Today New York celebrates Columbus Day with a parade honoring the man who
probably did not discover America. When some angry Norwegians pointed out that
Leif Ericcson got here first, and by about 4 centuries, they threw the
Norwegians a bone and named the Belt Parkway after Ericcson. There is probably
not a single cab driver in the entire City who knows where the Leif Ericcson
Parkway is, but then again there are probably not many Norwegian cab drivers in
NYC.

NYRA annually celebrates Columbus Day by racing on what would usually be a dark
day. Columbus' discovery eventually lead to the colonization of what is now
America. I do not know what lead to the Colonialization of racing at Belmont,
but the "Colonial Downs at Belmont" meet continues with 5 of Monday's 10 race
card to be run on Belmont's turf courses; on Sunday 6 of 10 races were run on
the worn out grass courses, one of the few times I have ever seen a NY card
where more than 1/2 of the days races were run over the turf.

Racing on dirt surfaces used to be a uniquely American exercise; racing on dirt
now appears to be slipping into darkness. (Marcus that was a musical reference-
can you name the artist?)

The last four races today will be contested over turf courses so extensively
worn that fields are throwing back large clouds of dust as they ride the range.
An all turf Pick 4, and I will make at least one ticket which features sons and
daughters of Elusive Quality.

{Note: 7th/8th races not in order}

In race 8, Dutrow's Lhotse Quality is a NY bred by EQ out of a Minstrel mare,
and could get a jump on this field of NW2LT runners from his inside post. Not
worried that this one is a NY Bred, because this open race drew 6 NYBs out of
the 9 in the body of the race.

In race 7, Kiaran McLaughlin tries Elusive Value on the lawn for the first time.
If I remember my breeding terms correctly, this one cost Darley $500,000 as a
weanling. Should have speed and KMac shows positive ROIs first turf and dirt to
turf. KMac put over a 6/1 first time turfer in race 2 last Wednesday, beating
the second through seventh place finishers coming out of Sleeping Indian's
maiden win. Also usable are Hushion's My Michael (War Chant) and Bohannon's
Snowstalker (Dynaformer) each of whom should like 7/8s of a mile.

No help from Elusive Quality in the Pebbles Stakes, but an interesting field,
which includes Medley (bred and owned by The Queen of England, carried 135
pounds in winning effort at Newmarket). Queen Joanne (Mott) and Cat Charmer
(Motion) are each lightly raced with upside. Larry Jones' New Edition might be
favored off her participation in recent stakes, but they were all 2 turn events.
The rail runner, Sans Reward, is co-owned by Robert Trussell and any insight
from the poster of the same name would be appreciated.


The Pick 4 concludes with a NYB maiden turf sprint. The "Mad Genius", Michael
Dickinson, has Fanfire (Elusive Quality/ Lear Fan mare) who went very well from
the outside in her first try. A likely favorite, but if you have followed
Dickinson you realize that there is a 50% chance that this one will scratch.

A big day for Smarty's Daddy??--