10 Things I Learned on the Weekend
October 1st, 2007By Jude T. Feld
Nashoba’s Key Has Seven Straight Wins
Benoit Photo
1. NASHOBA’S KEY is the best turf filly or mare in training. (And her trainer, Carla Gaines, deserves a ton of credit for making her that way.)
2. Trainer Carl Nafzger has a plan with STREET SENSE and he executes it with aplomb. (Poly defeat – Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) victory; Poly defeat – Kentucky Derby (G1) victory; Poly defeat – Breeders’ Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (G1) victory?)
3. FABULOUS STRIKE doesn’t like mud.
4. New York Mets fans are for the most part heartless. (Great when you’re winning, they don’t show up when you’re losing.)
5. Autumn in New York is overrated.
6. HARD SPUN loves the Turfway Polytrack. (He’s two-for-two – both graded stakes.)
7. SMART STRIKE is to American Thoroughbred breeding what NOSFERATU was to Barbados Thoroughbred breeding. (With three Grade 1 winners in less than two hours he isn’t very subtle but he is effective.)
8. John Velazquez has not lost his heart. (As anyone who saw him squeeze ENGLISH CHANNEL through a very narrow gap on the rail in the Joe Hirsch (G1) Sunday will attest.)
9. STUDENT COUNCIL is as good as I once thought he was. (Is that a Toby Keith song?)
10. Whoever thinks $500,000 will make Antigua and Barbuda walk away from their World Trade Organization objections to the United States’ provincial anti-internet gaming stance is living in La-La Land. (Antigua’s talking billions and the U.S. makes a ridiculous half a million dollar offer. Just because Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of beads doesn’t mean every islander is a sucker. Maybe the negotiators, who have been watching too many priceline.com ads, would be interested to know that Antiguans don’t walk around in loincloths or use bone fishhooks.)
