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Somebody is gonna make Big Brown earn it.

My Son, Derby Thoughts

First post in a long time:

Worst Derby Ever? Yeah, that's pretty much become a cliche at his point. Is there even a question about that? I mean c'mon.

I watched the race with my dad who was in front of a TV that wasn't attached to some kind of girder or wall, because it was the day of his granddaughter's (my niece's) first communion and we were all stuck at the post-communion party, otherwise he'd have been at the track.

I usually like to be alone in front of the TV for at least an hour before the race.

The ending of the race presented possibly the worst outcome imaginable. I am very grateful that my son wasn't old enough to comprehend what happened (4 years old). I'm always telling him about horse racing and horses and trying to get him interested in the sport. He does enjoy it, more than baseball or boxing (my other 2 favorites), and chooses to have me put on TVG over the Dodger game or Friday Night Fights.

He wasn't even paying attention much to the race, since to him it was just another chance to ask me "I have #4, who do you have?," so I sent him out of the room as soon as I realized what was happening. Eight Belles breakdown made me sick, I've been in a low-grade depression ever since.

It was terrible. There is not much more that can be said. I'm not sure how I feel about the sport at this point, although I want to defend it, what is there that can be said in defense? Should I raise my son on racing like my dad did with me? It seems like tragedy's like these are becoming more and more prevalent.

Santa Anita Rains

As most know, racing has been canceled for the third consecutive day at Santa Anita due to drainage problems with the newly installed Cushion Track. I went out this morning just to check it out for myself and ran into an old friend of mine who happens to know quite a bit about what's going on at the track.

According to him, from what he knows, when the Cushion Track was installed over the summer, the asphalt base was completely sealed off due to extreme heat (105+ degrees) at the time. And that's why it won't drain "vertically". It seems that the asphalt isn't nearly as porous as advertised.

If this is true, it's worse than the official story. And it would seem that solving the problem is more complicated than most think.

I'm not sure if this has been reported anywhere else but it seems to make sense. Another guy I talked to thinks it's that the sand in the track has coagulated, from the rain, preventing adequate drainage. That's more like the official story. But, the surface is the same as the one at Hollywood Park? And it's been raining there too. Everyone I talked to agrees that there is more to the truth than is being told by track officials.

Any way you look at it, it seems that the smart thing to do is to tear the whole thing up and start over. They can't keep canceling racing every time it rains, since I think everyone agrees that they're going to have to put in a new surface anyway.