'Dorf acting a fool

This is the first in what will hopefully be a continuing, if sporadic, series of otherwise respectable horsemen (or those perceived as such) looking completely ridiculous.

Jerry Hollendorfer pictured putting up his dukes after someone dared mock his surname. You'd think he'd be used to it by now. In his defense, Jerry has gained new pride in his family name after learning Hollendorfer will be the named used in the next teen movie for the super dorky kid who is perpetually engaged in an online roll playing game and never gets any pussy.

Sanguinetti notches first local win

Blogger scores at windows


For this intrepid blogger, the best race of the day was not an east coast stake or even the local feature, but the 4th at Golden Gate today in which my new favorite jockey, Annie Sanguinetti, brought home a 6-1 shot on whom I'd plunked down more than a few shekels.

Carlos Nieto finished second aboard Phenomanal Star at 23-1 and Barrington Harvey again outran his odds on the 35-1 Thunder Bebe to round out a $1,587.70 trifecta. The Steve Miyadi trained odds-on favorite, Punch Maryland, finished a well beaten sixth after setting the pace and fading like a bad dye job.

Per the chart, Annie's mount, Luckyanunoit, broke alertly, took a favorable striking position into the first turn while three wide to the backstretch, remained a factor three wide on the second turn, rallied into the lane, gained command in mid stretch and won driving.

Above top, Annie charges to the lead aboard Luckyanunoit with interstate 80 and the town of Albany in the background. Above right, Annie hands out goggles to diminutive railbirds

New faces in Nor Cal

Mike at CurbBlog has reported the arrival of jockeys Rafael Bejarano and Julien Leparoux on the SoCal circuit. There are also several new arrivals at Golden Gate Fields to the north, and not just those fleeing the highly competitive SoCal circuit.

Carlos Gonzalez came in from Louisiana Downs where he had been a top 5 rider. Mario Gutierrez is in from Hastings Park and is getting good business from the Canadian contingency of trainers that always turn up this time of year. Annie Sanguinetti has come in from Thistle and Presque Isle and is the only female rider on our circuit. She was also the only jock to have previously ridden on Tapeta, winning on her first two mounts at Presque Isle Downs during their inaugural meet. There are also rumors that Omar Figueroa, who was a bug in NorCal, will be returning from a few years on the tougher SoCal circuit.

Super Likit 2nd; Golden Gate Fields debuts new surface, full fields

Super Likit finish a game second on opening day at Golden Gate Fields on Wednesday in closing fashion on a day when speed dominated on the new Tapeta surface.

As reported in the popular racing press, times were fast and the maintenance crew took steps to slow it down over the next few days. By Sunday, closers were dominating, although some attributed the change to rain the track took Saturday night.

One other item of note has been field size. This welcome change in the NorCal racing product did create one notable SNAFU. [style guide gurus please advise if snafu has ceased to be an acronym] Sunday's sixth race was originally scheduled for turf at a mile and drew twelve entrants. When the race was washed off the turf due to rain, no one scratched. This created a problem because only 10 horses are permitted to go postward in a one mile race on the main track due to how close the start would be to the clubhouse turn. Since no one scratched the stewards were in quite a predicament. They decided to simply run the race with all twelve. What was immediately clear was that the race was no longer a one mile race, though. The starting gate was set some fifty yards farther back from where it would be for a true mile race. At Golden Gate Fields, a one mile race on the main track almost always has a run up, but on Sunday this run up was significantly longer than usual. It is a shame the betting public was not made aware.

Picture of the Golden Gate Bridge taken from Golden Gate Fields

Super Likit tries to get off the schneid

Super Likit is back in action opening day at Golden Gate Fields facing a full field of $4,000 claimers [pdf warning] in a six furlong affair over the synthetic Tapeta surface. Super Likit drew post position three in the race, which is carded as the fifth on an eight race card.

She fits well in this group and has shown an affinity for Micheal Dickinson's Tapeta racing surface in the mornings. We hope these factors can get her home.

NaBloPoMo

Sure, everyone has heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but today is also the first day of NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month. I can't promise to post everyday, but I'll try to do better than recent behavior suggests.