First Post: Friday, March 8, 2013

On the other hoof, it’s also truly horrible to go through life OD’ing on Leonard Cohen!

You might miss the HGH rush of pounding multiple service aces of an evening at tennis, chatting up pandas in bars, those welcome diversions. Everything in moderation, and besides, it’s Friday. If your backside can’t get into this song’s bassline, regretsz!

Free ones: Rundown…

Sunland (deputizing for snowed-out Aqueduct) 10, 11
Sam Houston (deputizing for unplayable Gulf) 4, 5, 6, 7
Turfway (deputizing for shambolic Santa Anita) 7, 10

Many audibles called on this Freaky Friday. Maneuverability, agility, nimbleness…too small to fail!

Pay-side: Today…

Laurel 7, 9
Tampa 9
Fair Grounds 1, 9, 10
Hawthorne 6
Oaklawn 1, 4, 7, 9

Firm on the Fair Grounds turf course‽ You don’t get too many better uses for the interrobang, surely.

Today’s Stakes Pageantry: None this time. Of course, tomorrow, Saturday, will be something else entirely.

Yesterday’s Activity: Scuffling on the complimentary side except for a debut issue in Aqu 4, that being Beyond Empire, $18.20. He had what you like from a firster, namely a bunch of minimally talented experienceds (yup, experienceds) and a decent rating from the T/J/TJ array. Eight-to-one on the morning line and on the toteboard too. OK.

Blanked at Fair Grounds and only one (for two) at Laurel, with Mandatum running to his Triple Threat status in the fourth. This one also was 8-1 on the morning line, but the Maryland crowd was not as skeptical, driving Mandatum down to 4½-1 and an $11.20 straight mutuel.

Almost blanked at Oaklawn, but yet again the King of the NetCapper bullies simply would not be denied. As is often the case in the last race of the day, the probabilities were all over the board. Indeed, you could have listed four or five horseys and still come up empty. We know from brutal experience! More times than we care to remember!

But this time the gods of racing were with us and Second Bonkersmate Rigger secured the shock at 19-1, or a win mutuel of $40.80 if you’re scoring at home — and we hope you are. Befitting the gate-to-wire surprise, Rigger scored dual 99s across the exciting new LifeLiner Early and Pace columns, just hanging on to contender-status via his 81 in the Speed column. This time, success! Mark ’im up!

Second Bonkersmate Atticus the Man, 8-1, was your runner-up, and the $2 perfacta returned $311.40. The eventual show-horse was not among our live ones. Ah, it happens.

WMF Report:

Early
Fonner 6f
Gulf 6f
Hawthorne 6f
Los Alamitos 4½f
Laurel 6f, 1 1/16m
Turfway 6½f
Turf Paradise 6½f

Nocturnal Submission: Fonner 6 (5:15 p.m. EST / 2:15 p.m. PST) finds #3 Nana Sissy Zander ready to do justice to that name. …

Thank you. Best wishes. Goodbye. Take care now.