Quote from: stark on August 09, 2018, 06:41:42 AM
It's not over til it's over
which means I still have a chance
will make Silky Sullivan look like he's standing still.

I think Silky's jock would need a telescope to find me on the backstretch in his rear view mirror.😉  For some reason I've been hotter than all giddy-up at Emerald Downs lately. I've always done better on track. Had a nice talk with Jeff Metz there Sunday. He's got a live one in Sunday's LGA Mile, EMD's only graded stake. Hopefully I can bring the heat with me when I go down to DMR for my annual week at the end of this month.

Quote from: Raven on August 08, 2018, 12:27:31 PM
Happy Birthday and many many more!

Indeed, synthetics pretty much put him out of business. I thought that maybe when dirt tracks came back, so would he. The current tracks are so deep though, they may as well be synthetic. There was a bar at dear, old Hollywood Park named for Mel Stute. The only thing more perfect would it have been at Fairplex, he owned that place.

I'm pretty sure if a jock is booked and can't get another mount due to circumstances they get their fee. The gray area is when a horse is scratched in the post parade and it is initiated by the jock's request. I think it varies by jurisdiction.

Quote from: Raven on August 08, 2018, 11:52:46 AM
Before July 2015  horses with common ownership  had to be coupled  in stakes races with purse of 1.000.000
With the new rules the  purse prize is lowered to stakes races of 50.000 or more when 2 or more horses with common ownership  or 25% commonality among non-managing owners

Horse trained by the same trainer but separate owners are not coupled

Thanks, Raven, I notice a lot of entries in NY but didn't know the exact criteria. I'm guessing the 2016 Belmont was a TC exception since Creator and Gettysburg shared ownership?  I suppose this year too as it seems Sol Kumin owns a piece of every horse.

Quote from: Dusty on August 07, 2018, 11:45:09 PM
HOW? you are really just betting the favorite of the two and is the other wins - you lose or do not get the$$ you should

Go look up the chart of the 2016 Belmont and report back as to why Gettysburg was in. I get the other Baffert—once upon a time it was the other Mandella, the other Frankel, the other Whittingham—but too much is made out of that and always has been. If it's such a fail proof method, then why is there such a discrepancy in the odds?  Call me a softy for specially wired types but I threw $2 on the other Baffert in the Derby. I'd have been better off if he was coupled with that red horse with all the chrome—I forget his name, only made a handful of starts.😉

Quote from: Dusty on August 07, 2018, 06:40:41 PM
Good question - I HATE coupled entries

Why?  I think in the long run, they can protect the bettor.

Quote from: stark on August 07, 2018, 03:56:58 PM
Jay Privman
‏@DRFPrivman

Corey Nakatani, involved in accident in final race Saturday at @DelMarRacing, will have back surgery within 2 weeks but will then be off 2 months, then return to action, all per his son and agent.


(maybe he'll lose a few unwanted pounds in the process)

I don't don't know if one would classify it as ironic or coincidental that Victor Espinoza'a nephew caused another jock to have a spinal injury.  What I do know is that it is unfortunate.

Quote from: Raven on August 07, 2018, 03:45:18 PM
There still coupled entries in NY,almost every day

I know they can be there, but what is the criteria?  In the 2016 Belmont, for example, I thought it was a crime that Creator and Gettysburg weren't coupled.

The formal declaration isn't done anymore—the obvious reason being that horses aren't coupled—but the act is still done. One of the more famous, yet forgotten instances of declaring was the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap. Seabiscuit had been declared by the Howard's as their preferred winner over Kayak. Laura Hilkenbrand knew this when she wrote her book, and included it in her original draft, but it was nixed by the publisher because it didn't play well with the "real life" Hollywood ending. Instead, Hillenbrand referred to Joe Hernandez's loosely fictitious call when describing the race. Hernandez's call has become legend and as the saying goes, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

 
I think the key is the trainer. Maybe I'm off and Stute found the horse for Hughes as a yearling but my guess is that wasn't the case. Then, again just a guess, the horse had trouble making it to the races and wasn't looking like much in early training so instead of the horse being with Mandella, it's with Stute. The Stute's—at least from the Mel tree—have this particular method of training. I call it push, push, push, push, go find another. So that's why no one was making a beeline to the claim box, again just a guess. I did notice a 685k purchase was in for 25k in the first, ran up the track and was claimed by Matt Chew (the eternal answer to the sound one makes when exposed to too much dust and hay on the backside, but I digress) off of Simon Callaghan. That horse, Aquila—also a Union Rags albeit sans some equipment, looked promising enough when he broke his maiden but might as well have been wearing a neon For Sale (as is) sign. Good luck to Team Chew.

