First half awards

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but the unveiling of the second half of the meet snuck up on me pretty hard. We'll run this down then elaborate tomorrow on everything. Got a big fat four out of six in the pick six today, but made up for it by hitting the late pick four for $2 after the NYRA gate crew fucked up yet again and tried to keep Phantom Income as a stall pet.

Trainer - Bill Mott
Is there anything else that needs to be said? The guy has been sending out crack after crack, which makes it even more impressive that..

Jockey - Cornelio Velasquez
Perhaps Corny forgot to ship WHM some carnations for Valentine's Day, perhaps he ate the last Stouffer's meal in his fridge, perhaps he looked at one of Billy's hotwalkers the wrong day, but for whatever reason, Cornelio has stopped getting Mott's first call mounts. That instead has gone to Kent Desormeaux, which is pretty much the only reason Kent is having the meet he's having. Yet Velasquez, sans the Mottster's prized deferring, is still the leader of the pack after eighteen days. He rides for anybody, from anywhere, can judge a pace, and is just pretty flippin' awesome all around. One of the most underrated jocks in the land, and here's hoping he actually endsa up winning the rider title.

Owner - Ahmed Zayat
Has there ever been somebody who looked smarter for pulling out of Del Mar than this multi-millionaire? Maimonides looks like the cat's meow, and damn near everything this guy sends out is bet down to 3/2 and rightfully so. NYRA must have a stamp for him rather than sign his checks every time he sends out another easy winner.

Horse - Ready's Image
No one has impressed me nearly as much as this colt. Street Sense was workmanlike, Maimonides was a close second, Lawyer Ron was impressive at "juicy" odds, Ginger Punch beat nothing, eh.. I was a Ready's Image skeptic, and he fucking aired with something left for the fall. I just wish that Scatuorchio would come up with some more original names for his horses instead of "Ready's Image," "Ready's Echo," "Ready's Unimaginative Name," "Ready's Whatwasthenameofthatchickibonedlastnight."

High Point of the Meet - DT Summit
There are plenty of close seconds, but the amount of pleasant surprise I got from the DT clusterfuck was very heartwarming. Damn near everyone I hung out with and drank with were people I would hang out and drink with outside of Steve's comforting DT nest. Thanks to everyone for being so enjoyable, and hope you all come back soon.

Low Point of the Meet - The beating I've been taking
After a good opening day, it's been downhill for me, but hopefully today's pick four gets me back on the upswing. Even though I would've preferred that the 11 ($715) get up over the 9 ($411), I can't complain. Winning tickets are winning tickers.

Didn't take much of a look at tomorrow's card, but Sargent Seattle is a lock. Don't even try to be clever. He doesn't lose.

Got clocked, saw horsey, met fat man

The bare bones of my day. Got to the track around 7:30 with Stever, did some work for an hour or so, then got picked up by Sonny for a tour of the backstretch, and if you know Sonny, you know that's liable to take days, but I didn't care, I wanted to see my homeboy.

After hundreds of convoluted stories and "there's so and so" calls, we arrived at T-Pletch's barn, or at least one of the 45 or so he must have on the grounds to stable that factory of his. Met a nice lassie by the name of Maggie and asked her to point me to my guy. Stall 17, Maggie says. Five stall walk, and there Any Given Saturday is, as adorable and enormous as the day is long. Took a few pictures, which will be up shortly, but didn't get to schmooze with him the way I would have liked, because a really hot exercise rider or hotwalker or manepuller or whatever was working on him. Can't quite recall what she was doing, as I was too busy ogling both her and the horse.

Thank you infinity Sonny for the tour, and back to work. Lots of near misses at the windows. Had the 3/5/6 to start the early pick four, and I run 2-3 with the 5 and 6 behind the 1A. Had the 3/4/5/6 every which way in the third trifecta except for with the 4 on top, which got me even more frustrated when the 4, whom I had included in the pick three with the 3/5/6 in the third, took the fourth at 17/1. Then after becoming sick when seeing the near $1,000 payoff in the pick three to the 7 I singled, I stupidly chased the 7 to win at an underlaid 9/5, and he didn't lift a hoof.

T.D. Vance was my horse of the day, and while I had the exacta in his race for a lousy $1 (more satisfaction of finally getting a winner than the money), I could've hammered TDV had I not been chasing money all day.

Durkin was a bit of a flop, as I was in and outta there in like five minutes and didn't get to see him call a race because my visit apparently wasn't as locked in as I had been led to believe. Still, the booth was interesting, much higher up and smaller than I thought it would be. The way TD's going, he won't be able to fit through the door in five years. He was an okay guy, not great, but not really an asshole either. Made sure I got in a Derby Trail plug before I left, so hopefully the next time you see "Tom Durkin's Flask" posting, it's not Matt.

Have a date with the Captain and hopefully plenty of beer tonight, still trying to shake this cold so doubt I'm getting too smizzied. Will be back tomorrow with a first-half recap, complete with awards.

I'm off to toast myself for making this entire post on my Blackberry. Hopefully my thumbs can grip the glass.