The City of Gold or Florence Y’all

The proverbial fork in the road has presented itself to your fearless author, and I must admit it created a few sleepless nights. Making my first horse racing road trip of 2010 is not something I take lightly. When I decided this would be the weekend for my trip, it just became a matter or where to go. I quickly narrowed it down to either Meydan Racecourse in Dubai or Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky. You can see my dilemma. I could picture myself flying first class, and sipping champagne on Emirates Airlines jetting to the Jewel of the Middle East. But, I could just as easily see myself gassing up the Hyundai and making the 4 ½ hour drive to Suburban Cincinnati with an Egg McMuffin in hand. Clearly you can see why I tossed and turned nightly. My wife Candie knew that I was in a state or turmoil, and she tried to get my mind off the pressing decision. I appreciated her trying to help, but all I kept thinking was “The City of Gold or Florence Y’all?” I must have muttered that phrase countless times in my attempted sleep, because she would ask each morning, “So, did you decide between the City of Gold or Florence Y’all?” No, after days of pained contemplation, I still had not decided. I would need to be analytical about this problem. I decided to concentrate on the pros for each locale. Always the optimist, I generally stick more with the pros than the cons. Here is what I came up with: Dubai has the greatest horse racing facility ever imagined in Meydan Racecourse. It boasts eight races to be run on World Cup Day, each featuring some of the greatest horses from all over the world. The World Cup is the single richest race in the world. Dubai features world class hotels and restaurants. Sights to see abound. It has gorgeous golf courses and Summer like weather. Dubai offers an exotic location that I would dream about visiting someday. Luxurious accommodations and royal treatment would be a certainty. Heck, it even has indoor ski slopes and a Dolphinarium.  Meanwhile, Florence has 5-Way Chili and one of the biggest days of racing that Turfway Park has to offer. Florence truly is the pulse of magnificent Northern Kentucky. Besides the excellent racing, Lane’s End Day also offers Eric Davis and Chris Sabo at the track for a bottle signing from 8am to 11am on Saturday. The limited edition Maker's Mark bottle commemorates the Lane's End and the 1990 World Series champion Cincinnati Reds. Since Sabo and I have a bit of history, he once tried to steal my date at Wrigley Field, the bottle signing becomes an unexpected bonus. What a decision. I ultimately needed to pick one and stick with the choice. In the end, I just could not fight off the irresistible urge to get back to my old Kentucky home. Never mind the thousands of dollars the Dubai trip would have cost. Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky it is. The Lane’s End features a horse, in Connemara, I have been following since his first career race. Also on the card will be five other stakes including the Bourbonette Oaks and the Rushaway Stakes. It should be a wonderful day of racing, and by the way, I can still watch the races from Meydan and enjoy their great racing card via simulcast. Will I regret not being there in person? Not at all, I will get there someday. Have I made the right decision? No regrets, Lane’s End Day is going to be fabulous. Will the path I have chosen for this weekend forever alter my future as a turf writer? That’s way too deep a question for this particular column, but I will leave you with these final words of wisdom…I’m headed to Florence Y’all.

Euro-Trashing

I am getting a little tired of the disrespect shown to American racing by blokes on the other side of the pond. Timeform, out of England, creates their own Global Ranking while The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, based in France, puts out the World Thoroughbred Ranking. Both lists are an insult to the very best of the American horses. Too much emphasis is placed on the Breeder’s Cup and the Dubai World Cup and not enough is placed on all of our other races. If an American horse doesn’t compete in the BC or Dubai, than they are barely a blip on the world radar. Also, they place far too great an importance on the results of last year’s Breeder’s Cup where European horses had some solid success. As far as their world rankings, here are some notable examples causing my displeasure: Rachel Alexandra, the greatest 3-year-old filly we have seen for many years, is rated behind Rip Van Winkle on the Timeform rankings. Rip Van Winkle is clearly a nice Irish 3-year-old, but to rate this horse, who has won once out of four tries this year, a whopping five pounds ahead of Rachel Alexandra is insulting. Meanwhile, the World Thoroughbred Ranking lists her in a tie for ninth globally and six pounds below Rip. I guess the International Federation people have not seen her last eight races! Gio Ponti, winner of four consecutive Grade 1 turf races, is judged to be below at least 15 other turf horses on these respective European rankings, or excuse me, World rankings. 15 or more turf horse are better than Gio Ponti??? This is nothing less than a slap in the face to American race horses. Reminds me of the lack of respect given to Manila, the year he thrashed Europe’s star Dancing Brave. Our consistent success in the Dubai World Cup proves our dominance on our best surface, dirt. America has won five of the last six runnings of the world’s richest race. While on our secondary surface, turf, sure the Europeans are tough to beat, but we hold our own as evidenced by winning the Breeder’s Cup Turf 12 times out of 25 runnings. Europeans are quick to point out their win in the BC Classic last year. OK, you got that one, but on our third surface, synthetics, and it was the first European win in the Classic for 15 years. This gives them two Classic wins in total. I am confident that if we sent a few horses every year to the Arc, the Americans could also claim a victory every 15 years or so. With the chip that is currently on their shoulder, I am sure the Euros will expect to come over here and sweep our Breeder’s Cup this year. Sorry blokes, it is not going to happen. Bring your superhorse, Sea the Stars, bring all your best Europe. You are going to need it to compete with the USA in 2009.