Quote from: stark on August 03, 2018, 01:40:24 PM
RIP
Curtis will remember this guy.
No mention of how tall he was, but I always thought him to be about 6'

http://live.drf.com/nuggets/44115-howard-grant-top-rider-from-1960s-and-70s-has-died-at-age-79

I was just talking to someone about him the other day.  I think he tacked somewhere around 123 about 40 years ago.  If he could have just got his weight down to 117, he would have contended for leading rider at most so. CA meets.  He was a great jock, he just couldn't get his weight down, probably physically impossible.  I remember that Shoemaker missed a couple of races that Stardust Mel was entered in years and years ago.  One because he was riding Avatar in the Belmont and the other--the Hollywood Gold Cup--because of serving days.  Whittingham had a couple of others in those races as well, Pierce committed to a mare La Zanzara so he couldn't sub for Shoe on Stardust Mel.  Most figured Charlie would use Fernando Toro since he rode Stardust Mel a lot the he was with Larry Rose.  Instead, Whittingham put Toro on his third horse, an unheralded South American import named El Tarta, and put Grant on Stardust Mel.  His reasoning was that, other than Shoe and Laffit Pincay, Grant was the best jock in the room and because Stardust Mel was a high weight, 126 I believe, Grant could easily make the weight.  Not often a jock got a better mount because they had trouble making a lighter weight.

Quote from: stark on August 03, 2018, 09:15:37 AM
Dustino and Som finally tied the knot? congrats!

Is he still at Xpressbet?

Don't think it's Som. From what I could gather, he's still with xpressbet. I look on Facebook once every other blue moon. I had forgotten he and I were FB Friends. We've had some nice interaction off forum. My wife and I were thinking of going to see the Dodgers play in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago and Dustin returned an email with a very thoughtful detailed response singing the virtues of his fair city. The Boys in Blue were scheduled to play the Yankees in NY that season as well and we considered that. I had a nice exchange with Horsebagger concerning that prospect. In the end, we got a nice room at the Los Angeles Athletic Club and watched the boys sweep the Washington Nationals in a crazy series, that ended with Puig hitting a walk off little league home run, in my old stomping grounds. In a couple of weeks they're coming up here to play a weekend at Safeco. My daughter and I have Tupac ready to go when Jansen is summoned and Randy Newman at the ready to, hopefully, play three times.

Quote from: stark on August 03, 2018, 09:17:56 AM
I'll take the overs on whatever return date they announce,
if ever.

The notion that he could be a healthy, happy, wealthy retired Mexican has to be pretty appealing to him.

I always got the idea from Victor that he's not a lifer and that when it's over he'll move on to other things. You won't see him as an exercise rider or go into training or teach competitive dancing.😉

Quote from: Dusty on August 02, 2018, 10:55:08 PM
Kurenei is trying to save all the posts before reinstalling and updating the site = she says it was not hacked - just out of date...


From TBC on Favebook////

Sonja Rischka As I said above.... I want to save the old Database, for that I need a password, which I don't have. So you guys gotta wait.

The forum didn't get hacked or anything, it's just outdated and needs to be updated etc.

It's all just text on a screen, I don't know why folks just don't come here?  I've always referred to this as TBC Lite, kind of like old school FM radio. I see through Facebook that Dustino recently got married. Maybe that'll mellow him out enough to bring him over here.😉 I've always seen Dustin as TB Racing's Jim Rome before Jim Rome became TB Racing's Jim Rome.

Glad Victor is doing well, considering. I've met him a couple of times—once over at Milton's in Del Mar—and he's a really nice man. I'm also glad his nephew got his name straightened out, by the way, the kid can ride.