Belmont Day thread

blueline

EOG Master
NYRA track announcer John Imbriale had Gamine winning by 15 lengths.

Trakus called the final margin 17 1/4 lengths.

DRF charts report an 18 3/4-length victory for Gamine in the Acorn Stakes.

Who do you believe?

look at the other trakus data for the last few segments of the race
 

Valuist

EOG Master
Beyers out for weekend stakes:

Gamine 110
Tiz the Law 100

Per the DRF, the plan is still for Gamine to race in the KY Oaks with a prep likely in the Test at Saratoga.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Microchips in saddle pads should make the Trakus product deadly-accurate.

If data integrity is not a major issue for Trakus, why bother?
 

Valuist

EOG Master
The fact Tiz the Law didn't even get a negative number for a sub 1:47 tells you the surface was a paved highway.
 

blueline

EOG Master
While it’s been pretty much assumed Gamine is Kentucky Oaks-bound the day before the Derby (even Baffert admits that’s the current target), well, there’s wiggle room.

“I just haven’t figured anything out. I could get bold with her, I don’t know what to do with her yet. I like to wait about two weeks, see how they breeze back, see how they’re going.”

If she needs Derby qualifying points?

“I’d have to get bold somewhere along the line, and if I did that I’d have to run her in the Shared Belief (at Del Mar),” Baffert said.

This year, because of the wacky Derby schedule, the Shared Belief on Aug. 1 is worth 50 qualifying points to the winner.

Baffert has run only one filly in the Derby (Excellent Meeting finished fifth in 1999), but she didn’t have the speed Gamine possesses.

“This filly, she would probably be the kind that would run in the Derby because she’s speed,” Baffert said. “Like Winning Colors (1988), where they get out there and they’re so fast they just keep going.

“It would have to be the right type, and she’d have to be doing exceptionally well. I wouldn’t want to do it just to do it. If I felt like she had a legitimate chance to win it … like what she showed me the other day, but she’s gonna have to learn to relax a little bit more.”

Is she good enough to beat Tiz the Law, Honor A.P., Authentic and the other top 3-year-old colts?

“I’ve always thought she was as good as my 2-year-old colts,” Baffert said.

She displayed that ability right from the start.

“We knew she was really special,” he said. “We got a late start running her here because everybody on the backside knew all about her and we couldn’t get a race to fill for her for a month.”

When it did, she won a maiden special weight by 6 1/4 lengths on March 7 at Santa Anita, followed that up with a neck victory over Speech in an Oaklawn Park allowance on May 2 and then turned on the afterburners for jockey Johnny Velazquez in the Acorn.

“I’ve been working her off (the pace), getting her to relax, but drawing the one post (for the Acorn), I told Johnny, ‘You’re going to have to put her on the lead,’” Baffert said. “She’s fast. She’s really fast. But you don’t know she’s going that fast. She’s one of those, those good ones, where they look like they’re galloping, but they’re really going pretty fast.

“He turned her loose at the eighth pole there and she just took off. Turning for home, I knew she was going to win, but I thought she was going to win by three or four lengths. I didn’t know she was going to do that. That was just incredible.”
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
A gamine is a slim, elegant young woman who is, or is perceived to be, mischievous, teasing or sexually appealing.

Hold the phone.
 

Foresthill

EOG Addicted
Gamine is a French word that loosely translated to English means playful or childish.

A gamine is a slim, elegant young woman who is, or is perceived to be, mischievous, teasing or sexually appealing.

Hold the phone.


Seems to be conflicting definitions depending on your dictionary.

From Oxford Languages:

adjective: gamine
  1. (of a girl) attractively boyish.
noun: gamine:
  1. a girl with a mischievous, boyish charm.

    From Merriam-Webster:

    1 : a girl who hangs around on the streets

    2 : a small playfully mischievous girl
JK's definition is Wikipedia's. I'll take the other twos' as being more valid since they are from dictionaries. From the dictionary definitions it appears the word is used to describe girls, not women.

Apparently, those who named this filly thought the horse is attractively boyish and/or mischievous with a boyish charm. Or, alternatively, the type of filly that hangs out on the street and/or is small and playfully mischievous.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Looks like Gamine will compete next in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga (July 18) and then the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs (September 4).
 

blueline

EOG Master
Second samples from two horses trained by Bob Baffert confirmed the presence of a prohibited substance after they ran in the Arkansas Derby and an allowance race on May 2 at Oaklawn Park.

Charlatan, winner of one division of the Arkansas Derby, and Gamine, an undefeated filly who subsequently won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont, had samples retested by an independent laboratory and the results showed the presence of lidocaine, an anesthetic. The sample results were first reported by the New York Times.
 

blueline

EOG Master
Baffert said in a statement that he believes both horses were “unknowingly and innocently” exposed to lidocaine by one of his stable employees. The employee had broken his pelvis and was suffering from back pain in the days leading up to May 2. He applied a pain relieving patch, which contained small amounts of lidocaine, according to Baffert’s statement.

