ESPN – Youngmisuk and McMenamin – Magic abruptly steps down as Lakers president
LA Times – Ganguli – Magic Johnson steps down as Lakers’ president of basketball operations
It is not a pretty portrait. It is the depiction of an organization in chaos. It is a portrayal of a mess that, let’s face it, began when Johnson was unwisely given the job in the first place.
It was written here that he was never right for the position and, quitting in a manner as shocking as anything I’ve seen in 25 years covering this team, he proved it.
Johnson quit because he wanted to fire Luke Walton and owner Jeanie Buss disagreed. He quit because he didn’t like the politics of the dysfunctional front office, expressly in regards to the actions of general manager Rob Pelinka, whom Johnson may have also wanted fired against Buss’ wishes. He quit because he didn’t like the rules restraints placed upon him by the league. He quit because he realized he couldn’t give his full attention to both basketball and his numerous businesses.
LA Times – Plaschke – Magic Johnson was never all in, so now he’s all gone
NY Times – Cacciolo – Magic Johnson Steps Down as Lakers’ Team President
Phil has a question:
If Magic had been given Carte Blanche instead of a Platinum American Express card would he have stepped down.
I make sure I get a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit. I am a big fruit man; I am a vegetable man, anyway.
Magic Johnson
ESPN – McMenamin and Youngmisuk – Luke Walton couldn’t outcoach the Lakers’ dysfunction
I had three rules for my players: No profanity. Don’t criticize a teammate. Never be late.
John Wooden
Thoroughbred Racing Commentary – Smith – Winx is now the world’s all-time money leader
Bloodhorse – Racing Post – Mottershead – One for Road: Winx Goes out With 33rd Straight Win
The Sydney Morning Herald – Roots – Winx wins 33 in a row as she farewells Randwick and racing
TDN – Vettise – Winx Out a Winner in the Queen Elizabeth
NY Times – Stein – Stephen Curry Has a Popcorn Problem
Bad News, Good News
Good News for the Pastor: Church attendance rose dramatically the last three weeks.
Bad News: You were on vacation.
| Lawyer: |
I have some good news and some bad news. |
| Client: | Well, give me the bad news first. |
| Lawyer: | The blood tests showed that it was your DNA they found all over the crime scene |
| Client: | Damn! I’m screwed! What’s the good news? |
| Lawyer: | Your cholesterol is down to 130! |
Good News
NY Times – Kolata – Most Osteoporosis Drugs Don’t Build Bone. This One Does.
Bad News
The cheaters will soon have the market for the new drug cornered and the regulators will take 2 decades to respond with a test.
It is hard to think of practical applications of the black hole. Because practical applications are so remote, many people assume we should not be interested. But this quest to understand the world is what defines us as human beings.
Yuri Milner
The Guardian – Black hole picture captured for first time in space breakthrough
Quanta – Levin – What the Sight of a Black Hole Means to a Black Hole Physicist
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
Alberta Einstein
Racing needs a backbone
Does anyone in racing have the spine to make a decision and stick to it?
The situation at Santa Anita is turning into a bad joke reminiscent of the old Ella Fitzgerald tune Undecided: “First you say you will, and then you won’t. And then you say you do, and then you don’t. You’re undecided now, so what are you gonna do?”
First Lasix was banned on race day. Then the ban was put off until next year and even then only with 2-year-olds. Then the ban was modified to only half the current dosage. This is like being half-pregnant.
Rules at Santa Anita have the shelf life of fresh fish.
Horse Race Insider – Jicha – There’s no holding back in final Derby preps
.
My response to yet another committee, board or group coming up with something that has teeth in it is as follows: wake me when it’s over please.
My problem is that no matter how many rules, substandard tests and other measures are introduced, one thing in the struggle to rid the game of cheats remains constant: no jurisdiction in all of North American racing has yet shown the will necessary to move the ball an inch.
Having been a civil servant for seven years in the Los Angeles County Probation and Civil Service Departments, and having interviewed plenty of stewards and regulators as a turf writer over the years, I know one thing for sure about regulators and stewards: like Congressmen, their main goal is not to lose their jobs. So in order to achieve this lofty goal of survival, they feel it is incumbent upon them not to rock the boat. They embrace the status quo. So counting on racing regulators to save our game from cheats is a foolhardy concept to begin with.
