First Post: Saturday, October 1, 2011

Waquoit — 1988 Jockey Club Gold Cup Winner

Jockey Club Gold Cup today at Elmont, N.Y.

Pictured is that race’s 1988 winner, Waquoit. No one who lived through the much-remembered era of Thoroughbred greats in the Northeast at that time will forget this hard-trier from New England. He ended his career with a third-place finish in the 1988 Breeders’s Cup Classic. He died in 2007.

Free ones: Rundown…

Belmont 8, 10, 11
Calder 6, 11, 12
Santa Anita 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 11

Looking to strike it hard again at the Oak Tree in Arcadia, Calif. zOMG.

Pay-side: Weekend here; coming week here; welcoming Turf Paradise, Hawthorne for the duration. Rundown…

Monmouth 2, 7, 9
Laurel 4, 5, 6
Woodbine 2, 9, 10
Turfway 2, 7, 9
Hawthorne 3, 4, 6, 9
Turf Paradise 6, 8, 9

Hawthorne Opening Day looks quite good; not so sanguine (thanks, JQ!) about the TuP. Thank goodness for Laurel being toward Delmarva and not the other tri-state region — the turf is safe in the Free State! Or something like that.

WMF Report: A couple of two-turn alerts for yourself…

Speed
Calder 6f, 1m
Chas. Town 4½f
Mountain 6f
Northlands 6f
PennNat 6f
Keystone 7f, 1m
Retama 6f, 1m
Turfway 6½f

Nocturnal Submission: PennNat’s sixth (8:04 p.m. EDT / 5:04 p.m. PDT) has chances aplenty, but ours will rest with #12 Noah’s Humor. …Later there, Race 9 (9:17 / 6:17), finds solid top-pick love for #2 Onwingsandaprayer. …Over at the Retama, Race 6 (9:59 / 6:59), #5 Bayboy can do OK. …

Thank you. Goodbye.