How you like me now?

I just did a Google Image search for Iavarone, that dorkey picture of his, the one everyone uses, is nowhere to be found. It used to be 1-2-3 on the results.

Anyway...

Is it possible that this could be the man that brings some actual buzz to horse racing, for other than impersonating George Hamilton and facing a margin call on the pink sheets?

Stardom Bound romped yesterday in the Las Virgenes Stakes GI, getting only a desultory tap and a cross from Mike Smith, and she now looks poised to take on the boys.

"That's what the racing fans want," he said. "I see no reason why she can't do it."
-from Bloodhorse

How poetic would that be? The game, mired in incompetence and puerile squabbling, publicly damaged by the headlines and cheated of a Triple Crown candidate people could feel good about backing, saved by the connections everyone loved to hate last year.

I make it 8-5, Mr. Waldrop has Iavarone on speed dial and is giving him carte blanche for the next year, if IEAH will run Stardom Bound in the Triple Crown.

• 'Need me to waive all drug tests on your horses? Done.'
• 'Need a race or two carded for some of your runners? Done.'
• Need to get that goofy ass picture of yours off of Google? Double done.'

You can't buy a story like this...unless you have $5.7 million. Congratulations to the connections, try not to screw the pooch on this one.

Note to Mr. Waldrop, here is a positive story, for once, you should be able to push into the mainstream. It is honest, redeeming and full of the titillating gender questions, so appealing to the insipid cohort that watches American Idol.

The road to the Derby is a long one and littered with casualties. It is luck as well as ability that gets one to the first Saturday in May. A lot can happen between now and then.

It's just not too early to start banging that drum.