Did Anyone Notice ...

[Kappa]

Did anyone notice that Jose Santos opened his hand after crossing the finish line in the Preakness?? Was that for the Miami Herald and it's fans?

Anyway, it will be great for racing to see a Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner running as a four and five year old.

[cj]

Just hope he's not running at Finger Lakes when he's 10 in a 5 bean claimer. :D :D :D

CJ

[Tom]

Originally posted by cjmilkowski
Just hope he's not running at Finger Lakes when he's 10 in a 5 bean claimer. :D :D :D

CJ

We'll be waiting for him. Zippy wants to meet him :eek:

[cj]

He'd have to break his maiden first!

CJ

[lousycapper]

Originally posted by cjmilkowski
He'd have to break his maiden first!

CJ

============================

Maybe he can be taught to beat a rug with his hooves, hmmmmmm? LOL

-L.C.

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by Kappa
Did anyone notice that Jose Santos opened his hand after crossing the finish line in the Preakness?? Was that for the Miami Herald and it's fans?
Anyway, it will be great for racing to see a Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner running as a four and five year old.

I did see the hand thing Santo's did. I was very impressed that NBC spent the first 20 minutes making the Miami Herald look bad. That was very surprising to me. Barclay Tagg telling them they were nuts was interesting too..........Tom Hammond (is that his name?) seemed pissed about the whole thing. He hammered them pretty good. I am glad Costa's ask Santo's about legal action. It probably perked up some ears in the newsrooms around the country. Great day all in all........for racing.

[kenwoodall]

i saw a run no NY bred could do by natural means without a boost! lol!

[lousycapper]

"i saw a run no NY bred could do by natural means without a boost! lol!"

=============================

Yeah, I saw the buzzer too... I guess we are the only ones on the entire planet that figured out how a N.Y. bred gelding could win the first two legs of the triple crown. Just wait until they run F.C. in the Belmont... Santos will be carrying at least 2 extra buzzers... just in case the "juice" doesn't work this time. LOL

-L.C.

[Kentucky Bred]

OK, I'm going to sound slightly conspiratorial now. But, assuming that Santos did not have a buzzer, why was it that the Miami Herald broke the controversy?

These big races are about making money from the sport for those who control the sport. There is NOTHING GOOD about Funny Cide winning these races. He is a gelding and there goes 20+ million in cash into the sport. He is a NY Bred with a New York Stallion virtually unknown in the breeding community until now. Funny Cide is a big threat to these powerful players. To make matters worse, they tried to buy the stallion Jules (sire of Peace Rules) back from Argentina where he was standing at stud. Before they could buy him and transfer him here, he contracts laminitis (a hoof disease/ailment) and died!

The Miami Herald's attempt at discrediting this horse and his legitimacy is a shot at getting the money back if they could have pulled it off. After all, Empire Maker did finish second and he has the "proper" bloodlines. Florida represents the second most powerful breeding lobby that exists. Florida has a very good breeding program and the Florida Bred purse add-ons are big.

Could it be that the Louisville Courier-Journal couldn't be the one to stir up some mud? If not, then who? Florida has contacts because they are an economic force in the area. Those contacts have friends who work for newspapers. The rest is history.

I can't prove and I don't know it but you would have to work hard to convince me that it is not possible. They tried to steal back the Kentucky Derby in order to try to cash in on party.

If they had a brain, they could say that a popular gelding will race for a relative eternity by today's standards. Barring an injury, we might see Funny Cide run for 5 or more years! Think of the goodwill that will bring to the sport. The continuity of the sport that is so lacking now. A national thoroughbred hero like Seabiscuit changed people's lives because he gave them a reason to live.

Maybe I'm being too sentimental about it all. Funny Cide can really help this sport. I hope the powerful can set aside the money just this once to allow interest in the sport to grow.

Kentucky Bred

[lousycapper]

Originally posted by Kentucky Bred
OK, I'm going to sound slightly conspiratorial now. But, assuming that Santos did not have a buzzer, why was it that the Miami Herald broke the controversy?

These big races are about making money from the sport for those who control the sport. There is NOTHING GOOD about Funny Cide winning these races. He is a gelding and there goes 20+ million in cash into the sport. He is a NY Bred with a New York Stallion virtually unknown in the breeding community until now. Funny Cide is a big threat to these powerful players. To make matters worse, they tried to buy the stallion Jules (sire of Peace Rules) back from Argentina where he was standing at stud. Before they could buy him and transfer him here, he contracts laminitis (a hoof disease/ailment) and died!

