Book Burning Update
I have made it through The Executioner’s Song. I know I think the book is fantastic. I do not know how I feel about it, though. One of the great things about the book is how down the center it is. It just tells the story, and that’s it. So even though I kept waiting to have my heartstrings twisted to make me revile the death penalty rather than very mildly oppose it as I had come into the book, I never got played like that.
I skimmed the foreword in my edition, written by Dave Eggers, after finishing Mailer’s work. And he is with me on the down the center part, except he seems to think that the first part of the book, that which deals with Gary Gilmore’s time between getting out of jail and then going back for killing a couple guys for no reason, makes the reader root for Gary. “We want him to work hard, build a new life, and we want him and Nicole to make something of themselves.”
Maybe I was partially colored by the fact that even though I hadn’t heard of Gary Gilmore before reading this book I still knew its rough shape and that the guy was going to fuck up, but I couldn’t care any less about Gilmore during that part of the book. What an asshole. Sure, if I didn’t even know they guy was going to screw it up, I’d like for him to figure things out just like I would like anybody to be happy. But the Gary Gilmore carrying on at that time was a bad guy and didn’t deserve anything good as he was.
The first time I felt bad for the guy was while reading the transcript of the funeral service.
I feel badly for Gary regarding whatever confluence of events made him into what he was. But he was an asshole. And it would take a lot of follow up reading, of what I don’t know, to figure out how straight the line is from executing Gilmore to executing the giant number of people that have been executed since he got the ball rolling, but that’s not a very good legacy to leave.
Up next, per the RNG: Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England.
I Love You Maryjean
Found a bit of an odd scenario in handicapping Wednesday’s card at Tampa Bay Downs for a potential Pick 4 play*. The eighth race on the card is an optional-claimer at six furlongs on the dirt. Entered in that race is Maryjean.
Maryjean was also entered to run in a race in the Pick 4 sequence for Wednesday, December 11. But she scratched from that one, per orders of the track veterinarian according to Brisnet. Red flag, that.
But the thing is that race was an open claiming race for $12,500. The tag in this week’s race, should that option be exercised, is $16,000. But Maryjean isn’t even entered for the tag. And after scratching out of the race on the 11th, she posted a pretty salty work on the 13th of 48^3 over four furlongs, the second fasted time that day out of 27 workers. And her first listed work over this track since shipping in from Hawthorne sometime after a work on 12/2.
It seems like an unusual thing, for a horse to be scratched by a vet and then be turned around and put into a situation for a horse much more well-liked than the conditions that day. The quick work raises an eyebrow even more.
I think this is enough weirdness to get me to include Maryjean on any multi-race tickets. But either way, I really want to see her run Wednesday. She sits at 12-1 on the morning line.
* It begins with a pair of maiden claiming races, which is a real pain in the ass. Particularly the second, going a mile and sixteenth on turf. I’ve got seven candidates to win that one, and a lot of reason to figure out a way to separate them in the next 36 hours.
Tampa Bay Downs Dec 4 Card Notes
FIRST RACE
Pretty good duel at the front in a spread out field with RIDGE KITTEN, RED OVER BLUE, and SEEKING REASON. Seeking Reason was the favorite at 2-1 and first to yield. Also a bit active with the head down the stretch and just generally looking rather rank. Ridge Kitten held for the win with the pressers making up ground late in a crawling 13.71 final eighth.
DANNY’S WHISH was a vet’s scratch.
SECOND RACE
3-5 favorite HALF WED had a wide trip throughout and finished second, far better than the rest, while running 66 extra feet per Trakus figures than the winner KATAPULTER who looked to be going easiest of those nearest the lead in the first half of the race.
THIRD RACE
JUST JEBICAH, eventual winner, did a nice job of cornering when finding some space between him and next level as headed into first turn a tad wide. 1:12 opening 3/4 mile and then everyone was very slow, in the :27 range, for the last 1/4. Others here who shorten up next time might be moderately dangerous.
FOURTH RACE
TIZ WATCH, the 5-2 favorite, won for fun with nobody else in this MC8000 field showing any signs of life. GRAVE was slowest in the first 1/4 and fastest late, by a touch, for what it’s worth.
FIFTH RACE
8-5 favorite OFF THE STREET really needs to not be challenged to strongly at the front. 136-1 BACK BAYOU gave trouble and she was taking real short choppy strides early in the stretch. Given that, the difficulty JUNGLE PRINCESS had in passing her to win is of note for next time. MAY MANDATE was impeded at the start and fell well back but ran by far the quickest last quarter mile. Not a definite but under new trainer she may be poised to run better when given a clean trip and will be a price again then.
