First Post: Thursday, June 16, 2011

James Joyce — Bloomsday, June 16

Happy Bloomsday!

Nominally about the title character in Ulysses, but truly a celebration of Dublin and the immortal James Joyce. They have a footrace in Spokane on the first Sunday in May; however, today on the Old Sod will feature the much slower pace of pub crawls and the sort of slurred slow-motion staggering that can be a side effect of drinking heavily for hours on end.

Yes, this is the same James Joyce who famously said: “The only decent people I ever saw at the racecourse were horses”. This, of course, is mainly true, and completely so after visiting any sort of online horseracing flameroom forum.

Here’s the free ones:

Rundown
Belmont 6, 8, 9
Calder 6, 7, 8
Hollypark 5, 6, 8

Pay-side:

Rundown
Churchill 3, 8, 9
River 2, 6, 7
Woodbine 4, 6, 8
Colonial 5, 6, 7
Louisiana 2, 6, 9
Lone Star 7, 8, 9

WMF Report:

Speed
Calder 6f
Chas. Town 6½f
Evangeline 1m
Finger 6f
Lone Star 5f (T)
Presque 6f
River 5½f, 6f, 1m

Rally
Calder 1 1/16m (T)
Hollypark 1 1/16m

Nocturnal Submission: In the seventh at Chas. Town (9:58 p.m. EDT / 6:58 PDT), #9 Foolish Bid may prove not to be a folly; backup served by #3 Reckless Runner. …Race 9 at Evangeline (10:16 / 7:16), #1 Warpaint Annie looks best. …

Thank you. Goodbye.