First Post: Saturday, October 6, 2012

Pet peeves: loudmouths who aren’t as smart as they think they are. Ergo: nearly 100 percent of the interwebsz, television and the radio put together, plus a good three-fourths of the remainder of the popular culture.

Another grating noise: the way “Mercedes” is pronounced in North America. How you give the letter e three different vowel sounds (short e, long a, long e) in the span of one word is ridiculous. “It’s ridiculous what you’re doing with your life”. As well, the hard d sound needs to be softened with a little Castilian dth. Tyvm.

Free ones: Rundown…

Belmont 2, 3, 6
Calder 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12
Santa Anita 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10

Tapas on offer at Calder. No huge entrees. Lots of little bites, small plates. Station-to-station playoff baseball.

Pay-side: Today…

Keeneland 2, 4, 6, 8, 9
Monmouth 4, 6, 8
Woodbine 4, 5, 8
Laurel 7, 9, 11
Hawthorne 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8
Remington 2, 5, 6, 7

Today’s Stakes Pageantry: One free stakes race on the docket. It’s the ninth at Santa Anita, the Swingtime, and it’s on the Pick of the Day page.

On the pay-side, Keeneland 8 & 9, Monmouth 8, Woodbine 5 & 8, Laurel 7 & 9 & 11, and Hawthorne 8 are all covered. You can look up the names when you have a spare moment.

ESPN Upset Alert for Race 8 at Delpark, the Dover, where #3 Keep the Canoli can leave the rest gunning.

Same type situation in the fourth at Turf Paradise, Princess of Palms, in which #2 Scherzi can make a joke of it at the expense of the others.

Weird, wild stuff over at Hoosier in the 10th, the M. H. George. Bombs away via #2 Sweet Lemon Chello, #5 Linda’s Lace, #3 Absinthe Minded.

As for the U.S. Baseball, can’t go wrong picking any of the National League teams. In the American League, anybody but the Ansky. (What’s that?)

WMF Report:

Speed
Albuquerque 6f
Belmont 6f
Calder 6½f
Delpark 5½f, 6f
Hoosier 5½f
Hastings 6½f
Los Alamitos 4½f
Mountain 6f
Monmouth 6f
Keystone 6f
Portland 6f
Thistle 6f
Zia 6f

Rally
Woodbine 1 1/16m

Nocturnal Submission: Big Fresno Fair! Ever heard that song called “The Wells Fargo Wagon” from the musical called “The Music Man”? Good song. Better than Gotye. Anyway, one of the lyrics in it is about getting “raisins from Fresno”. Another line is “grapefruit from Tampa”. Another is “salmon from Seattle”. Now you just get all those things from Wal-Mart. Sigh. All right, all right, ya nostalglia-loverszz! It’s a now world, and we go back to the sixth at Fresno (5:52 p.m. EDT / 2:52 p.m. PDT), with a shout-out to all our Armenian Brothers Expatriated from Nagorno-Karabakh! #1 Mickey’s House, #2 Malibu Canyon, #6 Cadillac Coach can convert wagers into funds for the Guns of Liberty! Or at least some extra lavash. Or something like that. …Retama, Race 4 (9:08 / 6:08), and #1 Sierra Wild looks like she can tame this bunch. …Next race there (9:36 / 6:36) for #7 Jones Focus and #4 Just Expectations. …Crowning achievement in the 12th at Zia (7:23 / 4:23): #9 Stormin Bomb, #1 Distorted Gold, #3 Oh Lady Who. …

Thank you. Best wishes. Goodbye. So long now.