Back on the road…
Six hours, 50 minutes. 448 miles. Trying to get to Saratoga in time to catch the Sanford at 2:54 p.m, then fire up the phone to watch Rupert The Prince at Carlisle at 3:09 p.m, back to live action for the Belmont Oaks, Suburban, Belmont Derby and the day finishes with the John Henry Stakes at Evangeline Downs (laptop, by then). Maybe a beer and the taco special at Henry Street Taproom in between.
The Racing Post on Rupert: A three-time winner at up to 2m under varying tactics; two respectable efforts at Ripon this spring but weakened quickly and tailed off at Pontefract latest; can only watch after that.
Sounds about right.
The final Belmont Festival, 4th of July Festival at Saratoga. Hopefully. If so, that means the renovation at Belmont Park has worked, taking the pressure off Saratoga. The Giving Tree can take a break.
Rocket One aims at the Grade 1 Leo O’Brien Stakes at Saratoga Sunday afternoon. He’s 3-1, second choice, fresh off an awesome effort in the Steinman. Hopefully, he can reproduce it with a few more strides of concentration. Hopefully. Jamie Bargary is back on board for Jack Fisher. Outside post, slide over, find cover, produce, finish it off. So easy.
We entered Win Street at Colonial Downs yesterday, they didn’t use his race and brought it back for the next day (the theme song of the spin-the-wheel-throw-the-dart entry era). His race is one of 24 on the Colonial buffet line today. V Inspired has a plate in there, too. I used to send notes to all the partners when we entered their horses. We entered…the race didn’t go…brought it back…didn’t go…brought it back. It was a full time job of bad-news delivery. Now I wait until the overnight comes out.
That’s it for today. See you in Saratoga.
