“I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I get that day over and over and over ... ” – Bill Murray, “Groundhog Day”
Because you can’t, that’s why. Because it wouldn’t be good for you, just like eating steak and chocolate cake for every meal wouldn’t be good for you, or never being told no.
In the wake of California Chrome’s devastatingly easy score in Saturday’s Awesome Again Stakes, more than a few people wondered why anyone would want to face the world’s best racehorse in next month’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.
After a year in limbo, the John Henry Turf Championship is back at Santa Anita, where the real John Henry did most of his winning during a career of 39 wins in 83 starts. Of those 39, he won 13 at Santa Anita, all of them stakes.
That is an impossible bar for the modern Thoroughbred to grasp, even for geldings who manage to race until they are 9 years old. John Henry was voted Horse of the Year when he was 6 and again when he was 9, which helps explain both his plaque in the Hall of Fame and that magnificent statue by the fountain in the Santa Anita paddock gardens.
If John Sadler doesn’t have a good day Saturday, it won’t be for a lack of trying.
Sadler and his primary patron, Hronis Racing, are taking swings in three Grade 1 events on the Santa Anita Park program with varying degrees of promise, ranging from wishful thinking to historically portentous, at least in terms of what could happen next.
There is an old-fashioned reliability about California Chrome that is taken for granted in this age of speed figures and big-day performances.
Put it this way: In a career of 23 races dating to his maiden special weight debut at Hollywood Park on April 26, 2013, California Chrome has never missed a start while under the training and management of Art Sherman and his crew.
It says much about Songbird that the words “brilliant” and “dominant” haven’t been able to do her real justice for quite some time if you want to accurately describe her qualities as a race horse, and her position vis a vis her contemporaries. For Songbird, those words just seem so weak now.
“Sensational” still works, though, and Songbird was every bit of that winning Saturday’s Cotillion Stakes at Parx.
While wishing Tommy Trotter a happy 90th birthday the other day, the conversation naturally got around to the cavalcade of great horses who came under his thumb as racing secretary at outposts like Belmont, Arlington, Gulfstream, and Hollywood Park.
It’s getting a little ridiculous, these fillies and mares ridden by Mike Smith who are so reluctant to lose.
At one point in her Hall of Fame career, Sky Beauty reeled off 10 wins in 11 starts under Smith, all in graded stakes. Inside Information went 14 for 17 over three seasons with Smith as her only rider. Azeri won 13 of her first 14 races with Smith, and then there was Zenyatta, who reeled off 16 straight for Smith, who always liked to think he was just along for the ride.
Nyquist is in the news again. Remember him? The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, 2-year-old male champion, and undefeated hero of the Kentucky freakin’ Derby? All it took was two high-profile losses for him to be relegated to yesterday’s fishwrap, a one-hit wonder. This year’s Super Saver. Orb in West Coast drag.
Is this a tough room or what?
The 106 Beyer Speed Figure she was assigned falls pretty much into line with her best numbers, so some people might insist otherwise, but no matter what fig she got, Tepin did not run her best race in winning Saturday’s Woodbine Mile.
Now, before her legion of fans gets all worked up and drags out the pitchforks, let me add this:
