Viewers' Choice Awards for HRTV & TVG Personalities

In today's column, Richard Eng reveals his Eclipse ballot. He is also asking for viewer input for the best talent on HRTV & TVG. I put my ballot together but want to plug one of them individually. I think she is the best between both networks:

Hands down, the winner is Christina Olivares. Remember her from last year's Santa Anita meet? Ok, she's smokin' in a sun dress when interviewing connections in the winners circle. I won't deny that her, a'hem, assets, got my attention. But jeeze louise, she's just incredibly knowledgeable. She's a goddamn expert on the sport. Furthermore, the organic knowledge she has from growing up on the backstretch and familiarity with the connections makes her tops in my book. She always asks the right questions. She is disarming, a substantive asset that yields real answers, and her delivery is so casual it's like she's interviewing her favorite uncle. Contrast that with the floozy at TVG who knows nothing of the sport and acts like a caricature of a ditzy blond when conducting an interview.

"Movement" Approved

Now it's official. The filly's name has been registered in good order with the Jockey Club as Movement.

Although strictly administrative, logging into my Jockey Club account and seeing the following is one of the immeasurable joys of being a neophyte horse owner. I wonder if clocker, and regular commenter at LATG, Walter has noticed her on the 2007 Kentucky Oaks futures board in Vegas yet.

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Detailed Naming Information
Movement 2004 out of Delamere

Entered Type Name Selected Status

12/13/05 Name Claim Movement Approved
12/13/05 Name Claim Grand Complication Not Checked
12/13/05 Name Claim Verge and Foliot Not Checked

Hanger-On To Attend Hollywood Futurity

I'm southbound Friday to visit my gutair picking buddy and occasional Lucinda Williams sidekick Dick Deluxe, and to take in Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Hollywood Futurity with another buddy, trainer Grant Forster.

Grant's backstretch outfit also plies their trade for Eoin Harty trainer of A.P. Warrior when Eoin has an entry at Hollywood Park.



Stan Fulton, founder and former President of Anchor Gaming, which was aquired by slot machine giant and Wall Street darling IGT, counts A.P. Warrior among his stable's well bred stock. Mr. Fulton also happens to own Sunland Park, known for the WinStar Derby and their slots infused purses. He is every bit as much a part of horse racing royalty as names such as Phipps, Lewis, and Stronach. Even so, I'm much more keen to get my picture taken with Grant & Eion in some contrived yet seemingly unscripted pose to put forth the false image of myself as a member of racing's elite. This hanger-on will be making the most of it.

MOVEMENT

I submitted the name application to the Jockey Club Registry yesterday with my first three choices for our Exploit filly: Movement; Grand Complication; Verge and Foliot. I fully expect to be awarded Movement. So much so, I've already ordered my "MOVEMENT" HOODIE. For those in the know, you can see I'm working with a mechanical watch theme, my other passion.

Delta Slam Still Seeks Maiden Win

The $145k colt and half brother to our filly is still seeking an elusive first win. The rough start may have cost him a bit in his last, and he managed to bring home a small check after flattening out in the stretch, but this guy seems to have been a bit overpriced as a 2yo in training this past spring.

Indian Racing

Akshay in India made it to a nearby track for the first time recently and shares some sharp images with us. Whenever I travel, I'm sure to hit the local horse track, whether in Rio De Janeiro, Saigon, England, or Sallisaw, Oklahoma, for that matter. Horse racing doesn't have the popularity of futbol or many other sports, but so many even far flung destinations have a track. When I show up at one of these emporiums of horse racing, devoid of tourists and sporting a substantial language barrier, I'm always welcomed with the universal horseplayers zeal when discovering another appreciating soul of their personal hidden gem--the track.

This Mumbai track looks plenty grand and I'd love to play punter in their grandstand one day. Their website puts most American tracks to shame. I wonder how they ever found a web developer in India though.

Racing is one gift the English left the subcontinent I hope is not begrudged. Regardless, India is likely to be a better steward of the sport in the coming century than that other little known set of colonies in America. I hope Akshay makes it back to the track to uncover more of racing's delights.

Fragile Breed Begs for Rankings

I diverge briefly today from my narrow focus on small time horse ownership. I feel fellow bloggers like Alan, Patrick, Jessica, Ruben & Jonathan do a much better job of analysis than I can, yet since Patrick and the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance have overcome my initial skepticism over rankings, I wanted to pile on a bit.

Bill Finley offers up some rather ill-informed writing on racing yesterday, and yet I agree with his key premise: the breed is too fragile. I'll leave the "ill informed" portion of my critique, particularly with regard to his analogy between the horse and the NFL running back, for another post.

But make no mistake, the breed is fragile. How this happened and what to do about it is another matter. I believe it has much less to do with the trainers and more to do with breeding. My position is that, at the margin, a trainer can likely get slightly more from a lightly raced horse on key race days. Given that this game is one of inches, there is incentive to do so.

Breeders have lit the path to fragility by the traits they seek....Longevity, not among them. This leads trainers to run even less as experience with the evolved (read: more fragile) breed reinforces this notion as more fragile horses are more likely to be injured training and racing.

Why do they breed more fragile horses, then? For a flash in the pan, these horses perform at a higher level, even if the chance of a horse so bred competing in many races for many years is quite low. There are also exceptions, of course. The Poisson distribution has shifted, not to say that a few horses can't still fall somewhere in the "spectacular" range of the z-scale. [someone with actual knowledge of statistics should correct my likely incorrect nomenclature, here]

Another aspect of the fragile breed issue that is often ignored is the role of science and equine medicine. We are far more able to detect minute problems in todays horses than those of 20, 50 and 100 years ago. The value of breeding rights today dictate that little risk be taken, when in years past owners and trainers might be oblivious to risks such as Afleet Alex's avascular necrosis problem, that was "almost impossible to see."

What's the solution? I don't know precisely, but one can not dictate to owners and trainers to run their horses more. Nor can breeders be ordered to value stamina and longevity. What seems to be the best solution is one developed and sponsored by Patrick over at Pulling Hair. Awarding Horse of the Year honors based on a system that rewards activity and not just a couple of big wins would go a long way. If Patrick's system was subscribed to rather than the current writer based regime, the owners, trainers, and breeder's would eventually come along. If the incentive is there, breeders will breed for those traits and owners and trainers will run accordingly.

New Acquisition

I bought 10% of a filly for a song this morning from Ruby Thomas, my trainers mom. I told her about some of the partnerships I'm in and she thought dishing off small percentages to hacks like me sounded like a good idea. It's not often that you can get a small percentage of a horse with no mark-up and without the partnership management taking a big cut of the winnings.

I couldn't say no. Plus, Ruby is super sweet, and I love watching her mules on the summer fair circuit. As I've mentioned before, she will have Idaho Gem, one of the cloned Taz mules next summer. I'm headed to Winnemucca in June so I can see two mules with the identical genetic makeup race one another.

If anyone wants a piece, I'll give you her number.