Venue for July 16
 

Was there ever any doubt? We're heading to Saratoga for their opening weekend. We will play the full 11 race card that includes the Grade 1 Diana and the Grade 3 Sanford. First post will be at 1:05 PM Eastern.

Unfortunately the Diana only has 6 entrants (where have we seen this before) and 4 of them are trained by Chad Brown. It certainly looks as if the Racing Secretary leaned on Chad to make sure the race filled.

No, it certainly looks as if the Racing Secretary was not performing his/her duty to encourage other trainers to enter their horses. While I admire Brown's training ability, and he does have an an abundance of super good horses, I'm kind of tired of Chad, Chad, Chad. It's like Bob, Bob, Bob. While Cox is on a roll, I want to see more of McPeek, Motion, and others in the mix.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Plen, I share your exasperation over too much Chad, especially in stakes races for older horses on the turf. It seems as if his two primary clients, Seth Klarman and Peter Brandt, have an almost unlimited number of stakes caliber horses and other trainers appear reluctant to run against them. As a handicapper, I have great difficulty trying to determine which of the many Brown entrants are well intended and ready to run and whether any are there just to fill out the field. Perhaps all of them are ready for a top effort - I just can't always tell.

But, today I don't want to be angry at anyone - it's opening day and the weather looks good. I got up extra early this morning and found the Saratoga Special available online, with its usual excellent journalism. The feature race today has a Wayne Lukas runner named Summer Promise, which just about sums up the feeling of the beginning of the Saratoga season. I can't wait until a couple of minutes after 1:00 when John Imbriale leads the crowd in the traditional cry of "and they're off at Saratoga."

Hope you have a wonderful day.

I woulda bet lots of money we were going to The Spa. :D I'll get the threads up shortly.