The Miami Herald's attempt at discrediting this horse and his legitimacy is a shot at getting the money back if they could have pulled it off. After all, Empire Maker did finish second and he has the "proper" bloodlines. Florida represents the second most powerful breeding lobby that exists. Florida has a very good breeding program and the Florida Bred purse add-ons are big.

Could it be that the Louisville Courier-Journal couldn't be the one to stir up some mud? If not, then who? Florida has contacts because they are an economic force in the area. Those contacts have friends who work for newspapers. The rest is history.

I can't prove and I don't know it but you would have to work hard to convince me that it is not possible. They tried to steal back the Kentucky Derby in order to try to cash in on party.

If they had a brain, they could say that a popular gelding will race for a relative eternity by today's standards. Barring an injury, we might see Funny Cide run for 5 or more years! Think of the goodwill that will bring to the sport. The continuity of the sport that is so lacking now. A national thoroughbred hero like Seabiscuit changed people's lives because he gave them a reason to live.

Maybe I'm being too sentimental about it all. Funny Cide can really help this sport. I hope the powerful can set aside the money just this once to allow interest in the sport to grow.

Kentucky Bred

==========================

Ah yes, blessed are the conspirators. I hope F.C. wins the triple crown. Then he can join Forego and John Henry, the best geldings since the Great Depression. I may not bet F.C. but, I'll sure as heck be rooting him home. If he's successful and wins the T.C. that should put to rest all the baloney about N.Y. bred horses once and for all. It will boost interest in horse racing more than anything since Secretariat won the T.C. I can hardly wait 'til the Belmont!

-L.C.

[PaceAdvantage]

Kentucky Bred,

Your theories have some merit. It is rather odd how pushed this story was based on such flimsy evidence. When they showed "THE" photo on NBC today, it was so obvious that the colors you saw through Santos's fingers was the silk colors of Bailey, that you have to wonder how ANYONE except a raw apprentice editor could have looked at that photo and said "THAT'S A BUZZER!!"

With that said, if there really WAS a Kentucky conspiracy brewing to dethrone Funny Cide, you probably would have seen some Churchill stewards bending over in the infield grass at Churchill Downs, with cameras shooting, staring at the buzzer they just "discovered" lying on the ground.

When the Santos story first broke, part of me feared that whether or not Santos was carrying ANYTHING that day, officials in Kentucky were going to FIND something!!! If you get my drift....

Since that did not happen, I think we can put all these cool conspiracy theories to bed....


==PA

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by PaceAdvantage
Kentucky Bred,
With that said, if there really WAS a Kentucky conspiracy brewing to dethrone Funny Cide, you probably would have seen some Churchill stewards bending over in the infield grass at Churchill Downs, with cameras shooting, staring at the buzzer they just "discovered" lying on the ground.PA

I agree here. If they were really trying to conspire against him then it would have come together nicely. I was waiting for the shoe to drop in Kentucky also. In fact when it didn't drop late Saturday and Sunday morning I told the wife "If nothing else has come out now, it's over" I think the Miami guys are just stupid. I cannot imagine that the stupid Herald reporter couldn't have spit out any window in Miami and not hit a spanish speaking person to help him out with the interview. They were just idiots about it. They had a photo and a forum. Two of the most dangerous things afforded a modern newspaper..........two bad they didn't have ten cents worth of common sense between the editors and writers. No matter what happens now the horse and the connections have made for a nice memorable spring. They have some money to play with and we got some good entertainment out of it. Too bad it was at Santo's expense. Now all he has to do is beat Frankel and Empire Maker who will be fresh and laying in wait.........:cool:

[Kentucky Bred]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JustRalph
[. I cannot imagine that the stupid Herald reporter couldn't have spit out any window in Miami and not hit a spanish speaking person to help him out with the interview.

Major LOL. I know some places near Hialeah where you can't spit out of any window and hit someone who speaks any English!

KB

[melman]

If any of you guys have seen the real story on the NY Times "reporter" who is no longer with them maybe you will understand how this happens. From a friend of mine who worked as a columnist for many years at a Philly paper it is not at all uncommon for "quotes" to be made up or used from another source. One of the reasons he took early retirement and got out of the business. The real problem is with the editors and department heads who know this goes on but just "wink". ANY profession has its shady and crooked activity. As for a conspiracy I think this generation has watched to many episodes of The X Files LOL This whole story SHOULD be GREAT for racing has it is a few guys throwing up 5 g's apiece and getting lucky. Real lucky. BTW great job Barclay Tagg for the job done with the horse and for what you said on national TV about Santos.