SIXTH RACE
CRIMSON NIGHT got away with easy fractions the first half mile to wire this. Even with that leisurely pace, ULTIMATE X did well to come from the very back of the field to make a close second. YENZEN ran next best late but clearly not as well. Especially since the former even had some obstruction picking through. YENZEN did run 41 more feet than ULTIMATE X however.
SEVENTH RACE
WILD DUDE won from the 10 spot getting a very wide trip. Covered 35 more feet than the place horse BIG REWARD and 42 more than the fourth place finisher BURLEY’S GOLD. The latter ran rather well in last quarter mile relative to the field even though this was a hotly contested pace with most horses bunched pretty close. JANGO got third with nearly as wide a trip as the winner.
EIGHTH RACE
BALINO went off very quick early but others were controlled and let him go. Latter part of the race was run without anyone making much noise in the rear of the field. MELLOW FELLOW did well to rally back after being headed briefly by SILVER CLOUD to take the win.
NINTH RACE
DIAMOND HEIST missed the break in this debut run but excepting that ran a credible race. Should be more of a factor next time assuming some improvement at the start. Final time of this race beat the open 6250 claimers of Race 7. Quick early pace contested by three, only ELIPTICALSWILDCAT stopped. BOWMAN’S SAM and GERRY WITH A G took place and fourth respectively. Easier times up front could position them to win. Winner PALACE BARISTA was making debut and made a move on the turn to join those leaders and persevered for the win with only SMOOTH CITIZEN also running near as well late but suffering for making the turn of foot later.
Remsen Pace A Crime Against the Sport?
Mike Watchmaker posted to his blog at DRF about the extremely slow fractions of the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct this weekend. If you follow Andy Serling on Twitter you have some sense of the anger by some people over jockeys grabbing their horses early and therefore not taking advantage of a speed horse’s major attribute. Watchmaker seems to consider the Remsen the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Relative novice that I am, it’s a novel idea to me that stewards might haul jockeys in to account for their actions and/or motives in holding a horse back off the pace. But Watchmaker concludes his thoughts on the situation with this:
Stewards should be aggressive, demand explanations for why horses were ridden the way they were when the situation calls for it, and (this is important) be transparent with their findings. And that is because if horseplayers can’t rely on something as basic as a speed duel happening when it is supposed to happen, then the intellectual aspect of handicapping is undermined, and the game devolves into something as random as the spin of a roulette wheel.
In the comments, which you have to be careful with at that site, it is said that in Hong Kong and some other foreign venues this exact thing would be done, with jockeys facing suspension for such a thing. At first, this really affected my thinking on the matter, as though my eyes were being opened to something new about the sport I had not considered. Stewards could or should be involved in more than fouls and the like, which we see inquiries over routinely?
And given the sentiment among many that since gamblers are what allow the sport to exist, horsemen ought to act with their interests in mind, maybe that does mean that they should give gamblers what they expect.
I mulled these things over for a while, and I just can’t get there. That gamblers and horsemen each owe something to the other, but their interests diverge, is okay with me. Trainers have a much more direct responsibility to the owners of their horses and the horses themselves. Mostly the same goes for jockeys, with a responsibility to the trainer mixed in. I would think that Javier Castellano and Shug McGaughey were on the same page regarding the tactics for the Remsen. And if they were not, that even with Honor Code winning the race, there would be repercussions for a jockey’s actions such that he wouldn’t make a habit of diverging from plans or a horse’s demonstrated strengths.
I don’t see how it is a bad thing for Honor Code’s connections to want to see him try and win without being on the lead. And if they wanted to see that, they would have to see it in a big race. A horse of that caliber isn’t going to get dropped into something with 15% as much money available so they can experiment there.
I remember leading up to and during last year’s Triple Crown, Watchmaker often made note that he liked how Orb had won races with different paces and from different positions in them. So it seems a bit wrongheaded for him to now be upset that a horse tried to emulate that. One trained by the same guy who trained Orb. And given the unholy mess that 19 or 20 horse Kentucky Derbys are, I think you’re much better off trying to come from off the pace to win. Smarty Jones in 2004, a couple lengths off the early pace to win, was a long time ago. Honor Code might be well-served to try something other than wiring all his races. Where you end up with the Remsen coming out all screwy is when every other horse tried the same thing. Oops. But it happens.
The thing about stewards holding jockeys to the fire in other countries for this sort of thing rings hollow as well. I’m no fervent nationalist, but people in other countries do all sorts of wacky stuff. I don’t judge what’s right and wrong by how closely it aligns with practices in other countries.
