No change

The Golden Gate Fields stewards made two notable NO CHANGE calls today. In the second race, the Russell Baze piloted Mr. Cool, who was anything but, mugged High Solids along the rail during the stretch drive. He then raced erratically throughout the remainder of the stretch, causing the ultimate winner Jehovah Jireh to alter course substantially. The Dean Pederson trained High Solids is probably the only horse that may have been cost a placing, here. Curiously, there was no inquiry into the race, and only a jockey's objection triggered the stewards to review the race. There was a collective grown in the grandstand when the no change announcement was made.

In the sixth race, eventual winner Missile Smoking hammered Polygraph in the lane, then rammed into 3rd place finisher Standford Gold in the last jumps before the wire. During the inquiry, I couldn't find anyone that believed the result would stand. Of course, it did. The head-on view of this race is most telling, although the infraction is obvious on the pan as well. Oddly, CalRacing.com does not show head-on shot in the stretch for this particular race.

Watch the races at CalRacing.com [free sign-up required]

New theory on War Emblem

The Kentucky Derby winner's problems in the breeding shed have been well documented. He's not infertile, but he simply refuses to cover mares. Some have even suggested he is gay.

A buddy of mine has developed another novel theory. After his recent divorce he subsequently dedicated his late 20s to making all the bad decisions he failed to make in his early 20s while he was paying a mortgage, climbing the corporate ladder, and banging his fashionably eccentric trophy wife. After shedding those burdens and drinking heavily at Coachella with a cadre of young lovelies, it came to him. War Emblem isn't gay. He's got whiskey dick.

I never was a Dead Kennedys fan. This Nouvelle Vague cover will do just fine, though.

Dutrow prepared to slay competition

Faster Horses

A Tom T. Hall classic

Comic strip of the day (dorf/miyadi edition)

Hollendorfer wins Bay Meadows training title again

Here it is. This is the difference. Steve Miyadi finished exactly one winner behind perennial leading trainer Jerry Hollendofer for the trainer title at the penultimate Bay Meadows meet. And this is the difference.

He finished exactly one win behind. This was just the nightcap at Bay Meadows Friday night. He had five other 2nds friday night. On an eight race card. I saw him the following day and i can attest, he did not slit his wrists, or so much as acknowledge a tough beat.

Like most every trainer that wins more than his fair share, whether Sherman or Dorf or R L Martin(readers of Laughing in the Hills will know), the response was a common: "yesterday? we gotta win TODAY."

Bay Meadows trainer title coming down to the wire

With three racing days remaining in the meet, there is not yet a presumptive winner of the trainer's title. Perennial leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is ahead with 51 wins, however Steve Miyadi is only two back with 49 wins.

Miyadi has been stuffing the entry box in the waning days of the meet, entering two horses in many races. In less than a week he has closed the gap from eight to two.

It appeared Hollendorfer may have been caught off guard by the late charge by an insurgent Miyadi. However, when this weekends entries were taken, a strong Hollendorfer presence emerged. Dorf entered four on tonight's card and Miyadi entered nine, before scratches. On Saturday and Sunday, Dorf has entered horses in aggressive spots. While running horses where they will hold odds-on favoritism is his modus operandi year round, retaining his crown may also be an element of his drop-and-pop approach this weekend.