You Could Own the Drunken Spider!

Drunken Spider, completely sober and happy.

One of the coolest horses on the planet is for sale as a riding horse: Drunken Spider.

The Drunken Spider raced at Tampa this winter, and he usually tried his best, but he moved to Suffolk in the summertime and looked even more marvelous, winning a race.

The racing wars have passed him by and he is now for sale, to a good home.

No, we won't be cheering "C'mon Drunken Spider" as he comes down the lane, and that's sad, but we can call him from the field for a nice dinner.

For folks in or around New England, this is a rare opportunity to own this fine horse for a very low price.   Please visit CanterUSA, or pass along the link to friends who may be interested. 

Cane Pace Kicks In Some Questions

Yesterday's Cane Pace was a pretty interesting affair, that might've provided us with more questions than answers.

The first jewel of the Triple Crown (really it is) was a hard fought race with the season leader Captain Treacherous coming out on top in 149.2. The last three quarters of 1:23 and last quarter of 28 seconds, might provide us with a few clues. Are these horses a little bit tweaked? How could no one get a win in that slowing pace, from off it? Is this crop any good at all?

It seemed, while watching, Vegas Vacation had a ton of pace, but other than him the result was pretty surprising. We're used to seeing bigger speed and fractions, so something must have been up.

We'll have to wait until Lexington more than likely, to see these horses meet again, and that should provide more evidence.

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Harness racing, as most know, is a sport without a leader. And a sport without a leader lets things go, when they should've been taken care of long ago. There is a picture released of the Cane Pace winner that is everywhere on the web, with his hocks being kicked by a leading driver - a driver that does it in about every close race with a close finish, with any horse, so it's not like it's new. Hock kicking apologists say "it's just scaring the horse and no big deal". Others see it as cruelty that should not be in the forefront, and since it's against the rules, those rules should be enforced. To add insult to injury, the driver's whip is in the genitalia area, which is also an offense; and is another trick used to this day by many drivers with impunity, as well.

The sport has chosen, out of not caring, because no one has any balls, or because "it's harness racing" to let this go on. It's almost like they hope no one notices. Now the picture has surfaced on chat boards, last evening on twitter and just about everywhere else with people wondering if anyone is minding, or even has a care about the sport.

It's ironic that in thoroughbred racing there is a big brouhaha about buzzers being used by jockey's to scare a horse into performing, and if they're caught, the sport lowers the boom; sometimes kicking the participant out for months. Meanwhile in harness racing, a leading driver boots them to hell, and no one says a word.

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you didn't know: Harness racing is one frigged up sport.

Controversy, Cubed!

Throughout horse racing history there's been a ton of controversy; it's kind of a big part of the game.

The past 48 hours have us in throw-back mode, with talk about non-DQ's in a huge race, a leading trainer's help administering something before a race, and an oldie but a goodie: A jock with a buzzer.

Last evening in the $700k Metro Stakes there was plenty of contact in the lane (video here), with Some Major Beach taking the bulk of it. Many observers felt the winner forced his way out and caused the brouhaha, but he was left up. Reaction from twitter (in HRU, pdf, page three) was quick and forceful.

Via the chart, seven horses were charted as having, or causing interference. One guesses - we don't really know - that the horse who came last was the culprit, which is the reason we saw no placings? Again, since judges decisions are not reported, we don't know.  This, in my opinion, was a curious decision, and I feel in such a rich race, they simply let the contact caused by the winner go.

Our Thoroughbred friends are responsible for the last two controversial happenings.

Doug O'Neill's assistant of some sort gave a pre race treatment to a horse who was getting ready to race.

•  CHRB safety steward Luis Jauregui saw an O’Neill employee “enter the stall of a horse with a detention sign on the door and administer a product in its mouth,” according to the published stewards’ minutes from that day. “He confronted the person, who turned out to be the foreman, and confiscated the tube, which had the brand name CB2A and contained amino acids, which are illegal to give on race day. The horse turned out to be Cinco de Mario, which was scheduled to run in the fifth race.”

According to the Paulick Report, O'Neill called this a "human error".

That may very well be completely true, but when something involves O'Neill and "mistakes" it tends to cause some controversy.

For many it begs the question regarding things we see in several barns: "Why do mistakes seem to happen in the same barns?". "Why do TC02 overages and 'bad testing' always happen to a hot off the claim barn?". "How is a trainer the only trainer on earth not to know that you don't give "Air Power" to a horse in detention?". How does some hot barn have 5 or 10 overages for medications, but hundreds of other barns with even more starts not have one?"

I saved the best for last: Buzzers. This is some major-league old school horse racing stuff, and that makes this a super-cool story.  Here is the recap on the Paulick Report with link to the video.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone.