Racing News
We are just two weeks away from the signature day of the meet, the 2014 Haskell Invitational, and of course I will be there! I fly out of Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday for Philadelphia, get into a rental car and will drive to the Jersey Shore where I have booked a hotel. My seat is a reserved box in the Clubhouse right past the finish line. So it is with great interest that I have been following the news as to the potential line-up for this major race of the summer. The most exciting news is that one of my favorite sophomores, and I think perhaps the best of the generation, the filly Untapable is apparently on course to make her next stop here. AND her regular rider, Rosie Napravnik appears to be readying to return to the irons after injuring herself late in the Churchill meet. The Haskell will be no slam dunk as she will face several top notch colts, one of which is Wildcat Red who won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and was narrowly defeated in the Florida Derby by my top pick, Constitution. He had a troubled trip in the Derby and came back with an authoritative score at Gulfstream to prep for this Gr 1. He fired a sharp bullet work over the Hallandale surface this week going five furlongs in less than a minute. He will most certainly be the one to run down late for Untapable! On the undercard there are the Teddy Drone Stakes, the Grade 3 Oceanport, the Grade 3 Matchmaker, the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher, the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup, and of course the featured Grade 1, $1 million Haskell. Other big races for the day include the Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar and the Grade 3 Shuvee at Saratoga. I arrive on Saturday, in Philadelphia around 1:30 pm, so I should be able to get to the track no later than 2 pm, which will enable me to not only play the Monmouth card, but also the major races from around the country that day......including a pair of graded stakes from Saratoga in the Gr 3 Amsterdam and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy.
Locally, since Calder and Gulfstream have apparently settled their differences - for the time being - racing has picked up at Gulfstream to go Thursday through Sunday and the field have been noticeably deeper making for much better racing. But the most significant news this week came when I read that the eight weeks of racing this fall at Calder, run by Gulfstream, will be a "boutique meet" that will be billed as a "turf festival." Management at Gulfstream are in the process of completely ripping up the old Calder turf - which was hardly ever used - and replacing it with a quality surface. That sounds great to me! But then I read in an article about how Calder is layoff off nearly 250 employees (many of which I would call "racing friends"), that "....patrons will view the race from large tents rather than from the existing grandstand...." - what the????? A day later I read this same thing with the comment that "officials would not comment on the rumor that the 1943 grandstand facility was going to be torn down completely this fall or early winter." That would be sad, much like when the original Gulfstream facility was taken down.Finally, Kim came home today after being gone eight long days, so glad to have her home. This past Wednesday I drove across the state to see my former teaching pal, Anya. We had a great day going to three different water-front restaurants for appetizers and catching up on what has been going on with our lives since she moved away.
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