Curse the Clouds!

There was much gnashing of teeth in my house today when mother nature decided to block out my satallite signal, thus allowing me to only see ONE of the stakes races live today. Words can even begin to describe how completely bummed out I was to watch replays on a miniscule screen on NTRA.com- because this is shaping up to be an exciting year for three year olds.

I don't know if everyone is seeming so awesome because last year's road to the Derby was pretty mundane, or if we really do have precocious crop, but I plan to enjoy it either way.

To me, no one disappointed today, though I am sure that handicappers around the country will be ripping Old Fashioned a new one, saying the he is peaked and washed up because of his second place performance. To me (well, you know, what I could see on my three inch replay), it appeared to be a Touch Gold/Silver Charm situation- Old Fashioned just didn't see Win Willy coming way out there in the center of the track. Plus, he ran really damned fast over a slightly off track- shit happens. What cracked me up was the track announcer acting like he was done calling the race one Old Fashioned made the lead, and didn't know what to do when Win Willy started to close on him, "Win Willy's trying to close, but... uh, he's trying to close, but Old Fashioned has the lead, but uh...."

Three hours later....
Ok, so how this entry went was, hmmm, wonder if I can find that 1997 Belmont Stakes on youtube... yup, there it is... oh, that reminds me of... and then it was three hours later and I had watched a hell of a lot of horse racing and hadn't written one more word. And since I am pretty much ready to go to bed now... oops!
Suffice it to say that I was really excited about the races I saw today, and am looking forward to Derby/Oaks Day even more now! I wanted to post a video of Fresian Fire, Pioneerof the Nile and Rachael Alexandra, to share their awesomeness with everyone, but the Louisiana Derby and San Felipe Stakes are not up on youtube just yet.
So, for your enjoyment, is Rachael Alexandra:



I think what I love most about this is that she is running in slop, setting decent fractions.... with her ears flopped sideways, totally relaxed, and is doing it so easily that Calvin Borel eases her before the wire. Tell me that isn't a horse who loves to run! And how cool that we seem to be getting overrun with awesome fillies the past couple of years!