do you remember why they didnt just stay home and run in the cca oaks?

Not sure.. it's possible they weren't thrilled with the idea of taking on My Flag at 10F.... At the time, My Flag was the leader of the division..

that was what i was thinking. odd decision though.

Believe it or not, I think Leo O'Brien was planning on running in both the Monmouth Oaks and the CCA Oaks. The reason he went to Monmouth was to get a race around two-turns into her. This was his comment following the Mother Goose win:

"The longer she goes, the better she gets," said her trainer, Leo O'Brien. "She has a problem with drifting out. I want to give her some racing education and run her around two turns. But, with a race in between, she should run in the Coaching Club American Oaks."

I suppose the loss derailed the return trip to Belmont.

The Monmouth race I think showed she was a little knocked out from the Mother Goose.. Top Secret shouldn't have been able to beat her..

Id still say My Flag's presence had a little something to do with passing on it too..

''I thought My Flag could beat us,'' O'Brien said, ''because I thought My Flag could beat us at a mile and a quarter. I wasn't really confident going into the race. "

He said that after the Alabama, I'm sure it applied to the CCA Oaks too..

Its fun looking through the old racing articles, reading the quotes.. Earlier this week I read that Craig Perret was the first choice to ride Holy Bull, Perret chose End Sweep instead.. pretty amazing..

was that before the Futurity?

Yes, it was for this race..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHtpBQYHG4

Here's the filly that Indian Charlie's old board nemisis compared to Alydar back in the day.

She was coupled with Generally Challenged as the 9/2 favorite in the Derby betting over - I believe - Stephen Got Even.

The never to be forgotten - only to pretty much be forgotten Eight Belles ...





She sucked as a 2-year-old and something turned her around at age 3 - where she was a pretty beastly 3yo filly.

Shame she wasn't around - she could have done a lot of damage against these utterly pathetic older male divisions of the last few years.

looking at those figures compared to the others it dont look like much of a run, and they were on like surfaces as well.

Rags To Riches:




An Ap Indy out of a half to Jazil going 5.5fs in June of her 2yo season!! That 62 Beyer should be enough to put her in the Hall of Fame alone considering her pedigree. I don't think i've ever seen a worse classy pedigree for that type of race.

She was about 6 wide on both turns in the Grade 1 Las Virgines - and still got up at a mile in her first route try and her first try against winners. Great performance despite the weak figure.

Blushing KD:



Last 7 races of the brilliant ones life.

Beat males by 20 lengths under a full nelson hold to start off 3yo season ... took Tomisue's Delight apart at FG a couple times ... destroyed Valid Bonnet and Ajina at OP ... easily won a deep KY Oaks that included Sharp Cat from the West and Glitter Woman from the East. Made the bridgejumpers take it up the butt in a total non-effort as the 1/9 favorite in the Black Eyed Susan .. romped at MTH to end her career.

I think her remains would have won last nights Grade 2 300K Cornhusker Handicap with total ease.

Coincidentally, Rags To Riches debut was in fact the same day Jazil won the Belmont.

Also, as you suggest, that Las Virgenes trip was one of the more infamous rides by Garrett Gomez. It was almost as if he was trying to get her beat.

And he was whining he lost the mount on her in the Belmont because he foolishly (and greedily) snatched up Hard Spun. He was lucky to have a mount at all (all the converse can't be said for Hard Spun--who could have used just about anyone else aboard and had a better go of it).

By the way, now that we have Excellent Meeting's pps up there, what kind of torrid rivalry would we have had if she and Silverbulletday locked horns at Santa Anita during the winter of '99?

Their 2 meetings as 2yos were a good indication.

Talk about forgotten horses.

Beautiful Glass

The mighty, and I do mean mighty, Ski Goggle.




Her best race was probably the Acorn, in which she beat all time great Princess Rooney by 7.5 lengths!

Dam of the immortal Ski Captain..

I don't know about immortal, but he was a pretty nice horse.

Another foal of hers, Ski Paradise, won 1.4 mil and was second in the BC mile a number of years back.

I think that was the second year Lure won it.

Damn good filly if you ask me.

I think she was ok .....

http://community.drf.com/files/melair-1.pdf