{"id":1405,"date":"2011-08-13T10:21:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T17:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2011-08-13T10:21:44","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T17:21:44","slug":"first-post-saturday-august-13-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/2011\/08\/13\/first-post-saturday-august-13-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"First Post: Saturday, August 13, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BPL\"

NFL? What's that?<\/p><\/div>\n

Are you ready for some fútbol?<\/p>\n

It begins in earnest today. Twenty teams, 38 matches for each of them. One winner: the team that is atop the table at season’s end. No convoluted and meaningless playoff system; the regular season is all. And if you are not among the top 17 finishers in said table, you don’t get to come back next season. A true competition! Darwin would approve!<\/p>\n

As always, we cast our lot with the hapless Arsenal F.C. out of North London. Attractive pass-and-go, one-touch football is their hallmark, similar to a famous outfit from Catalunya. But for all that slickness, the end product is often lacking, like a frontrunner breathing fire in the final furlong. A little more ruthlessness, a semblance of intestinal fortitude, would be a welcome addition.<\/p>\n

It will be a difficult season for the Arse. Two top players are ready to depart, and their replacements are nowhere in sight. Indeed, the club’s first month of competition could find them in arrears in a hurry — left standing at the gate. We shall see.<\/p>\n

Meantime, come on you Gooners!<\/p>\n

Free<\/a> ones:<\/p>\n

Rundown
\nSaratoga Race Course<\/strong> 4, 5, 10
\nCalder<\/strong> 4, 9, 11
\nDel Mar Thoroughbred Club<\/strong> 1, 7, 10<\/p>\n

Saratoga & Del Mar are equally good, with Calder coming up wet again.<\/p>\n

Pay-side:<\/p>\n

Rundown
\nMonmouth<\/strong> 4, 9, 10
\nWoodbine<\/strong> 3, 5, 9
\nEllis<\/strong> 7, 9, 10
\nArlington<\/strong> 8, 9, 10
\nLouisiana<\/strong> 6, 7, 8
\nRetama<\/strong> 1, 2<\/p>\n

Exciting day over at the Arlington. Good races all &rquo;round today. <\/p>\n

WMF Report:<\/p>\n

Speed<\/strong>
\nCanterbury 5½f
\nDelpark 6f (finally!)
\nEllis 1m (WMF 223)
\nEmerald 6f
\nFairmount 6f, 1m (WMF 245) (!)
\nLouisiana 6f
\nMonmouth 6f
\nNorthlands 6f, 6½f
\nPennNat 6f, 1m
\nRiver 6f
\nRuidoso 5½f, 7½f (!) (WMF 233)
\nSaratoga 6f
\nWoodbine 6f<\/p>\n

Rally<\/strong>
\nWoodbine 7f (WMF 22)<\/p>\n

Forget the meteor showers. They come every summer. But you may never again see a 7½f distance come up as speedy! A rara avis! Speed-track of the moment is humble Fairmount…Fairmount! Woodbine is split-personality: blazing at the 6f, but sluggish at 7f — and nearly tipping toward the rally at 1 1\/16m (WMF 32).<\/p>\n

Nocturnal Submission: In the eighth at Assiniboia<\/strong> (10:41 p.m. EDT \/ 7:41 p.m. PDT), a crazy longshot emerges in #1 Darby Lee<\/strong>. …Over at Evangeline<\/strong> in Race 8<\/strong> (9:49 \/ 6:49), #5 Cotton Ide Kate<\/strong> is a lively pick. …We shall wreak some fat-priced havoc in the eighth<\/strong> at Prairie<\/strong> (10:37 \/ 7:37) courtesy of #9 Poltergeist<\/strong> and #3 A Lot of Mon<\/strong> and #2 House of Usher<\/strong>. …<\/p>\n

Thank you. Goodnight. We’re tired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you ready for some fútbol?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,4,3],"tags":[8,13,7,6],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-picks","category-wmf","tag-analysis","tag-commentary","tag-longshots","tag-track-bias"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pavW5M-mF","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiapublishing.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}