Ballydoyle's bauble

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there."
Laurence J. Peter

My first flight instructor liked to tell me that 'there are old pilots and bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots.' It sounded like a load of crap at the time and still does to some extent, I mean who doesn't like their pilot to be arrogant and oblivious to rules and regulations?

Since then I have learned a few things and forgotten more but the one thing I know is that whenever something goes wrong, you don't start flailing wildly with the hope of doing the right thing.

I think Kahlifonia's rush to install synthetics on all its tracks is just such a spastic display. None of that is news and has been covered ad nauseam but what I wonder is just what this year's BC Classic is going to prove to anyone other than Curlin?

Ballydoyle is making its annual jaunt across the pond to take down the Classic. They have never been shy about their desire to, wrest from us silly colonials, that dirt race. With the best, remaining, turf runners in the world, another GI turf victory would mean absolutely nothing to their future stud value. So they come here to get that elusive GI dirt win and propel their horses to the breeding stratosphere.

If they win the Classic this year, what the hell is that going to prove?

Now we're cooking with gas.

'The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly-That is what each of us is here for.'
-Oscar Wilde

In some housekeeping affairs:

Yours truly managed to sneak past the qualifying round and make it into the TBA. Groucho's quote notwithstanding, I am happy to be aboard. Thanks everyone.

We now return to our regularly mundane blogging.

So my in-laws bought me this new thing called an I-pod recently. It apparently plays videos and music and stores all sorts of other media in a portable package. I have been playing around with it and trying to transfer all my old music onto this thing. In completely unrelated matters, does anyone know of any good software that converts 8-tracks to these mystical AAC files?

Anyway, I was playing around with the podcasts and looking for some that had horse racing related content. Granted, I have no idea what I am doing but I could not find any. Are there podcasts for horse racing news? All the NTRA has are race replays. No news, no insight. Nothing.

Seems to me that there is a niche for something like this. This internet thing doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

The Breeder's Cup revealed their new drug policy. That flame of hope, she flickers and fades but she does not die. Bravo.

Big Brown runs tomorrow in the Haskell and will, again, be the prohibitive favorite. Inasmuch as this entire affair has been a fiasco from the time Pompa signed over majority interest to IEAH, the horse has remained a side note. If BB runs back to his Derby form in the Haskell I think there is something that could be done by the cast of 'All my children' to redeem themselves and this sport.

Run his ass in the Arc.

Crazy? Maybe. Maybe it's so crazy it's brilliant.

Iavarone could ship Brownie off to Andre Fabre and gear him up for a run at the most prestigious turf race in the world. This could also tip Jackson's hand and commit him to running Curlin in the race.

Dutrow himself has said that he thinks Big Brown is a much better turf horse anyway and it was only desperation for a race that made him try him on the dirt at Gulfstream. Why not have, arguably, the two best American bred horses to come down the proverbial pike in a long time, take a quick jaunt across the pond and complete the exacta? Then ship them both back and do the same in the Classic.

I can hear the mocking cries already. Those sorry souls who think that a victory at the expense of unworthy foes is noteworthy and we are all made less by their dogma.

I don't for a moment think that this idea has the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell but it is an entertaining flight of fancy. A dream that is sadly, too often, dreamt by those lost souls who have not forgotten why we love to watch the horses run...