High Five / Low Five
Low Five!
Despite every big meet and day declaring “record breaking all sources handle” we have this:
The third quarter saw a nearly two percent drop in betting on horse races in the U.S., continuing a trend for 2019, according to numbers supplied by Equibase. Low Five. Horse Racing, track management, pay attention!
High Five!
High Five to Delaware Park, MidAtlantic Horse Rescue and Canter Delaware for partnering up and networking horses at Delaware Park looking for new homes. We need more of this throughout the industry. High Five !!!
High Five!
High Fives to Steve Asmussen and Shug McGaughey. Steve announced Midnight Bisou will head to the Distaff and not the Classic. It’s the right call and move. Shug waited until Code of Honor told him let’s go to California and run in the Classic not the other way around. Old school. How it should be.
Low Five!
Low Five to California Governor Gavin Newsom. He is clearly not familiar enough with racing for his shut it down approach.
High Five!
High Five to Woodbine for trying a new crop rule limiting encouragement to underhanded use only. While education about riding crops may have been a better idea, we’ll throw them a High Five for making some effort.
Low Five!
No surprises here. The NYRA stewards earned this Low Five. Whether you agree with the disqualification of Vino Rosso or not, we have had enough of the inconsistency , subjectiveness, and the lack of accountability with stewards. All that said, this was one bad bad call. Low Five.
High Five!
Congratulations and High Five 🖐 to jockey Abel Cedillo who gave a nice ride to Mongolian Groom to take a well deserved Grade 1 in the Awesome Again at Santa Anita on Saturday. The young rider came right back Sunday to take the Zenyatta with a heady stalking ride aboard Paradise Woods. Abel has been riding top shelf of late and people are taking notice. Keep it up Jock! High Five! A High Five also goes out to Ricardo Santana Jr. and trainer Steve Asmussen for complete domination of the Oklahoma Derby card at Remington Park, the pair teamed up for 7, yes that’s right 7 wins on the night!
Low Five!
A Low Five goes to Peter Brant or whoever named the horse he is running in the Arc this year. Sure it is great to see Peter back in the game at a higher than ever level, and having success here and abroad, but seriously. They couldn’t come up with a better name than “Sottsass” ? The guy might have been a fantastic architect but his last name just doesn’t fit a racehorse. Especially a good one.
High Five!
Past the Wire throws a big High Five to Jose Ortiz but this time it is not for his ability in the irons, but his class and compassion out of the saddle. After winning races on Sandy’z Slew Jose made Sandy a big winner retiring him to his farm outside Ocala. High Five 🖐 Jose. Well done. Jose will have to share a High Five with Johnny Velazquez who flew to Santa Anita to break the graded stakes wins in North America not once but twice, picking up 661 and 662 on Bask and Eight Rings for Bob Baffert. We’ll throw Bob a High Five too for the graded stakes double. One last High Five today goes to the Rainbow 6 winner at Gulfstream who took down a nice score, 2.2 mil, and Ed de Rosa of Twin Spires who confirmed the ticket was purchased through them and is sharing structure and style. Nice one guys and gals!