Saturday, May 07, 2016

The sky is falling.

Donald Trump won by the rules. Live with it. He is. He is correct, the RNC was never playing by the same rules he has.

Senator Lindsay Graham is a sorry SOB. He agreed to the conditions that Donald Trump did when he signed a pledge and now the establishment RNC is wondering why god is not on their side? God or is it Gold, really.

May 7, 2016
By Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin

By seizing the Republican presidential nomination for Donald J. Trump (click here) on Tuesday night, he and his millions of supporters completed what had seemed unimaginable: a hostile takeover of one of America’s two major political parties.
Just as stunning was how quickly the host tried to reject them. The party’s two living former presidents spurned Mr. Trump, a number of sitting governors and senators expressed opposition or ambivalence toward him, and he drew a forceful rebuke from the single most powerful and popular rival left on the Republican landscape: the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.
Rarely if ever has a party seemed to come apart so visibly. Rarely, too, has the nation been so on edge about its politics.
Many Americans still cannot believe that the bombastic Mr. Trump, best known as a reality television star, will be on the ballot in November. Plenty are also anxious about what he would do in office....  


2:01:31

Congratulations, Nyquist. (click here)

It looked fairly effortless to me.

The owner of Nyquest has an interesting history as well. This is from Wiki:

As a young man, Reddam became interested in the harness races held at Windsor Raceway that eventually led to his involvement as an owner while working as a university professor in Los Angeles. He used to have Standardbred horses competing at Windsor Raceway (has since closed down) and at Cal Expo in Sacramento, California. In 1988 he acquired his first Thoroughbred and has expanded his involvement to a current forty-horse racing stable plus twenty broodmares for his own breeding operations through arrangements with breeding farms in California and Kentucky.

Widely respected in the industry for his strong support of Thoroughbred racing, Reddam's first major success came in 2004 with a win by 75%-owned Wilko in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and his next in 2006 with Red Rocks in the Breeders' Cup Turf. His Thoroughbred racing stable is led by head trainer Doug O'Neill, with several horses being conditioned by Craig Dollase. His greatest achievement came when his colt I'll Have Another, from 19th position, won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and the 2012 Preakness StakesThe New York Times reported that the trainer used by Reddam was suspended for drug violation. His horse Nyquist won the Kentucky Derby in 2016.

How much does personality play in winners? Are there "Alphas" in horse racing?

"Big Red" had career winnings of $1,317,000 US. That was in the 1970s when a million US actually meant something. What kind of career winnings does a ten race three year old have in comparison of dollar to dollar with other great thoroughbreds?

He was a handful, too. He wanted to run. He was an athlete. Oddly enough he was never in a hurry to make it to the finish line. That BULK of a body started out of the gate slow, but, once that heart and lungs pushed the legs moving to his maximum stride, there was no catching him.

I never did a study of sincerely great thoroughbreds and how many came from the back of the pack to win. I think great thoroughbreds not only like to run, but, thrive on the competition. Secretariat had many other thoroughbreds to pass in any given race. It isn't as though he went to the front of the pack and fended off contenders. If you ask me I think he was an Alpha.

He made an impression on the USA. There was nothing ordinary about him.

This is from Wiki:

On October 16, 1999, in the winner's circle at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, the U.S. Postal Service honored Secretariat, unveiling a 33-cent postage stamp with his image. ESPN listed him 35th of the 100 greatest North American athletes of the 20th century, the highest of three non-humans on the list (the other two were also racehorses: Man o' War at 84th and Citation at 97th). Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974, the year following his Triple Crown. In 2005, he appeared in ESPN Classic's show "Who's No. 1?". In the list of "Greatest Sports Performances" (by individual athletes), the horse was the only nonhuman on the list, with his run at Belmont ranking second behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. On May 2, 2007, Secretariat was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, marking the first time an animal received this honor. A new award created in 2010 titled the Secretariat Vox Populi Award (voice of the people) was presented by Penny Chenery to the first honoree, Zenyatta. This annual award will acknowledge the horse that brings the most excitement and attraction to the sport.

Secretariat, a Disney live-action film written by Mike Rich and directed by Randall Wallace, was released on October 8, 2010

I finished my coffee, "Outta here."