Betting horses is a tricky game. In the end, I think a pace not being what you expected is just another confounding wrinkle. If tactics are to change, it should be organic, with observant trainers who see too many horses being taken up early sending their entrant out and daring the others to catch him. If that happens enough, then the others will start running early to prevent that from happening.
Pick 4 Ticket at Hollywood Park – Dec 1, 2013
Well, I managed to get a decent spread here after all. Couldn’t use everybody with a chance, but rarely do you get to. Notable changes from the leading up posts are:
-the addition of Dayatthespa as a C in the Matriarch.
-Demonic shifting out to be a C in the 9th race. I think Five Palms is the legit A, and with the far outside post Demonic’s chances take a slight enough hit to instead shoot for gold with Got Even as the other A. I’m using two As per race, and this is where it falls.
Leg 4 of Hollywood Park Pick 4 – Dec 1, 2013
In my post that began this sequence I commented that this Pick 4 didn’t wrap up with a wacky maiden claiming race, which was a nice change of pace. What I did not realize at the time was that the claiming race that wraps it up is a non-winners of two race. So, mayhem reigns again! Boy, there is not one race in here that I feel all that good about. So, it may be that I end up with a thin ticket. To cover what I’d like to cover would be expensive and still not give me that great a shot. On the other hand, riches may await those who can hit this thing. In any case, here’s a quick look at my preferred candidates for the finale. Next up we’ll see where I come out on this thing.
This race goes a mile and a sixteenth on the grass.
I think there is some upside here for #4 MOONLIT METEOR. Lightly raced 5yo, so not in a good way, and hasn’t routed or been on grass yet. But he’s performed admirably in his last couple and there isn’t a lot of reason to think he can’t make this.
If we make it this far, let’s get crazy and include 30-1 shot #7 WARREN’S BIG CAT here. 1/29 lifetime, so that’s 29-1. 30-1 is an overlay! Not really, but he does hold a speed figure higher than par for this race and the second highest in the field at the distance. He’s live.
I am also a fan of #8 SHARP RICHARD who has been coming on a bit in his performances and put in a nice workout most recently and looks ready to roll for Jeff Mullins off the six-week layoff, a condition his charges do well in.
Other contenders are #1 RANSOM CANYON as well as #11 SIZZLIN’ JOE. Not a fan of the latter for much other than Rosario, so it’s unlikely he makes the cut. I could slot in the former as an A in favor of Warren’s Big Cat. A 1/113 trainer and am 0/35 jockey is a tough pill to swallow. Ransom Canyon’s lack of a published work since his last race, where he was claimed by Doug O’Neill, is a little weird though.
Leg 3 of Hollywood Pick 4 – Dec 1, 2013
Well holy crap these races don’t get any easier. At least not in the third leg, a first-level allowance going 6.5 furlongs on the main track. Again, I’ll rattle off those sure to get a piece of the ticket and then we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out once everything is in and see how much I want to spend.
#4 FIVE PALMS comes out of a rousing debut win on 11/10 here. Stared down a game opponent down the stretch in Chief Lion who almost fended him off but could not. He was more than five lengths clear of the show horse. Five Palms got a 100 figure from Brisnet for that performance and has since turned in his best workout. Seems to be all right.
#12 DEMONIC is another making his second start off a debut win. But that was in January. Still, you can rest assured John Sadler is running him here because he’s ready, which the workouts make plain. A $400,000 purchase as a son of Bernardini, he’s expected to run.
A little less conventional at least according to the morning line is #11 GOT EVEN at 12-1. This is the second start off a layoff of nearly a year for this guy. And in that one on the undercard of Breeders’ Cup Friday, he was done early and eased. But he looks to be in okay shape and if you can put a line through it you’ll see he’s been good enough to win this in the past. Well good enough.
Also vying for inclusion here are KOCHEES, WILD DUDE, and JOVITA’S TUFFY. Probably in that order.
Hollywood Park Matriarch Stakes – Leg 2 of Pick 4
The Matriarch Stakes today is a tough nut to crack. Great race. As is the Hollywood Derby even though it isn’t under consideration today in this sequence. If I was an ‘ALL’ type, this might be one even though that is frequently reserved for goofy low level races. I am going to post my locks to be a part of the ticket now. There is some chance of others being added depending on how the final two races play out.
The picks here aren’t too surprising since just about anyone can do it here. The surprise may come at who is not included.
As:
#5 TIZ FLIRTATIOUS and #8 BETTER LUCKY. These are a couple who have done it before, and like to work from off the pace. There is a lot of speed signed on here and I just think it is the right thing to favor those who can work from off it. DISCREET MARQ is a wonderful horse, but I just don’t think it all that likely that she is going to hold on to win something like this. Her Del Mar Oaks was not very quick up front, for example.