Baffert said he believes the lidocaine from the patch was inadvertently transferred from the employee’s hands to the horses through the use of tongue ties applied by the employee who handled both animals leading up to their races.

“This is a case of innocent exposure and not intentional administration,” Baffert said in the statement. “The extreme sensitivity of modern day testing can now pick up trace levels of innocent contaminants that have no effect on a horse. This is an issue that regulators of horse racing need to account for and address.”

The level of licocaine in Gamine on May 2 was 185 picograms, while Charlatan had 46 picograms, according to the trainer’s statement. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram.

Baffert told the AP he had no additional comment.
 

alfie

EOG Dedicated
hands on patch, hands on tongue...that is one explanation that's seems hard to believe.......
 

blueline

EOG Master
Baffert will stay hunkered down at the beach city in San Diego and watch his horses run at the 28-day Del Mar meet, which starts on Friday.

He would be allowed to travel to Saratoga with his horses if he chose to.

Last month, New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered that all travelers entering the state from areas with significant coronavirus spread have to quarantine for 14 days. Sixteen states are on the list, including California.

However, according to the New York State Department of Health Guidance on travel restrictions, essential workers needed to travel to the state for a period of greater than 36 hours would not have to quarantine provided they have a negative coronavirus test. Horsemen traveling to Saratoga have been deemed essential workers. That would include trainers, assistant trainers, exercise riders, hotwalkers and grooms.

Baffert does plan on having a presence at the races. Any horses he ships to Saratoga will be stabled in the barn of New York trainer John Terranova and his wife, Tonya. Baffert's top assistant, Jimmy Barnes, would likely accompany any horse coming to Saratoga unless Baffert changes his mind and decides to come himself.
 

Valuist

EOG Master
Baffert will stay hunkered down at the beach city in San Diego and watch his horses run at the 28-day Del Mar meet, which starts on Friday.

He would be allowed to travel to Saratoga with his horses if he chose to.

Last month, New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered that all travelers entering the state from areas with significant coronavirus spread have to quarantine for 14 days. Sixteen states are on the list, including California.

However, according to the New York State Department of Health Guidance on travel restrictions, essential workers needed to travel to the state for a period of greater than 36 hours would not have to quarantine provided they have a negative coronavirus test. Horsemen traveling to Saratoga have been deemed essential workers. That would include trainers, assistant trainers, exercise riders, hotwalkers and grooms.

Baffert does plan on having a presence at the races. Any horses he ships to Saratoga will be stabled in the barn of New York trainer John Terranova and his wife, Tonya. Baffert's top assistant, Jimmy Barnes, would likely accompany any horse coming to Saratoga unless Baffert changes his mind and decides to come himself.

Probably just as well. Baffert is over 65. If he went to Saratoga and picked up the Rona, Cuomo would have him shipped directly to a nursing home.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Baffert is a complicated figure in the sport.

So good in front of a camera to promote the sport and so dirty when the cameras are off.
 

Neveragain

EOG Dedicated
For horseplayers who may have missed it, NYRA is now streaming “America’s Day at the Races” each broadcast day live on YouTube in HD.
They’re also providing a link to free Equibase PP’s for all races they’re streaming.
I’ve always been impressed by NYRA’s broadcast (Mig, Stevens, Serling, Maggie etc.) and the team now includes Acacia Courtney.
There should be some good shows this summer coming soon from Saratoga and possibly Del Mar starting this Friday July 10th.
 

blueline

EOG Master
BEL 4th
John Morrison now 4 for 23
3 of those with first starters
debut sire winning at 18%
42/1 winner
 

blueline

EOG Master
Baffert gets 15 days

“We’re just very disappointed because we thought we put on a very compelling defense that it was innocent contamination,” Baffert told The Associated Press. “We’re definitely going to appeal it.”
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Gamine v Swiss Skydiver in Friday's Kentucky Oaks.

I'm leaning to the second choice (SS).

"Skydiver" was dynamite in her last start, the Grade I Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

Gamine is listed at even-money on the morning line while Swiss Skydiver has been installed at 8/5.
 

Valuist

EOG Master
L lol him
Gamine v Swiss Skydiver in Friday's Kentucky Oaks.

I'm leaning to the second choice (SS).

"Skydiver" was dynamite in her last start, the Grade I Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

Gamine is listed at even-money on the morning line while Swiss Skydiver has been installed at 8/5.

You left out Speech, who ran a very big race against Gamine at Oaklawn falling short by about a length. Weeks later, Speech would be declared the winner as Gamine's post race test came up positive for too much Lidocaine. Definitely a 3 horse race, IMO.
 
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