Horses and crows

First, did you get the possibly too subtle reference I made about “crowing” yesterday (ie. Like Peter Pan singing, “I’ve Gotta Crow!”)? I know my biggest Peter Pan fan missed it, so I assume everyone did!

Now, a quick review of Belmont Stakes day… It starts out at 7AM, when I painfully discover swelling in my gums behind a root canal tooth that’s never been right since (well it is on the right side!). Luckily, Super-Kayla, my dentist, rushed to her office and met me shortly after 8AM. She treated it and by afternoon it was back to normal. Therefore, no matter how my bets went, I was already a winner that day. Thanks, Super-Kayla!

I didn’t plan to go the Belmont, since my Rabbi’s daughter was becoming a Bat Mitzvah that morning and I had tickets for the Yankees-Mets game that night. However, when I’ll Have Another won the Preakness, my friend from Saratoga called informing me that my new friend from Louisville (who had engineered our winning Superfecta bet on the Derby) wanted to go to see history being made. So I invited Don and Barbara to join us and got six tickets for the Turf & Field Club. When potential Triple Crown winner, I’ll Have Another, scratched on Friday, imagine how I felt. Forget about the 50,000 people who didn’t show up that day… forget about the friends from out of town… forget about all those who bought reserved seats and traveled from near and far… instead, Cry for Me Argentina (Sorry, I can’t seem to get away from the theater this week!).

Anyway, the atmosphere was nice, even though there was no Triple Crown try nor was it as festive as the Kentucky Derby. Still there were plenty of football professionals (Rex Ryan, lots of New England Patriots and, most importantly, several NY Giant Superbowl rings for the girls to study carefully (Yes, there still girls to me!). The race was exciting, though the time was slow (leading this wag to believe that I’ll Have Another could have won even with his injured leg). I only had two winners and Linda’s five entrants in four different races did nothing to help me. Since I was driving, I neglected to drink my way into oblivion like we did in Kentucky. That made it a long day… from 11AM to 8PM (and then four of us went out to dinner which didn’t get started until 9:30PM). However, all-in-all, it was nice being with our friends and there were many good races.

Speaking of races, Cricky’sGoldenEyes will run in tomorrow’s 7^th race at Belmont at 6 furlongs on the dirt for a tag of $15K and It’s Truly Ahvee will run 6 furlongs on the grass for a tag of $35K in Friday’s 7^th race. Cornelio Velasquez will be the rider in both races. Nothing yet to report on the two harness horses.

Best,

A.