Cs:
#3 WISHING GATE is a horse that always runs her race. She is versatile enough to be up nearer the lead when the going is slow, and will let them go out ahead if they want to without compromising herself.
Again, based on my handicapping of the last two races, I may add more C horses. I could also see myself promoting Wishing Gate to an A and going without a C. She’s probably going to be a price good enough and so many others will be covered more widely in the Pick 4 that her pulling it out would be huge for the payout and not needing to rely on the three other As in these tough fields to get there would be worthwhile.
Leg 1 of Hollywood Park Late Pick 4 – Dec 1, 2013
It’s a pretty nice sequence of races today in the late Pick 4 at Hollywood Park, even though it misses the Hollywood Derby by a race, which is a little weird since that one isn’t your typical five horse stakes field in southern California that goes off as the fourth race on a card. But the Pick 4 does entail the Matriarch, which is a very solid race in its own right, and it does not contain a maiden claiming race finale. I think this one will be fun to play, and it gets started with a $45K maiden affair going 6.5 furlongs on the main track that has some heft to it as well.
Let’s start there…
I don’t see a lot of reason to go outside of the main contenders per the morning line in this one. I believe at this point that I will go four deep, with a pair of A selections and a pair of Cs.
The As:
#4 PROVEN WARRIOR is the 3-1 second choice on the money line but I think it more likely he’ll be third or fourth at post time. Still, he’s an A for me mostly based on his recent races coming up with some strong talent. Italics galore in the two and three back results as he has come up against the likes of Holy Lute and Imperial Fortune three back, and then the place finisher two back, Empty Headed, also won. The winner of the two back race, Power Ped, was ridden by Edwin Maldonado, who was aboard in his last and remains for this one.
The other A is Bob Baffert’s #5 BATTLED. This horse has raced a couple of times, but been off since January. That he has remained under Baffert’s care is a point in his favor, as is the fact that his sire, Master Command, didn’t win until October of his 3yo campaign. Watching this horse’s previous efforts, he’s a big boy and may have just needed some time to get things together.
The Cs:
I favor Battled over Baffert’s other entrant, #8 SECRETSATMIDNIGHT. This one comes off a pair of routes and may like the steep cut back here. But he’s also been working rather lackadaisically for a Baffert horse and not been getting very close to winning either way. If I wanted to be cute I would cut this fella out, but I don’t want to get that cute here.
Also going to use #3 FOREST BOY. His last start here wasn’t his best effort but the leading horses there got away with things pretty easily up front and nobody made any ground on anyone the whole backstretch. I’l give him a break there. He’s had 8 tries at this with no luck, but a race like the one way back in December at Santa Anita makes me think he’s more unlucky than unwilling to get the front. He and Belvin were much the best that day over the rest of the field and Belvin was just better.
Book Pile Depletion Update
The whittling down of the unread book pile mentioned a couple posts ago is underway and off to a pretty good beginning. At least in the sense that I finished the first book, The Ascent of George Washington. On the other hand, the pile is bigger than when it started as I have acquired three books in that time. Stephen King’s 11/22/63 was the Kindle Deal of the Day on the anniversary of JFK’s death and then I made a trip to Barnes and Noble with my sister and nephew to facilitate the latter’s napping while visiting family for Thanksgiving. There I picked up 1Q84 and A Walk in the Woods.
As for The Ascent of George Washington, I found it to be a good and well-researched read. It is pretty 
obvious right away that John Ferling intends to tear down some of the lore of the man but that’s what a lot of good history must do with any subject. And Ferling is sure to compliment Washington when he feels it is warranted as well. So it’s not some sort of angry demolition.
Washington had his share of deficiencies as a general and had of a bit of a monarchical bent as president. And was more eager for personal gains than he let on. No big surprise there, and I do not know this for certain but I think it is probably not such a mark against him that he often wrote of his disinterestedness toward things and that he would only do a certain thing if the people wanted him to, for it was no big deal to him if he got to do it, and so on. I would think that may have been more of a custom than a singular trait of his, even if he took it to another level.
Taking credit for things that went well that weren’t his ideas and blaming others for failures of his making is unseemly. Also his selecting officers to serve in the army under him while John Adams was commander-in-chief – those are the worst offenses. At least when you set aside his failure to address slavery as a public official. That was quite bad of him, but I think also a touch of a different nature than what is really under consideration in the book.
Moving on to the next book selected by the random number generator…things may slow down considerably. The lucky winner is The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. Nearly 1,100 pages. I may be helped out a bit since I think this one is a real page-turner. We’ll see.
Fire Joe Sheehan 