FIRST THINGS FIRST
Pivotal year for us here at Perretti Farms given the intriguing
quartet of FIRSTS we’re responsible for this year.
Currently on the training tracks are the FIRST racing crops
for celebrated pacing stallions Red River Hanover and McArdle.
In the farm fields are the FIRST sales crops for Triple
Crown Champion Windsong’s Legacy and International
Champion Revenue. And last but certainly not least in the
foaling barns are the very FIRST youngsters by Horse Of
The Year Rocknroll Hanover.
Preliminary reports on the Red River Hanover and McArdle
training prospects are indeed encouraging as one might expect
in the case of Red River given the already established siring
prowess of full brothers Richess Hanover and Rustler Hanover.
McArdle too should rather be precocious being by Falcon
Seelster whose first crop featured a celebrated damsel named
Shady Daisy.
The Windsongs Legacy yearlings are noticeably “trot”
in their respective fields just as he was repeatedly powering
by Tom Ridge and Cantab Hall
The Revenues are uniformly handsome and it’ll be
interesting to see how they’re received at Harrisburg
and Lexington later this year.
We’ll have choice selections by Windsong’s
Legacy and Revenue in our sales consignments this fall.
As for the baby Rocknrollers, suffice to say the most look
just like him!
DO THE MATH
Ray Brienza, Dean of the NY-NJ based harness writers reports
in the Newark Star Ledger that betting numbers at Yonkers
Raceway for a Saturday Night will be about $100,000 on track
and $800,000 total which given takeouts results to approximately
a $15,000 net for the on track and maybe a $30,000-$50,000
net for the incoming simulcast. Traditionally tracks receive
something like 3% on monies bet off their premises though
they may get more from NY OTB. Either way, when you consider
that Yonkers will allocate approximately $225,000 to their
11race Saturday night program, it’s not hard to gauge
just where this sudden prosperity is actually coming from.
HAP SYMBOLISM
While Bob Hollywood Heyden's report in his latest column
concerning Ben Webster deaf ears insistance concerning the
scratching Tarport Hap from her final Meadowlands start,
may seem like a needless dredging of the past, there is
a poignant and inherent message here.
Bob Heyden is a highly credible reporter well known for
getting his facts straight. He cites that Webster after
determining that the mare was a shell of herself in the
warm ups and scores requested she be scratched only to be
overruled as that would have designated a short betting
field even shorter- something track managements notoriously
frown on.
As we know the great mare died on the racetrack that night.
The subsequent autopsy indicated she was terminal regardless
of whether she raced but that essentially is not the issue.
The ultimate ISSUE was the callous disregard for the betting
public demonstrated back then as disallowing the scratch
resulted in tens of thousands of hard earned dollars innocently
burned on an ailing probably 2-5 superstar who had no longer
belonged on a competitive racetrack once it was determined
she was unfit to compete.
One has to wonder how many other equine careers have been
similarly impacted- subtly forced to compete when they really
should have been scratched.
PUBLISHED CHATTER
“The year went exactly as we wanted to, seven races,
we didn’t test the horse at all-and he still was no
worse than third etc. We plan to put the pedal to the metal
this year”
Duh… Go ahead-YOU rationalize this line of thinking
to those with useless pari-mutuel tickets on the untested
last year superstar. And wonder too why the betting handle
has evaporated to such anemic proportions.
Bob Marks
