SUNDAY: RELIEF

The weather has broken and it looks like it might rain. There was so much good racing yesterday that it was difficult to process everything that was going on. I’ll spend a few hours on Tuesday going over the videos, charts, and Racing Flow figures and try to come up with some post-race thoughts. As I’ve written before, for me those are a lot more useful than insta-analysis anyway. One thing for sure in that the CCA lived up to its Grade 1 status in terms of the excitement level of the race itself and the performance of the top two. For the rest of the meet, I’ll try to tweet from the paddock for all the Grade 1s. They really are special, particularly up here.

*

Back on Opening Day I had the pleasure of watching a couple of races in a box with my friend John Panagot and the great Angel Cordero. For some reason unbeknownst to me, John introduced me as “The Magician” (I have been known to produce the occasional rabbit from the random hat). After the race, Angel asked me, “So you do magic?” I explained that no, I wrote about horses for a living. Then I added, “But I have been known to make a selection that goes POOF at the eighth poll.”

*
Also had the pleasure of meeting the legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer at the Paddock bar (which I think is technically called The Post Bar but it’s too late to stop now). Meyer is the man responsible for the bar, the Shake Shack, and Blue Smoke (among many of New York City’s finest eateries including Gramercy Tavern and union Square Café). I asked DM what his favorite food was at the track and he chose the fried chicken sandwich at the Hattie’s stand, noting that he might have chosen the Shack burger, but he eats those all the time. He also told me that Hattie’s chef, Jasper Alexander used to work in the kitchen at Gramercy Tavern, and out of deference to him and the quality of Hattie’s fried chicken, the chicken sandwich at Blue Smoke is grilled.

Enough of that, on to today’s racing.

Today’s card is a bit of the flip side of yesterday for me personally, far fewer races that I absolutely need to pay attention to, but it’s still a good competitive card with a couple things I might want to mess around with.

In the second race, I’ll be doing the full tote/paddock routine on #4 DEHERE OF THE CAT. I haven’t heard any steam or anything, it’s just a few obvious angles that have me intrigued: it looks a win early pedigree, daddy (Discreet Cat) LOVED the Spa, and the J/T combo of Mike Trombetta and Ramon Dominguez is appealing as both are among my favorites.

BANKROLL PLAY

Race 7: $25 win and place on #9 CHORUS MUSIC

In The Irish Linnet, there are a few upgrades but my selection is Chorus Music. I have her as a massive double upgrade (her last two both WAY better than they looked according to the Racing Flow figs). John Terranova’s numbers are excellent in all the relevant categories and J.J. Castellano is his go-to guy. According to the invaluable Daily Racing Form, the two are clicking at 39% over their last 49 starts with an otherworldly ROI of $5.01.

MEET TO DATE RESULTS: +52.50 (-$50 yesterday)

And for some reason, I always like to hear great music on Sunday mornings 😉 So, borrowed from a throwway text reference above, I give you Van Morrison interpreting Sam Cooke (massive props if you can connect the dots).