TDN – Letters to the Editor: Barry Irwin
Paulick Report – New Zealand Shuts Down Seven Of Its 48 Tracks Due To Industry’s Financial Problems
NewsHub – Carran – New Zealand horse racing ‘in crisis’ as seven tracks close for good
Phil will not refer to the 3 year old Stakes races as Kentucky Derby preps as that denigrates Graded races that carry million dollar purses that can stand on their own without the Kentucky Derby. That said Phil’s glad that the skein has run out as each weekend the 2019 class of three year olds failed to distinguish themselves and you may have claiming horses and a maiden in the 2019 Kentucky Derby starting gate.
2019 Holybull.ca Kentucky Derby Contest
2019 Kentucky Derby Points Leaderboard
Horse Racing Nation – Brinkmeyer – Who’s in, out and on the 2019 Kentucky Derby points bubble?
Phil has a question:
Wouldn’t a contest or future bet based on the 20 horses that actually start the Kentucky Derby be another way to keep interest in thoroughbred racing.
Bloodhorse – Ehalt – Bodexpress, Signalman Playing Derby Waiting Game
CDI needs to add a further qualification for the 2020 and all future Derbies. Entry is restricted to horses that have at least 1 win to keep maidens from the field.
Horse Racing Insider – Jicha – Omaha Beach holds No. 1, could break Derby streak
Bloodhorse – Haskin – Derby Dozen – April 16, 2019 – Presented by Shadwell Farm
Bloodhorse – Omaha Beach Exits Arkansas Derby in Good Order
Bloodhorse – Ehalt – Omaha Beach Fends Off Improbable in Arkansas Derby
TDN – War Front’s Omaha Beach Holds Off Improbable in Arkansas Derby
A year after riding Justify to the Triple Crown, Mike Smith has a tough choice about which horse to ride in the Kentucky Derby.
ESPN – AP – Omaha Beach edges Improbable for Arkansas win
Paulick Report – Omaha Beach Holds Off Improbable In Arkansas Derby
Bloodhorse – Oser – Owendale Rallies to Lexington Breakthrough
TDN – Into Mischief’s Owendale Upsets the Lexington
Phil has a question:
Do you think that the jockey switch to Javier Castellano benefited Anothertwistafate.
Do you think that Anothertwistafate’s connections would switch jockeys if they had a do-over.
Kentucky Derby – Mucciolo – Road to the Kentucky Derby Horse Profile: Master Fencer
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman
TDN – Caulfield – Pedigree Insights: Roadster
Paulick Report – Frank Mitchell – Bloodlines: Vekoma’s Distinguished Family Roots
Paulick Report – ‘On His Toes’: War Of Will Sharp In Gate Drill At Keeneland
Paulick Report – Hennig Watching Weekend Prep Races To Determine Plans For His Bubble Horse
2019 Kentucky Oaks Points Leaderboard
As promised last week, here is the story behind MAXIMUM SECURITY. First off, his sire wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire, so Gary West told his longtime racing manager and bloodstock agent Ben Glass to sell him and find a farm who would buy half-interest. Although the asking price was cheap, no one wanted to stand him. Finally, a syndicate from South America bought him and sent him to Brazil. The dam, Lil Indy, had sold for a meager $2,200 as a yearling before being purchased by Glass for $80,000 in foal to Pioneer of the Nile. The resulting foal finished out of the money in all five of her starts. Lil Indy’s third foal, a full brother to Maximum Security, ran for $7,500 to $10,000 claiming races and finished out of the money in six of his final seven races.
Maximum Security was a late foal, born May 15, and his knees didn’t close (the bones didn’t fuse together). West, with over 100 horses, needed to get rid of those who didn’t measure up, and this colt, physically and family-wise, certainly didn’t measure up. They decided to wait until July for his knees to close so they could eventually run him for a claiming tag. They sent him to Jason Servis along with several other maidens they needed to cull and told him to move them along. But this colt immediately came down with sore shins, so they had to wait for him to get healthy.
The colt hadn’t shown anything on the farm or at the track in the morning, so when Servis told Glass he wasn’t working that well, Glass said to just put him in for $16,000. But once he got over his shin problems and was ready to run, Servis noticed something about him and told Glass, “You know, this horse may better than we think. Maybe we should run him for $40,000.” But having just practically given his sire away because no one wanted him, having just sold his dam for a meager $11,000 after having paid $80,000 for her and seeing her go off to Korea, having seen his sister, Lily of the Nile, sell at the sale as a 4-year-old for a paltry $3,000, and with his siblings having done nothing on the track, they decided to stick with the original plan to run for a $16,000 claiming tag figuring people would see he’s a homebred with a dismal family history and assume they were just trying to get rid of a crooked horse.
