To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous Huxley
TDN – Earle Mack- Letter to the Editor: A Happening In Saratoga: “As Good As It Gets in Sports”
Paulick Report – ‘A Second Sports Career’: Jayson Werth Talks Winning Belmont Stakes With Dornoch
Global News – Sarah de Couto – Shocking video captures rodeo bull jumping fence, tossing spectator
Phil has a question:
Who were you cheering for.
The Ringer – Kevin O’Connor – Dan Hurley Rejected the Lakers. Will LeBron Be Next?
The Ringer – Megan Schuster and Miles Surrey – The Definitive Ranking of Dragons
You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.
Bruce Lee
Bloodhorse – Sean Collins – Thorpedo Anna, National Treasure Top NTRA Polls
Newsday – Jim Baumbach – Racehorses at Belmont Park are dying at higher rates
Bloodhorse – Frank Angst – Record-Breaking Triple Crown Leans Into History
TDN – Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Packs Them Into Saratoga
California is not the only state that has seen track closures. Other tracks shuttered or bulldozed over the last several decades include Suffolk Downs in Boston, Mass., Rockingham Park in New Hampshire, Calder and Hialeah Park in Florida, Arlington Park and Sportsman’s Park in the Chicago suburbs of Illinois, Detroit Race Course, Great Lakes Downs, Hazel Park and Pinnacle Race Course (among others) in Michigan, Bowie in Maryland, and Atlantic City Race Course and Garden State Park in New Jersey. New York’s Aqueduct and Maryland’s Laurel Park are likely gone once Belmont Park and Pimlico are rebuilt.
Paulick Report – Ray Paulick – Another One Bites The Dust: Golden Gate Fields Ends 83-Year Run
Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.
Geoffrey Chaucer
ESPN – Brian Windhorst – Dan Hurley’s rejection stings, but pain doesn’t have to linger for Lakers
ESPN – Sources: Dan Hurley rejects Lakers offer, stays at UConn
The team with the best players wins.
Jack Welch
Phil has a question:
What does Hurley’s spurning the Lakers and the Pelicans’ deferring their Laker first round pick to the 2025 draft say about the current Lakers’ roster.
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
Peter Drucker
SAREEHA (IRE) sprinted to the front, was joined by TURA LURA before the turn, dueled that foe through rapid fractions with the rider at first trying to temper the pace then committing to the lead, held sway to the far turn then began to shorten strides turning for home and was not persevered with late when hopelessly beaten, and became the last horse to cross the finish line to close out eighty four years of racing at Golden Gate Fields. GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY.
TDN – Bill Finley – After 83 Years, the Curtain Comes Down at Golden Gate Fields
Horse Racing Nation – Ron Flatter – Flatter: A loving, bittersweet farewell to Golden Gate Fields
New York Times – Allie Conti – This Old-School Pizzeria Stays Open by Playing Itself on TV
Aeon – Sam Haselby – Economics 101
Phil has a question:
Does this mean that when Clark Kent and the Undertaker are gazing out the window watching Century Mile’s thoroughbred handle plummet like a lead zeppelin they are actually studying Economics -101.
Sometimes Phil’s just gotta give in to the Urge.
ESPN – Adrian Wojnarowski – Dan Hurley: Lakers make ‘compelling case’ to be team’s head coach
Phil has a Question:
What does compelling equate to in $$$$$$$$.
The team with the best players wins.
Jack Welch
ESPN – Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo – 2024 NBA mock draft: Projecting all 58 picks post-combine
DRF – Steve Andersen – Racing at Golden Gate Fields hits the wire for final time
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T.S. Eliot
It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.
Lewis Grizzard
At the end of the day, you can’t compete with Mother Nature. If you’ve got a great tomato, just a pinch of sea salt is all you need.
Zac Posen
It took me all my life to learn how to salt a tomato.
