While we wait

Bob Neumeier

Random thoughts in that world of racing limbo between the Belmont and Travers Stakes:

If you didn't reach for the Kleenex during the Laffit Pincay Jr. retirement ceremonies at Hollywood Park, you are not human.

If trainer Neil Howard can keep the horse sound over the next few months, Mineshaft will win the Breeders' Cup Classic by at least three lengths.

The $1 Pick Four is the best wager available on a racing menu.

Conversely, those players who are into rolling pick threes are financial masochists.

I am looking forward to seeing the Seabiscuit movie as much as the next guy, but are some people looking at this film as the salvation of racing?

Vic Stauffer and John Dooley are the two most under-rated, race callers in the business.

As a card-carrying officer of the Pat Day Fan Club, I still had to cringe on the ride he put up on Ten Most Wanted in the Swaps Stakes. Were you that intimidated by the possible lone early speed of During that provoked the ill-advised and premature wide brush down the backstretch?

Am I mistaken or are more and more horses winning back in the first race after a claim? If so, why?

On a sunny and dry day, Saratoga is heaven on Earth.

On a wet day when the races come off the turf, I would rather be in the dentist's chair having a root canal than be at Saratoga.

As a new viewer to the Television Games Network, my ears perk when analyst Matt Carruthers is on the anchor desk. The man makes sense.

When track managements schedule races like the A Gleam Stakes outside a guaranteed Pick 6 sequence, you know they are trying to either build a pot or guarantee a juicy payoff.

My biggest disappointment of the Triple Crown was that actress Bo Derek showed up at the Kentucky Derby with a boyfriend on her arm. Not that I had any shot.

Speaking of female beauty, try sitting on the couch in the Turf Club on opening day at Del Mar and watch the fillies (two-legged) parade on by. The Louvre Museum in Paris does not have that kind of artwork.

I am into racing at Colonial Downs.

Handicapping contests are a blast, but I sure miss the Penn National event. The running "chalkboard"-style results plus the witty commentator of the host (his name escapes me) made for a down-home feeling.

Will the nitwits that bet thousands of dollars to show on Senor Swinger in the Virginia Derby ever learn?

Do you think if the Sacketts Harbor Stable boys owned Empire Maker rather than Funny Cide, they would be syndicating him for hundreds of millions of dollars to the highest bidder? Damn right they would.

So would I.

How does jockey Patrick Valenzuela "send" and conserve at the same time? With Chris McCarron, Eddie D., and Laffit gone, he is the man in Southern California. What would have been the odds on that scenario five years ago?

If you see me at Saratoga, I would appreciate a thirty-minute conversation during all steeplechase and two-year-old maiden races to keep me away from the betting windows. I could have sent sixteen kids through college if I had saved the money wagered on those events over the years.

That, and trying to constantly beat an over-bet Jerry Bailey.

Best of luck at the Spa and where the "turf meets the surf."