[ateamstupid]

Halfway home at the Spa [Aug. 15th, 2006|05:21 pm]
First-half horse racing awards:

Best performance - Bernardini
I don't know if there's really another competitor for this spot. A lot of very evenly-matched fields.. No real dominating performances. Unfortunately, I wasn't in town for this one, but he just jogged against a solid field of 3-year-olds. I'm actually glad Bluegrass Cat ran so well at Monmouth, because now, 'dini might be 3/5 instead of 1/20.. Not that I'd bet him to win, but perhaps the pick fo' will pay something.

Biggest dud - Artie Schiller
Matt should be happy about this one. I mean, what the **** was the excuse this time? Was there an injury I didn't hear about? I'm seriously asking, because I haven't been reading DRF like I do back home. Either way, he was awful. Relaxed Gesture and Rewrite are two major competitors for this spot after this past weekend. Yeah, neither of them got great rides, but they both should've still been better than they were.

Best stretch duel - Spun Sugar and Balletto in The Go for Wand
That was a blast to watch, and after going to see Balletto a few days later, I now wish she would've gotten the nod. What a sweetheart. Close second goes to Invasor and Sun King in The Whitney.

"You should've stayed home" trainer award - Dale Romans
Scott Lake has put up some serious competition for this spot, but Romans has been just awful.. Something like 1-for-24 I believe..

Sneaky good trainer award - Jamie Sanders
I don't know how this girl got such a terrible win percentage, but she's been sending out some LIVE horses this meet. When you see a Sanders entry, all I can say is you'd better pay attention.

Best jockey - Garret Gomez
Of course Johnny and Prado are huge candidates, but I think Gomez has done more with less this meet. My boy Javier is also "quietly making some noise"..

Worst jockey - Mike Smith
Enough said.

Best-looking baby (male) - City Snitch
It's been a bit of a disappointing meet for the 2-year-old boys.. Scat Daddy was ehh.. City Snitch was mighty impressive early on, and since then, it's been kinda dull.

Best-looking baby (female) - Panty Raid
Still not quite sure how this much talked about filly paid $10 and the entire Beta Y Kappa house is kicking itself for not hammering her harder than we did.

Weirdest occurance - Three Lions and Giant Chieftan both bolting at the exact same spot of the turf course
Both of them looked like easy winners, got to about the 1/8th pole, and as Tom Durkin put it, "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."

On to the personal awards..

Best moment - Experiencing country life
Being alive to a $21,000+ pick six payout is a close second, followed by getting to see the backstretch and meet some champion horses, but every time so far that I've felt what it's like outside of the city, I've been on cloud nine. As wide-eyed as smalltown people are when they come to NYC, that's how I am when I'm in the fields out here.. It's funny, we came up with the "Fresh Air Fund" joke before I even came up, but it really has been a trip. Now of course, I could never live out here for good.. I'm a city boy.. But living up here temporarily has expanded my horizons a ton already.

Best parimutuel hit - Yesterday's early pick four
$451 on a $20 investment. Got me back into the black for the meet.. Just gotta try to keep rolling.

Worst mistake - Collectively, all of us not including Prideland in our pick six ticket
Would've been three grand richer apiece had we just thrown that horse in..

Funniest moment - Too many to count
Everybody in this house is hilarious. It's way too much fun busting balls and shooting the **** with these dudes.

Best surprise - Getting to meet so many cool members of Derby Trail, and having so many people read this journal. If anybody else makes it up here, come see the kid at the clubhouse!

Finally, the second half outlook..

Looking forward to most - Travers Day
Boring answer, I know, but it should be nuts. How about the way The King's Bishop is shaping up? Henny, Too Much Bling, Songster, Fabulous Strike.. Not to mention Bernardini getting to stamp himself as top 3-year-old. Plus, the climax of the meet. If I can just make it until then..

Looking forward to least - Having to start school three days after I go home
That's gonna be some ****ing juggling act. I'm gonna feel like sleeping for two straight weeks, but I get no such break since this doesn't shut down until Labor day..

Hope everyone has a safe and profitable second half of the meet. Shoot me a private message or come see me at the track in my Carolina Slavecue glory! Keep on keepin' on racing fans..