Eric Ripert
Brisnet – Kellie Reilly – Justify’s undefeated Parenting displays authority in Affirmed
Paulick Report – Danny Gargan Savoring First Grade 1 Victory With Belmont Winner Dornoch
Bloodhorse – Sean Collins – Ortiz Rides 3,000th Winner at Churchill Downs
Bloodhorse – Bob Ehalt – Trio of Triple Crown Winners Muddles 3-Year-Olds
TDN – Tim Wilkin – Belmont Winner Dornoch Could Run Next in Haskell
Paulick Report – Society Man Caps Big Weekend For Danny Gargan With Matt Winn Triumph
Bloodhorse – Sean Collins – Society Man the Real Deal in Matt Winn
Bloodhorse – Bob Ehalt – O’Rourke: Shift to Saratoga Brought Energy to Belmont
TDN – J.N. Campbell – Who Dey Now Headlines Sunday GIII Matt Winn S.
Paulick Report – Explanations And Excuses: 2024 Belmont Stakes Connections React In Race Aftermath
Phil has a question:
If the dog wouldn’t have stopped to take a shit; would he really have caught the rabbit.
Longtime owner, backstretch worker and personality Wendy Joan (Mackasey) Bunney recently passed away. A Celebration of Life will be held on Thursday June 20, 2024 2:00 PM in the Triple Crown Room, upstairs at Century Mile Racetrack and Casino 4711 Airport Perimeter Rd, Edmonton
And if I have my choice between a pennant and a triple crown, I’ll take the pennant every time.
Carl Yastrzemski
The Ringer – Adam Nayman – The Deceptive Dark Side of ‘Hit Man’ and Richard Linklater
Esquire – Josh Rosenberg – Hit Man: The Legendary True Story That Inspired the Netflix Film
Texas Monthly – Skip Hollandsworth – Hit Man
The Ringer – Howard Beck – Dan Hurley to the Lakers Isn’t As Risky As It Sounds
Southern Living – Kait Hanson – 50 New Beach Reads Perfect For Summer 2024
Steal a chicken if you get a chance, Huck, because if you don’t want it, someone else does and a good deed ain’t never forgotten.
Bloodhorse – Belmont Stakes Day Handle Rises 6.3% From 2023
Phil has a question:
Was it ironically poetic or poetically ironic that Tyler Gaffalione’s horse Protective lugged out and bumped Sierra Leone just as Sierra Leone was starting his lug in down the stretch.
Bloodhorse – Werth, Hill Score Home Run With Dornoch in Belmont
TDN – Mage’s Full-Brother Dornoch Upsets Belmont Stakes
Paulick Report – Chelsea Hackbarth – ‘No One Believed In This Horse’: Dornoch Upsets Belmont Stakes
Bloodhorse – Bob Ehalt – Dornoch, Full Brother to Mage, Takes the Belmont Stakes
ESPN – AP – Dornoch, ex-MLB star Werth’s colt, upsets Belmont at Saratoga
Brisnet – Vance Hanson – Dornoch adds to family legacy with Belmont upset
Bloodhorse – Dornoch Helps Puca, Grandview Equine Make History
DRF – Mike Welsch – 2024 Belmont Stakes: Mindframe’s inexperience proves costly in stretch
Phil has a question:
If the dog wouldn’t have stopped to take a shit; would he really have caught the rabbit.
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
Moshe Dayan
Phil has a question:
How many times has someone from Horse Racing Alberta reached out to Phil or Sal.
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
TDN – Frankel Colt Measured Time Gets Godolphin On the Board In The Manhattan
Bloodhorse – Sean Collins – Measured Time Scores for Godolphin in Manhattan
Brisnet – Kellie Reilly – Measured Time comes of age in Manhattan
The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.
Frank Zappa
TDN – National Treasure Romps in Hill ‘n’ Dale Met Mile
Bloodhorse – Frank Angst – National Treasure Explosive in Metropolitan Handicap
My biggest fear is becoming a parody of myself. That’s something I struggle with.
The Undertaker
TDN – Cogburn Sets New Course Record, Leads Not This Time 1-2 in Jaipur
You either have to make people love you or you have to make them hate you, it doesn’t really matter either way. If you can’t bring that emotion out of your audience then you’re not going to have them for long.
The Undertaker
TDN – Bucchero’s Book’em Danno On Right Side of Photo In Woody Stephens
Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.
