I took my  4½ year old daughter on an outing with daddy to Southland Greyhound Park on Saturday. I figured she would have fun getting an up close look at racing greyhounds and cheering for her favorite color dog or her favorite number. I’d made my bets for the day (conditional wagers with premierturfclub.com) so the trip across the river to West Memphis was simply to see to dogs and hang out with my daughter. By the time we had arrived at the track she was beyond excited and we ran to the apron for a good view of the runners in the upcoming race. She picked out her favorite dog (or maybe what is guess is her favorite number), #4 dog, and she watched as the race went by in a blur. She was amused that the dogs were wildly chasing “Rusty”(a big inflated bone) around the track. Immediately after the race we were escorted by track security from the apron and told that kids were not allowed near the track because they might distract the dogs (and thus I suppose interfere with the integrity of the races). I can’t quite figure what she could do to distract the dogs but rules are rules and we left the apron. Much sadness ensued. We did salvage the afternoon by watching the races from the second floor grandstand, though the #4 dog never won but “tried very hard”. I’ve taken my daughter to Kentucky Downs and Percy Warner Park and had great experiences both times. Forget the dogs.

I invested heavily in the all-stakes Pick 4 on Sunday at Belmont Park. I knocked off Discreet Cat in leg one and nearly got English Channel in leg two. In the Beldame I was alive with 80% of my tickets on Indian Vale (at 8-1) and 10% each on Ginger Punch and Balance. Indian Vale lost in deep stretch to stablemate Unbridled Belle – oh well, a losing Pick 4 and some win bets down the drain, nothing new. Unfortunately and unwisely I chased my losses. I was convinced that Lawyer Ron would win the JCGC (even though on my Pick 4s I had about a 2 to 1 split on tickets with LR and Curlin) and early in the betting he was 6/5. Youbet.com does not have conditional betting (and premierturfclub.com does not have NYRA’s signal) so I made a major win play on Lawyer Ron only to see him nailed at the wire at 3/5. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Some of my Breeders’ Cup bankroll down the drain.

Today’s drf.com headline article is titled “One Race for Two Titles” and implies that if the winner is from this year’s impressive 3yo crop - Street Sense, Curlin, Any Given Saturday, Tiago and Hard Spun – than that horse will get Horse of the Year and Champion 3yo male. Garbage. The BC Classic does not outweigh the spring classics and is only marginally better than other Grade I races. Street Sense and Curlin are the only two horses with a shot at either of these crowns. AGS may win the BC Classic (and will probably be my pick to win) but that will make him give him his first win against Street Sense (losses in the Tampa Bay Derby and Kentucky Derby) and be only his second G1 win and his third graded stakes win of the year. If Curlin wins the BC Classic he is 3yo Champion (Preakness, JCGC, Arkansas Derby). If anyone else wins than Street Sense is 3yo Champion (KY Derby, Travers, Jim Dandy).

The Thoroughbred Times/Castle Lyons 2006 book award went to Joe Drape’s Black Maestro: An Epic Life of an American Legend (this was announced in March but I just saw it). Drape’s book appeared to be a carbon copy of Ed Hotaling’s Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield with a little more dirt on Winkfield’s sordid personal life. There were much better books on horse racing written in 2006 including Dorothy Ours’ Man o’War: A Legend Like Lightning, Geoff Armstrong and Peter Thompson’s Melbourne Cup 1930: How Phar Lap Won Australia’s Greatest Race, and my vote for best of the year, John Eisenberg’s The Great Match Race: When North Met South in America’s First Sports Spectacle. As for 2007, T.D Thorton’s Not by a Longshot: A Season at a Hard Luck Horse Track will probably win the award.