Suffolk. The most likable and affable little bastid you ever seen. When I would play pool with him at the track kitchen. any ball he shot was about 200 MPH. he could ride the bullrings though. Tommy Maeda is the real expert, but you'd need subtitles to understand him.