spa wrote:

> Chuckles, this story is for you. When Lil ET was in the paddock
> for the Arkansas Derby, the trainer(cab driver) for Pine Bluff
> attempted to strech his horse's legs. The right front went ok,
> but the horse tried to step on the trainer's foot during the
> second attempt. The trainer clearly was afraid to try it again.
> I shouted that I'd be glad to help. He ordered the guards to
> throw me out of the track.

lol, thats what you get for making a trainer look like a turkey. Pine Bluff?...Thomas Bohannon? Did they actually kick you out of the track?

Once again, he failed to complete
> the mission. History shows the exacta of Pine Bluff/Lil ET was
> good. After the race, Pat Day said he noticed something about
> Lil ET that would be corrected in the upcoming Kentucky Derby(a
> shadow roll), the rest is history. I'd have cashed the exacta
> but Pine Bluff bled.
> The moral of this story is that Lil ET was very much a live
> horse.
>

I caught Lil E Tee in his first two starts in Florida. I was doing my own figures and had him HUGE. (2 yr old) Right after that race he was purchased privately by Whiting on behalf of Cal Partee and poof he was gone. I liked him from the start because I had good reason to believe he was super fast. I seem to recall him losing his two preps in Arkansas. One to Al Sabin and the other to Pine Bluff. Cal Partee had finished 3rd in the Derby a few years earlier with Lil E. Tee's sire "At the Threshold" (Damascus Line I think) and Cal Partee was an older man getting to the end of the road, was serious about winning the Derby and had the right trainer to do it. Anyway the preps were building preps and I was encouraged by them. I felt all along the goal was Churchill Downs. The only thing that caused me some reservation was that Lil E Tee. went off his feed for a day after the Arkansas Derby. But I believe Whiting is true blue and he shot candidly from the hip on it and I was convinced it wasn't worth not backing the horse. I thought he would handle Pine Bluff. I think he was getting to him in the Ark. My only concern was AP Indy and when he scratched that morning I interpreted that as an omen for Cal Partee.

Lil E. Tee was injured in the Preakness and ran two nice races as a four year old I believe. Lightning caught briefly in a bottle. I lost that Preakness, but I had A.p. Indy in his return and your Pine Bluff and My Memoirs. I think that was the year. Alzheimers you know.

Pine Bluff was a good Danzig. His moms line is what carried FuPig as far as he went. I hope you bagged that Preakness.

CtC