Old Friend Roundup

I was surprised and happy to see this video of my favorite racehorse The Pamplemousse noisily enjoying an apple at Hollywood Park just last week. Youtuber johnchen provided the video. The P was scratched the morning of the Santa Anita Derby and hasn't been heard from since.

Last night I got sent a nice link to an interview with my old pals Bob Armstrong and Allan Dodge talking about their music over the years at Fretboard Journal. About 45 minutes in they talk about working with me. I was trying to find a picture of us this morning but came up empty. Al's all mixed up about the Academy Award stuff but it was great to hear their voices and brought back so many memories.

The Preakness is today, and it would be great if filly Rachel Alexandra won but there are a lot of great horses in there.

One More Race

One week until the Kentucky Derby, and this 19 year old, Joe Talamo, has a very likely chance of winning it. If he does, he's giving 25 % of the money to a children's hospital in his home state Louisiana, where they don't turn anyone away. How can you not be charmed by this guy? (and did I mention he's following me on Twitter?)

I happen to like the horse he's riding too, "I Want Revenge." After I picked myself off the floor when The Pamplemousse fell out of the Derby trail, I looked right to this horse. I'd been really impressed by him in January in a race which was won by one of his main Derby competitors, Pioneerof the Nile. I've been following the horse ever since. The trainer of this horse has a checkered past with substance violations...

Many of the jockeys riding next Saturday in the Kentucky Derby are riding at Hollywood Park today: Joe Talamo, Garrett Gomez, Rafael Bejarano, Mike Smith, Corey Nakatani, Aaron Gryder. That will make it fun to watch and to handicap.

So I can't stay away: off to Hollywood Park!

The Pamplemousse is off the trail

I just learned The Pamplemousse will not be a part of the Kentucky Derby this year. They discovered heat in a tendon yesterday before his big race at Santa Anita. He'll be laid up for a while. I've been feeling so sad and disoriented since. I didn't realize how much emotion I'd attached to this horse.

Big Day at Santa Anita

Saturday's the Santa Anita Derby, and the showdown between my favorite horse, The Pamplemousse, who's thinking about winning above, and Pioneerof The Nile, a less impressive horse to my mind. Is The P thinking about extra carrots? Or Kentucky grass? He's already got a sure spot at the Kentucky Derby.

I went for my Friday dollar hot dog and beer and was getting into some betting trouble until the horse I came to see, Aggie Engineer, came in first and wiped out all my losses and then some.

He was ridden by Alex Solis, who rides The Pamplemousse tomorrow.

Here he is walking back from his win, as I called out to the horse like a crazy bag lady.



This is Garrett Gomez, the best jockey in the country. The colors were this intense. I had to get the picture.



He's riding Pioneerof the Nile tomorrow.



Neither horse nor rider was hurt, but I hate seeing things like this. I couldn't believe I got the picture actually. The jockey walked away and the horse kept on racing. I was hoping this horse was going to win, before the race started. I never get action shots. I wouldn't have posted this but I was just stunned that I actually got the moment.

Here's to The Pamplemousse. Let's see him win tomorrow.

Off to see The Pamplemousse

Nice topiary, huh?

Dinah and I went out to Santa Anita early this morning to see our favorite Derby horse The Pamplemousse work. We met up with blogging friend Mary Forney who very graciously introduced us to some people and talked horses with us. She's really nice! I first became aware of The Pamplemousse through Mary's blog. Dinah had never seen The P. before and was immediately charmed by him.



We got our breakfast at Clocker's Corner and just loved observing the scene with jockeys and trainers we've heard about for a long time all mingling around us.

This jockey had a set of good luck charms tagged to the back of his helmet. I tried to get a better shot of them but didn't want to seem intrusive. Luck is obviously a big part of horse racing life. The jockey to his left is The Pamplemousse's jockey, Alex Solis. Looks as if he's texting somebody. Maybe it's the horse's trainer who's currently in Dubai for one of the world's richest races.



The Pamplemousse means grapefruit in French, but it's easy to remember his name if you think instead The Purple Horse, because this horse is an extraordinary lavendar color-- you can't miss him. The horse is named for a restaurant in Del Mar which some of The P's partners own. I heard the restaurant owner and another guy, maybe a pr guy, talking. "This horse has everything, (yadda yadda) and a big fan base too." Well that includes Mary, Dinah and me, so that kind of cracked us up, because we felt we were fan base 1,2 and 3.



The early morning light doesn't give you a sense of his amazing appearance. They were returning from their work here.



This horse seems so relaxed until the gate opens and then he's on fire. I was so excited to see him racing past that I took this picture:



oh well. I'm sure Mary has more restrained footage!



I thought Dinah's colors worked so well with the linoleum that I made her pose for this picture.

April 4 is the day of the Santa Anita Derby and The Pamplemousse's next race, last one before the Kentucky Derby. I can't wait.

Great day.

Santa Anita at Dawn & then some

We left the house at 4:45 this morning in order to meet friends at 5:30 at the Santa Anita racetrack .

Back that up, we woke up around 3 am. Ed's girlfriend likes to photograph the horses when they exercise at dawn, and we'd never been there at that hour and thought it sounded like fun.

Back that up: I'd spent all afternoon at Santa Anita the day before with pal Linda P for the dollar beer and hot dog fun. And had lost every bet but managed to spot my favorite horse, The Pamplemousse, training incognito, and even spoke to his trainer,(!) and met the racing blogger who spotted The Pamplemousse as something special before anyone else had noticed.

Breakfast at the Clocker's Corner (the pre-dawn spot to be), was incredibly delicious: a breakfast sandwich cooked to order by Rosie, with eggs and sausage and cheese on rye and really good coffee. Horses were speeding by in the dark, and jockeys we've seen in the races and on their tv show were standing in line behind us.



Do I look a little "not quite waked up yet"? The cup had pictures of horses on it, but the flash was turned off.

We came back and I had great plans to return in the afternoon to watch The Pamplemousse run in the Sham Stakes, prize of $200,000 and thought to be a big test for this horse, to see if he can go to the Kentucky Derby, (or go to Kentucky Fried Chicken as his goofy and charming trainer described it.)

But zombie factor kicked in and around 2:00-- I realized there was no way I could drive back over there to watch The Pamplemousse run. 45 minutes each way, not easy for a zombie. And maybe I'd be bad luck...

I got to watch the race anyway, on line The Pamplemousse won easily, amazing wondrous to see.



I love this horse!

The Pamplemousse

I spent the afternoon at Santa Anita today, where admission was free and hot dogs, popcorn, and beer were one dollar. The weather was fine, and it was a great way to spend an afternoon. I think I came out ahead on my bets, but I wasn't inspired.

On the left is a horse named The Pamplemousse, who's my choice for the Kentucky Derby, and I hope he makes it to the race. He's stabled at Santa Anita. He's an unusual color, called a gray roan, but actually sort of a lavender color. I wrote about him once before here.

Look at his blaze, the white strip on his face, and compare it to the horse on the right, my first horse Luna, a great great horse. In that picture she was already past twenty. She was also a roan, which is defined by white hairs mixed with color hairs. She was half Thoroughbred and half Appaloosa.

Can you see why I can't take my eyes off The Pamplemousse with that Luna blaze on his face? (It's an unusual marking.) His next big race is a week from tomorrow at Santa Anita. Guess where I'll be?

Oh and this is a wall mural at the Santa Anita racetrack, right across from where you get the one dollar hot dogs on Fridays.



Love the stripes on the cushions. Should have sat there to eat the hot dog instead of gobbling it on the escalator.