A Special Tweet For Racing Fans

One of the spotlight races this weekend is the grade 1 Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar. The $350,000 Read is 1-1/8 miles on the turf and is the premier turf race for older horses at the meeting.

But this weekend, I thought I would introduce some of you to perhaps a new way to learn about a horse race.

As most of you know, I Tweet. That is I have a Twitter account - user name: thebrocktalk. Yes, I send and read those 140-character messages throughout the day. And I fully admit that it took me awhile to appreciate it but I was compelled to give it try. Even now I know I don't fully understand all of it's benefits. But the benefits I have found I think are well worth the learning curve of a then 49-year-old maiden claimer in the tweeting ranks.

So let me introduce you to the tweets of Randy Moss (photo), the ESPN analyst who just began tweeting from Del Mar. He can be found at www.twitter.com/randy_moss_tv. These were Friday tweets:

-Joe Talamo replaces injured Rafael Bejarano on Artiste Royal in Eddie Read
about 1 pm PDT

-Still mixing racing & NFL at Del Mar. Mike Tice yesterday and ran into Norv Turner this morning. He's racing fan and headed to track today
about noon PDT

-Bob Baffert bought Richard's Kid for synthetic/turf, entered Eddie Read after good grass work. Blinkers added to "keep him a little closer"
about noon PDT

-For what it's worth: trainer John Sadler told us Whatsthescript is coming up to Sat "just as good and maybe a little better" than last year
about noon PDT

-Sounds like a good old-fashioned barn burner to me. Which would seem to be a perfect scenario for Whatsthescript's stretch-running style
2:31 pm July 23rd

-Mike Mitchell on Thorn Song sitting "length and a half" off pace. He said, "We're not giving ( Jazz) that much. Maybe a half length. Maybe."
2:31 pm July 23rd

-Craig Dollase, trainer of Monterey Jazz: "He's a very fast horse and he's on his game. If anyone wants to go with him early, good luck."
2:27 pm Jul 23rd

-Speed duel in Eddie Read between Monterey Jazz and Thorn Song? Made barn rounds this morning and talked to both trainers of both horses.
12:26 pm Jul 23rd

So now we know a little more about how Moss feels about the Eddie Read and a little more about how he prepares for a telecast as the Read will be shown on ESPN2 Saturday at 8pm Eastern. That was also tweeted earlier by Moss. During the day, Moss also gave his thoughts on the opening day crowd (without any references to attendance figures I might add), Brett Favre, other NFL topics including somebody that thought he was the "other" Randy Moss, and updated jockey Rafael Bejarano's condition.

Other tweeters I like to follow are of course Blood-Horse (BloodHorse) and Thoroughbred Times (TTimes) who both tweet updates throughout the day on news that has just crossed their desks. They were also both fun to follow during the recent Fasig-Tipton Kentucky select yearling auction as they tweeted top sellers just moments after the gavel fell as well as information about under-bidders, trainers in attendance, weanling sale prices and more.

Another tweet from Blood-Horse looked like this at around 6 pm eastern Friday.
Mine That Bird Arrives at Mountaineer http://bit.ly/OqAiB.

Both publications also provide stallion news, maiden race developments, stakes previews and a whole host of other racing topics throughout the day.

Another great tweeter is Alex Brown (photo) who tweets under AlexBrownRacing and tweets about everything from his activity as a Woodbine exercise rider to his cause against horse slaughter to jockey Ramon Dominguez getting his record 93rd winner of the Belmont meet. Brown is a prominent voice in the blogging, tweeting, facebooking world of thoroughbred racing and is a good model for those newcommers to the next information level.

Following Ray Paulick on Twitter can also be quite interesting. Not only does he provide updates to his excellent blog The Paulick Report, but Paulick also tweets live from major horse racing events and functions throughout the year. His tweets during the Kentucky Derby trainers' dinner were fun and interesting as he provided followers with the quips being traded back and forth between Bob Baffert and Master of Ceremonies Chris Lincoln and others.

So before you completely dismiss the idea of ever being on Twitter, just think about what you may be missing about horse racing. And if you're anywhere near within the realm of the typical horse racing fan psychographics, you don't like it when somebody knows more than you.

Thoughts, Comments And Questions About The Belmont Stakes

The curse of the big sandy struck again when 11-1 longshot Summer Bird ran past the three favorites in deep stretch to win the 141st running of the Belmont Stakes. Summer Bird's victory lifted on heck of a big monkey off the back of winning jockey Kent Desormeaux, who missed two chances at the Triple Crown by not winning the 1998 Belmont on Real Quiet and again last year on Big Brown.

Dunkirk survived a steward's inquiry after the race and a stretch run against favorite Mine That Bird to get second while the later finished third. Charitable Man was fourth.

But the race emphasized just how difficult it is this marathon of a race. We will never know if Mine That Bird took Calvin Borel closer to the leaders too early as the jockey explained after the race, or if Borel misjudged his timing, so many great jockeys before him I might add, and compromised his chances at a personal Triple Crown.

Mine That Bird did look a bit tightly wound when shown by ABC making the walk from the stable area to the saddling paddock, but really no more energetic than he did waltzing onto the stage at Pimlico three weeks ago. But for some reason, despite announcer Tom Durkins description, Mine That Bird simply didn't fire when and like he did at Churchill Downs in the Derby or again in the Preakness.

It was a dissappointing loss for many who were pulling for Mine That Bird, including the throngs of New York racing fans that were wearing cowboy hats in his honor. In fact, it is believed that there hasn't been that many cowboys at a New York city event since the Dennis Weaver/McCloud fan club disbanded in the early 1980s.

Something tells me that Mine That Bird will return as a dangerous foe when he returns to the customary one-mile ovals of most North American tracks.

More Thoughts, Comments and Questions.
The best line of the day came from ESPN's Kenny Mayne (of course) when he said being a maiden is worse than being a virgin because a maiden hasn't even won a horse race... The worst line(s) of the day of course, came from Hank Goldberg of the same broadcast team. He took two stabs at trying to tell the story about his conversation with jockey Jeremy Rose (once on the ESPN pre-Belmont telecast, and then again on the ABC telecast.) Take three. My favortite and most uncomfortable Goldberg moment was when Goldberg was describing the other Derby and Preakness horses that had not made it to the Belmont saying the series knocked-off others... knocked-out the others... I'm glad he stopped there... Wasn't the story about racing vernacular in our every day lives a good one?... Wasn't the feature with Kenny Mayne and Chip Woolley in the pick-up truck a bad one. Even with Woolley doing an admirable job it was bad... My wife came up with a interesting thought on the popularity of the horses in this Triple Crown season. Seabiscuit ran during the depression. Secretariat during another challenging time during our country's history. Things could be better now... Whatever producer decided to use The Rail Blog's Joe Drape and Steve Haskin of bloodhorse.com in the Longshot feature on ESPN and ABC made a good choice. Both veteran turf writers make my recommended reading list on a regular basis... As a longtime fan of thoroughbred racing in this the Ark-La-Tex, I send congratulations to Summer Bird owners and breeders Drs. Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman who have raced horses in this region for more than 30 years... Gabby's Golden Gal won the grade 1 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies earlier in the day to take her spot as one of the top fillies in the country that is not as fast as Rachel Alexandra...