Albert Einstein
TDN – Nyquist’s Randomized Turns Tables on Idiomatic in Thrilling Ogden Phipps
Bloodhorse – Byron King – Randomized Noses Out Idiomatic for Ogden Phipps Victory
Forgive. Forget. Life is full of misfortunes.
Don Vito Corleone
Bloodhorse – Frank Angst – Crupi Rallies to First Graded Stakes Win in Suburban
Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy.
Bloodhorse – Molly Rollins – Ice Chocolat Holds a Sweet Hand in Poker Score
The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.
Walt Whitman
Bloodhorse – Teresa Genaro – Baby Yoda a Saratoga Force in True North Romp
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
Igor Stravinsky
ESPN – Greg Wyshynski – Fan’s guide to Stanley Cup Final: Top players, storylines
I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
Dr. Seuss
You can write songs in New York because it’s not always perfect. To write a good song, things can’t be perfect.
Tom Odell
Mr. Fillip finished third in Friday’s 5 horse Western Canada Handicap and Belle Epoque was a steward’s scratch in Friday’s Chariot Chaser Handicap. Robertino Diodoro showing as trainer means that Alberta is not reciprocally honouring the HISA / HIWU provisional suspension or Horse Racing Alberta is just too fucking stupid to care.
A rather small field for one of the Canadian Derby preps does not bode well for thoroughbred racing in Alberta.
Far worse was the brutally paltry $461,566.00 handle for 9 races on a Friday evening with no NHL or NBA playoffs. On Wednesday June 5, 2024 the handle for a 7 race card at Assiniboia Downs reached $1,523,293.00, over $1 MILLION more than Century.
Phil has a question:
What is Assiniboia doing better.
Phil has an answer:
The competence of the people running the show at Assiniboia Downs compared to the road kill in Alberta at Horse Racing Alberta and Century Mile.
With Horse Racing Alberta wasting taxpayers’ dollars the UCP should be paying attention, but they’re too busy making sure Tory cronies like Alison Redford get their pensions topped up.
Phil heard a rumour that they’re going to change the license plates in Alberta from Wildrose Country to the Land Of Nepotism and Cronyism.
Reminds Phil of an old joke:
A judge calls the opposing lawyers into his chambers and says “Gentlemen, I’ve called you here to discuss a very serious matter.
This morning I found an envelope marked Plaintiff under my door with $40,000 in it and an envelope marked Defendant with $50,000 in it.”
He hands the Defendant’s lawyer an envelope with $10,000 in cash and says “Now that you are even, I intend to decide the case purely on its merits”.
I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they’ve ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn’t know, because I won’t ever dare ask that question.
Dylan Thomas
ESPN – Adrian Wojnarowski – Sources: Dan Hurley, Lakers met Friday about coaching job
Paulick Report – Chili Flag Caps Four-Win Friday For Irad Ortiz In Just A Game
Paulick Report – Letter To The Editor: Hats Off To The Coach
Bloodhorse – Byron King – Thorpedo Anna Dominant in Acorn Victory
TDN – Christina Bossinakis – Thorpedo Anna Strikes Again in Acorn
We need to take vegetables out of the role of side dish, even in low-fat, vegetarian diets, whose calories are generally derived mainly from grains and other starches.
Joel Fuhrman
Bloodhorse – Bob Ehalt – Chili Flag Flies Late to Give Brown Seventh Just a Game
TDN – Christina Bossinakis – Unwanted As a Foal, Chili Flag Scales Grade I Heights In Just A Game
Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book — and does.
Groucho Marx
Bloodhorse – Frank Angst – Didia Lands First U.S. Grade 1 in New York Stakes
TDN – Didia Goes One Better from 2023 Running, Takes New York in Style
Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)
Sometimes, all you can do is watch things burn, and wait for the ash to settle.
Jodi Picoult
Bloodhorse – Teresa Genaro – Future Is Now Edges Roses for Debra in Intercontinental
The lawyer with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun.
Don Vito Corleone
Bloodhorse – Stronach Facing Serious Criminal Charges in Canada
The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.
You can observe a lot by watching.
Yogi Berra
Phil has completely stopped betting and watching Alberta horse racing and Phil’s interest in horse racing in general is waning. Phil’s posts will be few and far between.
Phil M Stockmen
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