Got to hand it to the New York Racing Association: It’s spending it while it’s still got it. Half a million bucks for a Grade 3 race. A million for fillies on the grass. An extra $200,000 in couch change just to get a certain someone in the gate.
Oh, to be tapped into casino cash.
This is not going to be a sad story. The sad part has already happened. The family, friends, and fans of Christine Picavet have dealt with the fact that she died last week at the age of 65 after a battle with cancer. She was at home in the town of Fallbrook, a northern San Diego County haven for artists, writers, and stray celebrities, a private person loved and admired by many, with a canvas on her easel and a painting in progress.
With a full tank of gas and a little ambition, a summertime racing fan on the Eastern seaboard could load up the station wagon this coming week and hit Belmont Park, Delaware Park, Monmouth Park, Pimlico, and Parx without batting an eye. Add a little more adventure and a few extra miles, and the racing menu expands to include Penn Natonal, Finger Lakes, Charles Town, and Mountaineer, although for those last two you’d need to go to West Virginia. Drive safely.
On Saturday out in smoky Los Angeles, the $300,000 Triple Bend at seven furlongs will serve as a warm-up act for the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita at 10 furlongs. Both are rated by the American Graded Stakes Committee as Grade 1 events.
For purposes of programming, however, the Triple Bend is merely the warm-up act. The Hank Kingsley to the Gold Cup’s Larry Sanders. The Triple Bend’s seven furlongs will require 80 seconds or so of hard work by the eight older horses entered. Chances are that its impact won’t linger much longer.
California is on fire again, or at least that is how it plays in the news markets, even though the hillsides and canyons affected by the fires amount to just 13,000 of the state’s 101 million acres.
It doesn’t sound like much until you get close enough to see the flames on the next ridge of the hills behind your house. Until you breathe the ash in the air and feel the change in temperature. Until you stand in fear and wonder at the sight of DC-10s and Huey helicopters flying low and dumping their red fire retardant and water.
It says a lot about Songbird, and the connection she has made with the racing public, that everyone seems to think they know best what her next start should be. Many of us do love to play “racing manager,” and plot out campaigns for good horses. But with so many playing this game with Songbird, and playing it passionately, it speaks to how special she is.
If there is a more complicated relationship than the one between fathers and sons, the floor is open to nominations.
One year ago – on June 19, 2015, to be exact – Simon Bray learned that he was among the 1 percent of cancer patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood disease. He could not promise his son, Oliver, that he would be around for Christmas, let alone Father’s Day 12 months down the line.
Mike Smith was asked if he thought Songbird would be 100 percent cranked up and ready to fire for her return to competition in the $200,000 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita on Saturday.
“She hasn’t run in a bit, so I honestly couldn’t tell you if she’ll be at 100 percent,” Smith replied. “But I’ve never really asked her to run 100 percent either, so I have no idea what that would feel like. I mean, I’ve let her run for a jump or two here and there, but then it’s always back into my hands again.”
There were so many strong performances in Grade 1 races at Belmont Park last Saturday that the afternoon still seems like a blur of excellence. There were the dominant victories by the fillies Carina Mia in the Acorn, Cavorting in the Phipps, and Celestine in the Just a Game; there was a powerful season debut from Flintshire, the best grass horse in the country; and a dramatic triumph by Creator over Destin in the Belmont Stakes.
