racingmeridian.com

Stunning racing, brilliant performances, heroes and, of course bad rides and goats, all contributed to a most entertaining Breeders Cup. The format needs to be tweaked, clearly the Ladies Classic and Zenyatta should have been featured on the Saturday card, but I have to eat a suitable portion of crow and admit the two day spectacle was compelling…yesterdays Santa Anita Cup will have enormous impact on North American racing. The ability of the Europeans to handle the Pro Ride surface meant they were on equal footing and, with all fair and relatively equal, they simply stole the show. One can only assume that the 2009 Breeders Cup, also scheduled for Santa Anita, will attract the largest and most high profile European contingent ever. Now, with that momentum, I envision a future where only two tracks will host the event, Belmont and Santa Anita. The traditionalists will be placated with the New York dirt track remaining in the rotation…critically, the surface on both Friday and Saturday seemed without bias. For instance, Bob Baffert was able to win barrier to wire with Midshipman, and come from last with the electrifying Midnight Lute…Horse of the Year? Are you kidding, my vote goes to Raven’s Pass. Curlin was out of gas in the latter part of the year, Zenyatta was awesome, yes, but she could have raced in the Classic instead of thumping the usual suspects, only the invader terrorized Group 1 challengers in Europe and America. His campaign should be amply rewarded…Soldier Of  Fortune was sabotaged by a poor job from Johnny Murtagh. The horse, used to loping along at about a 1.14, 1.15 clip, was stationed just off a 1.11 pace yesterday. Of course he had nothing left in the lane…Duke Of Marmalade should have been resting, not running. Aidan O’Brien, god love him, has shown a bizarre proclivity for racing his multi million dollar specimens well past their due date…Marian Hossa has three goals and an assist in his last two games with the Detroit Red Wings. He claims he is becoming increasingly comfortable in Motown, bad news for any other team aspiring to knock the champs from their thrown…freed from the cumbersome, vastly overrated Mats Sundin, the Leafs are able to play entertaining and, occasionally, winning hockey. Any team looking for some good summer golfing time should sign the Swede, he virtually assures an early playoff exit with his patented playoff disappearing act…do we punch the panic button on Alex Ovechkin say, now?…with up to four players, including Deuce McAllister, facing suspension, the New Orleans Saints are in a world of hurt. The full roster is permitted to play in London today, against the San Diego Chargers, but then a series of sanctions will be imposed. The players were using a prohibited “water” pill to assist in weight loss…word is Carson Palmer may be done for the year. Without their superb pivot the Cincinnati Bengal are locked in a death fight with those other tabbies, the Detroit Lions, for the first pick in summer draft…I love it, no night game tonight, all our football action is crunched into the 1pm and 4 pm slots. The NFL is leaving the night slot to the Phillies and Rays…TSN is showing a replay of the Kelly Pavlik - Bernard Hopkins fight from last week at 8pm…I swear, I have never felt such little buzz in Toronto over the Raptors. Feeling of dread is more like it as the woefully thin dinosaurs are a Calderon injury away from disaster…you do know, don’t you, that the Seattle Supersonics are no more?…Police Chief David Hall was vocal admonishing Isiah Thomas for claiming his seventeen year old daughter suffered a sleeping pill overdose when, in fact, it was Isiah himself who was ill. As the Chief said, “My officers can tell the difference between a 47 year old black man and a young girl”…make sure to make some time for NASCAR today, the Atlanta race is always a hoot and one long goddamn holler! The older track is worn down and the surface has become lightning fast. Dale Earnhardt Jr is going to use some of his old man’s moxy and find a winning groove today…picked up David Goodis’s The Burglar last night and ended up reading it in one sitting. A crime noir classic, written in 1953, the work is considered an essential of the genre. I highly recommend it, particularly for the spell binding final page…