First Post: Friday, March 25, 2011

Who else out there did not know what was meant by the term “Garrison finish”?

It’s nothing more than “a finish in which the winner comes from behind at the end”. Wow. NHOI. Yet there it is, on one of the word-a-day desk calendars here at the Home Office.

You’d think that in the recent age of the Big Zenyatta Mondatta, there would have been at least one mention or a handful of this phenomenon of the Garrison finish. But it escaped our eyes (and ears). Yet how many times did we hear her cardiac-arrest-inducing rallies being described as “Silky Sullivan-like”? Ha! Why did we never come across Garrison finish until today? Just when you think you know it all, you learn that you’re never too old to learn something new! Cazart!

Aqueduct and Santa Anita are provided pro forma, with no sane ambitions attached thereto. Rather, prepare for the ’Gulf!

Rundown
Aqueduct 5, 7, 9
Gulfstream 4, 6, 10
Santa Anita 4, 7, 8

For hire are…

Rundown
Laurel 2, 5, 8
Tampa 5, 6, 10
Hawthorne 5, 7, 9
Fair Grounds 5, 7, 9, 11
Oaklawn 6, 7, 9
Turfway 3, 6, 9

Fair Grounds is shooting off a special statebred-stakes day today. Might have to examine that further. Pretty good everywhere else, too. Way-better than the biggies, save Gulfstream.

WMF Report: No Garrison finishes for any of the following, at least in terms of how their respective tracks have been playing! …Chas. Town remains up-front at 6½f. …Turf-speed at Fair Grounds at 5½f, WMF 183 on the grass, nearly unheard of! …Golden Gate also playing against synth-type at 6f. …Hawthorne, Laurel, Mountaineer, PennNat, OK that way too. …Los Jerkamitos finally back on the speed-trip, WMF 450. …Turf Paradise now down to only 6½f prohibitvely on the lead. …

Finally, for a Garrison finish to our discussion of the Garrison finish, we inform you that the term was inspired by the exciting late-riding style of the American Hall of Fame jockey Edward “Snapper” Garrison, whose last-fifth-of-a-second heroics captured the fancy of the sports fans of the day.

And now you know!