Tuesday Notes & NA Cup XXX

Sitting here a few minutes to post waiting to watch Animal Kingdom, and not really wanting to work, I figured I might as well write a post.....

The North America Cup on Saturday was a fascinating affair. Here are a few observations and opinions:

This crop is not last year's crop. The top to bottom pure speed is not there yet, and probably won't be there. It makes for an interesting year, though.

The third quarter made the race. Sylvain Filion's horse must have felt wonderful, because he pretty much sprinted from the half (which was not slow) on. This caused the brouhaha near the three quarters when Vegas Vacation could not hook the leader, and the Captain was gapping cover. Those horses were all pacing as fast as they could, like it was a last quarter around the turn. The last sixteenth was glacial.

So far we've seen no standouts. The Captain leads the division yes, but he is certainly not near his father's ability. He is nowhere near as fast and not even close to as well-gaited. I expect we'll see several winners of the classic races based on trip, sharpness and soundness.

I watched Odds On Equuleus's connections in the post parade and both John Campbell and Robin Schadt looked like they lost their dog. He raced poorly - he was rough and terrible gaited. There is something up with that horse.

A horse I think needs to find his feet, and when he does he will be very good, is Wake Up Peter. There's something not quite 100% with him yet, in my opinion.

Fool Me Once reminds me a bit of Bolt the Duer so far. If you give him a two hole trip he is going to win a lot of money this year. He's great gaited and supremely handy.

$3M was bet on the Cup card. On-track handle was up 10% as well. That's a good result. Woodbine Entertainment, like so much of Ontario racing, is seemingly getting their ass in gear with promotion, signal availability, and so on to juice handles.

Other notes.....

"Put that in your pipe and smoke it". I am daft, totally daft on things. I had no idea this is what that entailed, even though I know Ray's well-publicized history. It just didn't even register for me. This episode seems to get more and more bizarre.

You knew that there was more to the story on the NY Post cutting their racing coverage right before the Belmont. John Pricci lets us in. What say NYRA apologists? John also talks about Andy Asaro's public correspondence with Bob Baffert.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!