Jenny Wiley Weekend

 April 15

We are back from our adventure to the Netherlands and had an amazing time.  Check out our trip by clicking HERE.  And, just a quick note.....nothing's ever easy, sigh.  Landed in Atlanta after having to get up at 3 am for a 4 am departure from the ship with a smooth trans-Atlantic flight only to discover record rainfall (six months of rain in three hours) had closed Fort Lauderdale International airport.  No alternative airports had flights so we rented a car and drove the nearly ten hours home.  NOT how we'd seen the day going, but we're home.

Because of the LONG trip home I played the races from the "Sunrise Simulcast Center" on Saturday.  In the very first race on the selection sheet, the opener from Keeneland I scored with Oglethorpe in a maiden special weight sprint.  He tracked the dueling longshots into the turn, engaged the 10/1 leader in the stretch and edged clear late.

The first win at Laurel  came in the very next race on my sheet, the third from Maryland.  It was a restricted non-winners of two lifetime sprint and while O Shaughesey didn't look all that good on his own merits, he was the lone runner in the field who had NEVER seen restricted company.  Was allowed to go off as the second choice and moved to the leaders on the turn.  Dueled to the 16th pole and then drew off and I'm 2-for-2 on the day!

Two seconds and a third before the sixth at Laurel, a MSW turf route.  At this time of the year, in turf events often the edge goes to runners who are shipping up from Florida as there's been no grass racing in any of the racing districts other than Gulfstream, the Fair Grounds and in Southern California.  And so the fact that the lightly raced Bassino had run three times on the Tampa turf, and run well was a big edge for him.  When he was taking A LOT of money I upped the bet on him.  Tracked in third / fourth into the turn, eased up to collar the leaders and drew off through the lane as easily best.

After two misses I got a nice score on Bill Mott's first time starter Scylla.  That he'd worked so sharply was unusual for a Mott firster and that generally means - as does when a Mott maiden runs well in one of their first two starts - that they are running on talent.  I was encouraged when Mott was interviewed before the race and had high price for this one.  Drew off like a really talented runner who will only get better as the distances get longer.  One to watch in stakes action this summer.

After five misses I got my first stakes win in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland, the last of the Derby preps, though really only one horse in the field had any chance of making the Derby field.  I liked instead Brad Cox's First Mission.  The Godolphin colt got my money, and a double bet at that, largely based by interpreting the DRF analysis.  Way back when I used to play the races on Sunday by simply analyzing the online handicapping selections and I became (I think) pretty good at reading between the lines.  So when Hersch said, "......might go off as an underlay going from the maiden ranks to stakes, but if he's as good as he might be, even that price could wind up looking right in retrospect...."  On the far turn he was in fourth and it looked like jockey Luis Saez was having to push him along.  He was chasing a talented Bob Baffert runner who'd been loose on an easy lead and as they turned for home he looked to have little chance to catch the front runner.  But the rail opened up and instead of moving wide and losing valuable ground Saez shot the colt up the inside and caught the leader.  They dueled and it looked like he couldn't get by but in the final fifty yards he edged clear for the win at a nice $6 and change price and I cashed for nearly fifty dollars with my triple investment.  WHOOO HOOOO.

Came right back in the Laurel finale, on the turf again.  Two of the MSW runners looked clearly better than all the rest.  Shug McGaughey's third time starter Coast Along had "paired" figures and looked good, but for me Blame D Rule Maker had multiple angles that made him a solid choice.  First, he was making his third start off a layoff and that's often a horse's best effort.  Second,  off the layoff two back he'd tried two turns and the turf for the first time and had seen his Beyer figure explode.  Finally, and for me the key angle, he'd been fourth - a well beaten fourth - last time out at Gulfstream.  But the winner that day was the very talented Carl Spackler who'd been 1/5 and won for fun....and was the morning line favorite for last weekend's Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland despite making his first try against winners.  He'd scratched that day, but still he's very good.  Thought I was in trouble when Coast Along did just that, cruising on a loose lead setting moderate fractions.  But on the turn 'Blame was asked to run and he wore down the leader in midstretch and was up in the shadow of the wire as a nice priced 3/1 winner, enabling me to cash for another $40.

Finished the day in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley.  To be honest, I'd never thought that Chad Brown's In Italian was as good as she had been hyped to be last year.  But she was a multiple Gr 1 winner, had been a just-miss 2nd in the Gr 1 BC F&M Turf, had three of the four triple digit Beyers on the page - IN HER LAST THREE STARTS......and looked loose on the lead.  In retrospect I should have gone "all in" on her because she was the easiest of winners going wire-to-wire without ever being threatened.

Two stakes at Oaklawn saw me just miss but because of the TwinSpires "Bet Back" promotion I "cashed" tickets in both to end up a winner on the day.

Social Media this week......

It was a much active social media week this week as we finished our trip.  Jennifer Correa had been the weekend weather girl at CBS-4 and became close girlfriends with my gal-pal Karli Barnett.  And in fact she'd been on Karli's Saturday night FB chats a couple of times.  Jen moved to West Palm Beach and I still follow her, so I'd commented on a post of hers, to which she wrote back to me noting that I was in had said I was in Belgium.  Because she took the time to write me and had used my Twitter handle I decided to remind her that we had "already met" - and she replied to that in a way that indicated to me at least that she did indeed "know me" :)

Karli Barnett and I had multiple interactions this week.  When I'd wished her a "Happy Easter from Belgium" she asked me to have a Belgian waffle for her :)  So I replied with a photo of me with my Belgian waffle and captioned it, "this one's for my girl Karli."  That exchange had been in FB messenger.  We also exchanged messages on Twitter and again on FB about her Easter and she answered my question about getting a chocolate bunny :)  I'd sent her several pics from the first part of our trip and she noted that they were great photos.  In the past Karli has always seemed legitimately grateful when I share photos from our trips.

After our long drive home I'd sent a text to gal-pal Kimmy to let her know we were home and to tell her about the adventure - she texted me right back. :)

The exchange with gal-pal Shasha had actually happened last week, but it wasn't until this week that I got around to posting this picture.  She'd commented about our Florida Derby Day pics and I asked her to join us the next year.  I know Sha and she'll love getting all dressed up in a cute dress that shows off her figure with a big fancy hat.  She replied she'd like that and I told her "it was a date!"

Katie Engleson is the new Florida Panther sideline reporter and each home game the broadcast team picks a player to compete for the "Light The Lamp" trophy at years' end.  With the end of the season this week she won the trophy in her "rookie season" and I congratulated her - and got a response.

Lauren Pastrana took several days to respond, but she did to my greeting from the Netherlands.  Interesting that I don't see her as often on the evening news these days.  Hmmmm.  After "losing" Karli I'd be most unhappy if Lauren also left.

Saturday, after the races Karli hosted a FB chat from her new Atlanta studios.  First she noted that she'd seen my photos and had tried to reply to me, but said - on air - how good the pics were and that she appreciated them.  Then I noted, as someone in the chat talked about all the rain here, that that rain had caused us to have to drive from Atlanta to get home.  Karli, such a cutie said I must mean I had to drive from Atlanta, not from the Netherlands.  Quackity quack Karli.  So I replied, "yes it was from Orlando" and she said on air, she just had to make a little joke with a flirty wave of the hand and a cute little giggle.