[Tom]

Does anyone really beleive that FC winning the triple crown would draw any new fans to the sport? At least those that would come back after one visit?
You might fill another infiled or two, but are these astro-drunks really worth the cost to clean up after them?
No one ever won a triple crown of slots, but they seem to draw new peole every day.

[JustRalph]

Tom....I think new fans can come from the crowd that might take up an interest in Funny Cide. With the way people are running from Baseball and Nascar pissing off most of their fan base by giving money to Jesse Jackson.......you could pick up a few. A couple of winning tickets could help out too. The cost of baseball and Nascar tickets is getting outrageous. Baseball can still be had for a decent price if you don't want to drink or eat anything while you are at the park. Nascar is a joke when it comes to ticket prices. If you can get tickets. I can play a bunch of races for the same price I spent going to my last Nascar race. $200 bucks can go a long way at the track in a day (if you hit a couple races) but with tickets and parking and the cost of gas, $200 won't get you into most Nascar races. At least the good ones. The last time I went to a Cincinnati Reds game (two years back) I paid $38 bucks a piece for two seats right on the 3rd base line about 4 rows back. We were about half way up the line to 3rd. Great seats. My brother and I went to the concession stand and ordered 2 hot dogs, an order of Nacho's and two large cokes. We got a bag of peanuts too. The concession bill was $22. They were big cokes....but not that big. Cincy is supposed to be one of the cheapest parks around. They have a new stadium this year and I hear the concessions went up about 10%. I read that in Yankee stadium a beer is $7.50. I would rather spend my money on the ponies nowadays.

[andicap]

Yep, Ralph.

$7.50 for a 20 oz bottle of Miller Genuine Draft (yech!)

I thought of the conspiracy theory myself, but finally dismissed it as too hard to pull off. Still, no one would dreamed up Watergate either....

[kenwoodall]

It is just big coincidence that few favs win the KY Derby including cheapies lately, then fullsupport and they win all ther Preaknesses as favorites! But- njo TC Visa $$$ to give out!!Whassup?

[Dave Schwartz]

Ken,

Because the big question before the Derby is "Can the horse get the distance?"

The question for the preakness is only "Can he go a little farther?"

I believe that one reason so many fail in the Belmont is that extra-extra distance (coupled with having to put together three consecutive good races, of course).

Dave

[lousycapper]

Originally posted by Dave Schwartz
Ken,

Because the big question before the Derby is "Can the horse get the distance?"

The question for the preakness is only "Can he go a little farther?"


Dave

============================

The question for the preakness is only "Can he go a little farther?"

I'm confused... the DERBY is 10f. and the PREAKNESS is 9.5f. It is shorter by .5f.

[kenwoodall]

Gee, my point was I thought many Do Not fail to win the first 2! Just to make the 3rd even more exciting!!
Anyone catch what the last fraction of the Preakness was?

[kenwoodall]

Pimlico rail was dead all day Saturday, like Belmont's was last week.

[kenwoodall]

Funny Cide did not come to Pimlico until the last minute- if he trained at Belmont, he trained And raced with a dead rail! I know for the KY Derby he trained And raced tracks that were the same speed, thanks to a Friday nite slowdown of Chuechill's track that then matched Belmont's 49.4 seconds 4f average workouts! Must be big advantage!! Of course, no one could have predicted lots of rain and lots of water on Pimlico's rail, right?

[BillW]

Originally posted by kenwoodall
============================
Gee, my point was I thought many Do Not fail to win the first 2! Just to make the 3rd even more exciting!!
Anyone catch what the last fraction of the Preakness was?


I was curious also and checked it.

1st: 23.1
2nd: 23.4
3rd: 24.3
Mile: 24.4
last 3/16: 19.1


Funny looked like he was still interested in running.

Bill

[GARY Z]

to anyone thinking jose utilized a battery to take home
@70k,and risk future earnings of @least 1mm+
a year,and then stand up and show the crowd his
battery,needs shock therapy(and not from a small battery)

funny cides' speed figures and form cycle prior to the
ky derby were slightly poorer than empire maker,and
he was actually,an underlay.

thoughts about the belmont??
midway road,a fresh horse ran second,because the competition
appears to be falling apart.
wayne lucas and bob baffert have already stated this is an
exceptional (freak ) horse.
empire maker or maybe dynever will need to be at the top
of their game to beat this horse,since it looks like
he can run all day

this game is supposed to be equal for all owners,players,
and horses..for once,it is good to see that a few
guys with a relatively small investment are having
the ride of their lives

best part of the story will be when funny cide becomes,
inmho , the next triple crown winner(remember the
25 year cycle rule)