Stay In Your Stall: Turn on the Dark, I'm Afraid of the Light

[RolloTomasi]

Stall: The 3-Year-Olds Are The X Factor In This Year’s Classic

The Breeders' Cup will be one of the few major events in American racing taking place at its normal place in the calendar this year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Tom's d'Etat trainer Al Stall Jr., said that we shouldn't forget that the schedule disruptions from earlier this year could still have an impact on the Classic.

I don’t know if the schedule disruptions will have an impact on the Classic, but they should have an impact on the Eclipse Awards.

Just think, if Stall didn't live up to his surname time and time again, Tom’s d’Etat would have run in:

The Pegasus Cup, the Saudi Cup, the New Orleans Handicap, the Oaklawn Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup, and the Blame, instead of the 3 paltry starts he’s made this year.

“I don't think anyone's ever gone into the Classic and said it's a soft field,”

…but thanks to the Stall Virus (skip races and train up to other ones) that’s exactly what we have…a soft field.

“There are a lot of superlatives talking about these horses and I agree.

Huh? It’s not a soft field? Well I guess compared to the Dirt Mile….

I think the X factor is the 3-year-olds. Because of the way the Triple Crown laid out these year, they've had a nice progression into the race.

Yeah, interesting take to be honest. Of course, if Stall trained a top 3yo he wouldn’t run in May or June anyways, COVID rescheduling or not…

There are two 3-year-olds that really got my attention — obviously, Tiz the Law and Authentic —

Wow, that’s pretty sharp, Al.

Hey, you feeling all right? What’s your temperature? Have you been out of the country in the past 30 days? Do you know someone or been in contact with someone that tested positive for COVID?

and that's a little bit different than in years past. Sometimes you'll get a 3-year-old who's a little bit down and out. Obviously Pharoah was the exception to that.

WTF is he talking about? Gate Dancer, Proud Truth, Alysheba, Seeking the Gold, Forty Niner, Easy Goer, Sunday Silence, Unbridled, A.P. Indy, Concern, Tabasco Cat, Louis Quatorze, Cat Thief, Tiznow, Giant’s Causeway, Bernardini, Curlin, Hard Spun, Raven’s Pass, Henrythenavigator, Will Take Charge, Bayern, Toast of New York, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate…

“It's all about the trip and the luck from here on out.”

Man, you should have your own handicapping show. (Why do we continue to interview this guy?)

He’s done more worthless interviews this year than his one horse of note has started in its entire career…

Stall does not expect any one horse will be allowed to take an uncontested easy lead, and much of the race will come down to strategy. He's hopeful Tom's d'Etat can sit off the early going, but it will come down to how the traffic plays out.

Gee, thanks for expounding on Stall’s absolutely weightless cliché about how the Classic will unfold.

I’m just hopeful Tom’s d’Etat actually starts in the race since Stall still has over 24 hours to pull the horse out of the race. But either way, I do expect Stall to be interviewed about the developments and possible plans with his horse…

Perhaps surprisingly, Stall said there's no one horse in this field that intimidates him more than any other, or even a handful. Stall said there are eight contenders (though he did not name them) he thinks could pull off a win.

Great...I think by interviewing a clearly ill Al Stall, the writer of this puff piece has instantaneously contracted full blown COVID.

There are exactly 10 horses in the Classic (as of right now…remember…there’s still over 24 hours to go). Al Stall likes 8 horses' chances (told you he should have his own handicapping show). And yet, the author is distressed that he didn’t name all 8.

Here’s a journalistic tip: ask the opposite. Who does Stall not like? Woulda saved you time and Stall would get to talk less…

If he were to win the Classic, Tom's d'Etat will have done it off one of the longest layoffs since Invasor (ARG) in 2006. Stall said the break from the Aug. 1 Grade 1 Whitney to the Classic was a combination of design and circumstance.

Yeah, that's what he said about the last break. And the break before that...

At least he didn't give us the ol' "he runs well fresh" line again...

He considered sending the horse to the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup but when the stakes schedule was released, he realized that gave him 28 days to get the horse from one effort to the next.

Well, we can add the Jockey Club Gold Cup to that long list of races he was going to run in that I made earlier after sifting through all the Past Performances of all the Al Stall interviews about this horse this year.

Meanwhile, I’ve cracked the design/circumstances code that Stall uses to campaign his horses:

Design – do not run your horse under any circumstances (see below)

Circumstance – every potential race is either too quick back from the previous one, or too close to the one after the next race

Stall's gut told him to bring the 7-year-old in fresh. He let the horse relax for a little while, the began ramping up his breezes in mid-September and sent him out for an easy four-furlong work Oct. 31, which reminded him of the final work from Blame in 2010.

Instead of listening to his gut, maybe Stall should be testing it for Crohn’s Disease. My evidence:

He’s afraid to take the horse out in public (ever see the ads for Crohn’s meds?) and we already know he has diarrhea of the mouth…

By the way, just since he brought it up…Blame ran in…you guessed it…the Jockey Club Gold Cup. So never mind if Tom’s latest measly breeze reminded you of Blame, because you know failing to start in the JCGC is the one thing that differs between the 2 horses’ respective campaigns.

And the way this guy worries about minutiae you know it’s gonna eat away at him if his horse comes up short. My guess? This guy's been drinking 12 oz of Milk of Magnesia with dinner for the past 2 weeks. Probably has a bowl of Tum's d'Etat instead of cereal for breakfast...

“He just went out there by himself and was looking around and stretching his legs,” said Stall. “He seems to have benefitted from that because he has seemed very, very comfortable all week.”

Whoa…two “verys”...that’s almost as many starts as Tom’s d’Etat has made this year.

Much of the media attention (and likely, eventually, wagering) will be on Tiz the Law and the Baffert trio. It isn't the first time Stall has come into the Classic hoping to steal the spotlight.

No kidding. He's been trying to steal the spotlight all year without even running his horse. But do tell:

Zenyatta's loss to Blame was a heartbreaker for many in racing, but Stall has happy memories of that strange, quiet night at Churchill Downs.

But like a vampire, Zenyatta got the last laugh...Stall was infected with whatever virus afflicted Big Z's connections so that now when he has a big horse he ducks, dives, and scratches his way to the safety of the barn.

“I just remember afterwards it was a perfectly clear, crisp, Kentucky fall evening and the sky was coral and the black was coming in.

Wait…what? Is that Bill Shakespeare? Well!! What do we have here?

Hey everybody, it looks like we got ourselves a READER!

We were so happy for all the connections, everybody involved, the horse himself,” Stall remembered. “Our little pocket celebrated quite loudly while the rest of the grandstand was silent but we didn't notice that.”

Wasn’t Blame owned by a couple of oil baron families? They don’t care about people in genera,l nevermind Zenyatta’s ridiculous fans…But yes, so happy for them…

Stall confirmed Tom's d'Etat will be retired after Saturday's races. Earlier this year, it was announced he will take up stud duties at WinStar farm.

Let’s hope he doesn’t get performance anxiety, too.

Or Crohn’s…

[Dahoss]

Bravo!

[Dunbar]

Another excellent read!

[freddymo]

That is so funny it made my day, Rollo