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[PhantomOnTour]

Things got off to an inauspicious start when I missed my flight out of Lafayette. I won't go into details, but I lay full blame on the Cajun man (and his female companion) who carry on ALL of their luggage.
Arrived in Baltimore three hours later than scheduled, after the obligatory layover in Atlanta.

Didn't do much Weds night, but did visit a cool little bar in Canton called The Regal Beagle. Yes, THAT Regal Beagle, named after Jack Tripper's favorite hangout on Three's Company....hit the sack early and then it was on to Pimlico to play the worst card in America on Thurs (it's a yearly tradition).

Dabbled a bit, hit some small plays, but really let a good one get away in the 5th when Sventastic closed up the rail and won at almost 24-1. We used him underneath only. Managed to bail ourselves out with a nice win play on a 5-1 shot in the 6th who went last to first with a nice rally to get up.
Off to our usual Thurs dinner at a mediocre Italian place in Reisterstown.

Friday - Black Eyed Susan Day - my favorite day of the year. Good weather, good racing, and room to move around the place comfortably.
It was a day of some pretty good plays who just weren't good enough to get the job done. All got good trips, the races unfolded like I wanted them too, but they just couldn't get there:
Race 5 - Marvelous Martina got a fast and contested pace to close into, but could only manage 3rd at 14-1
Race 9 - the Hilltop Stks, absolutely loved the Arnaud Delacour trained Fashion Faux Pas at 6-1. Did everything right; stalked, took over entering the lane, opened up a bit, and then was run over by two Chad Brown fillies.
Race 10 - the Pimlico Special, went in hard on Cordmaker at 7-2, who was in decent midpack position and then fall WAY too far back and rallied furiously for 3rd. Not good enough.
Castellano owned the day by winning a handful of races. More on him (and Joel Rosario) later...