NEW YORK - The morning line is one of the most familiar components of horse racing, and one of the most widely misunderstood - not just by fans, but also by track operators who are needlessly confusing their patrons.
A morning line - actually a misnomer now that simulcasting has turned them into day-before or even 48-hours-before lines - is one thing and one thing only: an educated guess of how a race will be bet and the price at which each horse will actually go off when betting closes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Get out the Advil and dust off the dartboard. It's time once again for California's most confusing parimutuel event, and if there are handicappers out there with a strong opinion about the outcome of the $750,000 American Oaks, they must be looking at some other horse race.
NEW YORK - The calendar says that half the year was over this past Thursday, but we're not even a third of the way there when it comes to racing's most important events. As of July 1, only 32 of this year's 100 Grade 1 races had been run.
That leaves 68 percent of the elite races to go, but already there is plenty of evidence that this is unfolding as a very different racing season from the 2003 version, with an emphasis on sharing the wealth, and winners coming from unexpected places, both geographically and parimutuelly.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - From the beginning, Lovely Rafaela has lived the life of the privileged little rich girl. The Hiltons have nothing on her.
She was born and raised on the Diamond A Farm of Gerald Ford, formerly home to the gaudy collection of Thoroughbreds assembled by the late Allen Paulson, when the sumptuous central Kentucky acreage was known as Brookside Farm.
TUCSON, Ariz., - Racing's desperate mission this summer is keeping Smarty Jones alive.
Not keeping him alive and breathing. He's doing fine.
He sneezed, but he's okay.
He's eating well.
He jogged with his pony.
He has a place to enjoy paternity, at lovely Three Chimneys.
He looks wonderful.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After two weeks of holiday, deserved or not, it is suddenly time to catch up. Time to dive into the pile of news clips, sort through the e-mails, and go back to work with a fresh and invigorated attitude. You in the back, stop laughing.
Two weeks represent an eternity in terms of news cycles, and horse racing is no exception. Apparently, while I was out, some of the following things occurred:
Half the 2004 season is now in the books.
A jockey fired his agent.
The Derby winner was sold.
Ten Most Wanted was retired.
NEW YORK - When the world's greatest athletes gather in Athens this summer for the Olympics, they will be competing for medals and glory in such ancient and compelling sports as synchronized swimming, table tennis, and tae kwon do. So why not horse racing?
With all due respect to eventing, dressage, and show jumping, racing is the best and purest form of equestrian competition, and adding an international horse race to the Games would be more in keeping with Olympic tradition than almost any event on the schedule.
NEW YORK - It sounded too good to be true that Smarty Jones would run in both the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic this fall, and it was. The goal now with a colt worth $40 million to the breeding industry appears to be to protect his value by running him in as many soft spots as possible. So instead of the Gold Cup, he will be headed for the Pegasus Handicap at The Meadowlands, a race that is being scheduled for his maximum convenience.
NEW YORK - Smarty Jones's owners have every right in the world to take the money and not run, to retire him at year's end rather than race him as a 4-year-old. Let's all stop pretending, though, that this decision would reflect the unreasonable cost of equine insurance or be a proper sporting decision because the colt has nothing left to prove on the racetrack.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Steven Crist wrote recently about the "butterfly effect," in which seemingly tiny things can cause enormous ones to happen. He explained that the theory says the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a chain of events culminating in a tornado in Texas.
Last week the butterfly flapped its wings in Maryland.