Even though Maximum Security surprised everyone by romping by 9 3/4 lengths, with no one claiming him, the following month Lily of the Nile sold again, this time for only $5,000. Now, three months later, here is that one-time reject, a winner of the grade 1 Florida Derby, a winner of all four of his starts by an average margin of 9 1/2 lengths, and one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby, and somewhere out there, someone has his dam for $11,000 and his half sister by Pioneerof the Nile for $5,000.
As Glass said, “I honestly don’t have the answers. All of a sudden this colt woke up. You just never know in this game. When you have over 100 horses you have to move some of them along. Dr. David Lambert once told me a horse’s heart develops by racing and putting stress on it because it isn’t fully developed before they run. Sometimes you can’t tell about a horse until they test out their heart. We don’t even know yet if he’s just a horse for course or if he’s this good. It was totally different with Game Winner. The first time we breezed him I sent a text to Gary saying “We just breezed the next Gun Runner (another son of Candy Ride).”
Bloodhorse – Haskin – Derby Dozen – April 9, 2019 – Presented by Shadwell Farm
I love to be in the ballpark. I love to just go in and enjoy a great baseball game, a great pitchers’ duel.
Magic Johnson
Bardown – Johnny Manziel announces he’s changed his name
Phil has a question:
How many out there thought he was going for a moniker closer to has antics and changing to Johnny Asshole.
“I think the message to the industry and the people who have seen this as a way of life for generations is that there is no guarantee it’ll be here for future generations,” Scollay continued. “So I think the message to the current stakeholders, myself included, is to do everything we can to improve the safety for these horses and the jockeys.”
Paulick Report – ‘There Is No Guarantee’: Scollay Urges Kentucky Racing To Learn From Santa Anita
Horse Race Insider – Berner – Racing Must Not Ignore Recent Science
Horse Race Insider – Berner and Pricci – Mutant Gene Causes Horse Bleeding and Breakdowns
TDN – Ross – Synthetics and Sealed Dirt: The Science, Data and Expert Opinion
TDN – Bill Finley – So Maybe Richard Shapiro Was Right After All
NY Times – Severson – The Sweet Success of the Spiral-Cut Ham
Garden and Gun – The Secret Behind Augusta National’s Pound Cake
Southern Living – Million Dollar Pound Cake
Garden and Gun – Purvis – Endangered Species: North Carolina Barbecue
Garden and Gun – Purvis – North Carolina’s Barbecue Baron
Garden and Gun – Tierney and Saunders – Farewell to Charleston’s Hominy Grill
Southern Living – Luesse – Why Southern Women Buy Easter Dresses
The Chronicle – Duke men’s basketball’s Cam Reddish declares for NBA Draft
Phil has a question:
With Reddish declaring for the draft will Duke feel Bluish.
Duke is an ugly word in Kentucky. Nothing in the world compares to the joy of beating those hateful swine from Duke.
Hunter S. Thompson
Bloodhorse – Daugherty – Bourbon Resolution Proves Unstoppable in Ben Ali Upset
Phil has a question:
With 2 Graded Stakes winners so far in 2019 will the Wests be on the phone to Brazil to get New Years Day back.
Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
Walter Winchell
New Yorker – Kolbert – Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
Mignon McLaughlin
Phil M Stockmen
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TOPO EMERGES OUT OF HIBERNATION!!
Once again Topo resurfaces from a winter in the wonderland known as the Coachella Valley of California just in time to witness what has been an extremely dull lead up to Kentucky Derby 2019. When a $16,000 Maiden five starts back has a legitimate shot of winning this year’s rendition, it’s tough to get overly excited at the quality of this year’s stock.
But enough about horse racing on this day – Topo is focusing on the final round of the Masters where the great Italian golfer Francesco Molinari leads the pack into the stretch. If one were to go back to the archives in one of Topo’s opuses, Francesco was touted as a star even though mainstream media didn’t and still don’t talk about him much. Topo promises his loyal flock if Bad Boy Patrick Reed (family is important to Topo) puts on the Green Jacket on the Italian late afternoon, Topo will remerge as your Roving Rodent Reporter (RRR) making guest appearances on the Holybull website during 2019.