Wall Street Thoroughbred Syndicates don't produce excitement in the Stakes races.

The participants to the Triple Crown are far less tried than in past decades. I don't consider seven starts telling of a two year old. When Secretariat won the Triple Crown as a three year old he continued to race and his career as a sire was less important so much as winning races.

There was a time when the "Sport of Kings" was sincerely a sport and not a fashion show. I mean how does an untried three year old actually have statistics that amount to a real choice for the winner? Today, the GUESS WORK is primarily based in pedigree and less about the actual horse. 

The reason stables raced their thoroughbreds rather than retiring them to the breeding barn is because they don't always turn out to be great sires. If a stallion cannot pass on his remarkable confirmation and will, then why breed to them?

Maybe breeders today haven't figured that out yet.

May 6, 2016
By Joe Drape

Louisville, Ky. — There are no holes in Nyquist’s résumé. (click here) He is the reigning 2-year-old champion and is undefeated in seven starts. He has soundly beaten three of the top contenders in previous races — Exaggerator, Brody’s Cause and Mohaymen. His trainer and jockey already have Kentucky Derby victories under their belts.
So why do horse aficionados believe Nyquist is immensely beatable Saturday, in the 142nd running of the Derby? The racetrack is a place where irrational logic rules. And there are several reasons that this colt is deemed vulnerable despite accomplishments better than last year’s Triple Crown champion, American Pharoah, and rivaling those of the 1977 Triple Crown champ, Seattle Slew.
Atop them is a recent statistical anomaly: Can the morning-line favorite really win the Kentucky Derby for a fourth year in a row?
Probably not....


Secretariat's gene pool proved to be more potent in females. It's interesting. 

Secretariat sired several major stakes winners including 1986 Horse Of The Year Lady's Secret, 1988 Preakness and Belmont winner Risen Star, and the 1990 Melborne Cup winner Kingston Rule, who still holds the race record.

He also sired General Assembly who won the 1979 Travers Stakes at Saratoga while setting a still standing race record of 2:00 flat. Andy Beyer said that General Assembly's speed figure in that race was one of the fastest in history. Like his sire, in the Belmont, General Assembly never duplicated that performance in another race.

Secretariat has received some criticism as a stallion due in part to his perceived inability to produce offspring of his calibur. His expensive syndication deal, perhaps, raised unrealistic expectations. He sired as many as 699 foals during his retirement. His blood flows through many notable racehorses including 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Smarty Jones. He was also a noted broodmare sire being the broodmare sire of 1992 HOY and successful sire A. P Indy. Secretartat's grandson through his daughter Weekend Surprise, who was sired by another Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew. A.P. Indy is the sire of the 2007 Belmont Stakes winner Rags To Riches, the first filly to win the race at Belmont since 1905. Secretariat is also the dam-sire of Storm Cat through hihs daughter Terlingua, and excellent race mare, and of Gone West, through his daughter Secrettame.
Secretariat was euthanized on October 4, 1989 because of complications of Laminitis. He is buried at Claiborne Farm.


Secretariat's progeny is somewhat the same as his sire, Bold Ruler. Bold Ruler was not a great sire, but, when his genes came through it made a mark in thoroughbred history forever. 

The fact Secretariat's fillies were far more exciting then their brothers could be due to the strong genes in his dam. Something Royal had Princequillo as a sire. That was basically unheard of in the Secretariat class of three year olds. Princequillo bloodlines produced great thoroughbreds and did so consistently.

I don't exactly know how genetics works in thoroughbreds, especially in current years. But, when a gene becomes a negative in human health and consistently passes from father to daughter or from mother to son, it is called a 'sex linked gene.' I suppose the same might be true with thoroughbreds, but, as an enhancement.

Realizing that potential might exist in thoroughbreds, it was Something Royal that was the determining factor in producing Big Red.
Donald Trump will find dissy less effective on a national level. The American people aren't interested in a Trump National Enquirer. They want the issues addressed. He should find a transition into an issue related campaign is far better. This 'dissing thing' works for the Republicans, but, not for a larger audience.

It is just the way it is.

Both Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton have their own ideas about policy issues. The sooner Mr. Trump addresses that the sooner he will find people taking him seriously. 

There are three debates and there won't be any dissy allowed.