Private purchase involving Baffert, wins Derby prep in huge performance, public writes it off as a fraud, deja vu all over again?

Meadowlands harness Thursday night, race 2. 19-1 winner. 11-1 shot 2nd, show spot goes to 58-1 piece. 1/9 shot - yes, one-to-nine shot - outta the money. Exacta comes back $80 for $2, tri $360 for a buck. You have to applaud that kind of chutzpah, no? They JUST busted a bunch of people down there for race-fixing. Yeah. I got your bust right here, pal.

Get an excited email from a friend yesterday. He likes Storm Treasure for the gimmicks in the Blue Grass. He calls me ten minutes before the race today, wants to know if I liked the horse at all. He talks me into believing the thing can run in there. I play him in tri's. My friend plays him underneath the faves in exactas. At the last second he calls back into Brisbet and puts him underneath Sinister Minister. Plus $10 to place. My tris go nowhere, because they all involve Zito.

This was an overreaction to Sun King - Sun King!! For Chrissakes, is there no justice in the world!! - beating me the race before. At the eight pole I was counting my money on Kazoo. Yes he looked gassed but when you need a guy to drag your horse kicking and screaming through a final furlong he wants no part of, you can do a lot worse than Migliore for my money. After we got run over I figured, why try to fight city hall, obviously there's no stopping Nicky at this point. The worst part is I didn't even like the horse.

Went over to OTB yesterday, mostly just to have a few beers and to forget about a lousy week. After a few pints of Bass Ale I decide to make one play. Mott horse in GP 9th looks like a cinch, she's real short but I liked a couple of prices to run underneath. Keyed Mott over the #6 for a $20 exacta (got hammered late, went from $54 to $41 last couple of minutes) and $2 tri keying Mott over the 6 and a couple others. The Mott horse airs, my exacta horse is in the mix for 2nd but then fades...long story longer, I catch the tri, or so I think, until I look at my ticket and see I got one that has the 6 keyed on top. Either I called it out wrong or he punched it wrong, but I should have checked. Then they put up the unofficial order and they got the 4 in third, which makes me feel better...until they correct the mistake and take out the 4 and put up the 6. $334 tri, not life altering but a nice little bankroll churner for a guy like me.

Lawyer Ron didn't look all that rateable today, to me. He rated for part of one race, so I'm figuring him part of the up-front crowd in the Derby, and it looks like that's going to be quite a crowd. LR, SNS, Barbaro, BD, SM, other I'm probably forgetting. Thinking you want something from the back. A couple of those types that look OK at this point might be Point Determined and Sunriver. The Blue Grass results, and their effect on the graded earnings list, may force the latter into running in the Lexington next week. Pletcher didn't really sound like he wants to run him again, but it might be the best thing for him. But who knows. Since my moon appears to be in piss-on-the-seat mode in all facets of life at the moment, it's probably best to disregard my current Derby thoughts.