On a day like today, with a near-$1 million pick six carryover at Fairplex Park, there will be big players from all over the country trying for a piece of the prize. The every-day bettor can’t compete against those big spenders who ante up thousands of dollars during big carryovers like this.
What us everyday players need is a couple of singles, and I think I’ve got one — Macapule in the 11th race. He can run against this kind, finished a credible second two back in his debut and gets the services of David Flores today. Trainer Alfredo Marquez doesn’t have many horses in his barn, but he’s a capable conditioner who’s won with one of four starters at the current meet. Looking for a pick six single today? Try Macapule in the nightcap.
Jason Levin, From the Desert to the Derby (DRF Press, 2002)In Steve Crist’s autobiography, he talks about DRF Press, and how he wenatd to get serious about publishing books with it after he took over at the Daily Racing Form. Well, he’s certainly gotten serious; DRF Press has not only stepped up publishing books on handicapping and betting the horses (look for my sure-to-be-overenthusiastic review of Steve Klein’s The Power of Early Speed early in 2006), but also taking chances on books aimed at a more general audience for example, From the Desert to the Derby. As the title implies to any horseplayer, From the Desert to the Derby focuses on the Maktoum family, whose royal brothers Maktoum, Mohammed, and Hamdan have been making waves in the Thoroughbred industry since the early eighties. In the mid-nineties, the brothers got together and formed Godolphin Racing, and one of the prizes on which they’ve focused their eyes is the Kentucky Derby. As of Levin’s writing, they had yet to win one. (For that matter, as of this review, the streak still holds.) One would expect, given these two thoughts and the title, that the focus would therefore be on the Maktoums’ quest to win the Kentucky Derby.That’s one focus, but not the only one. In fact, the Derby quest takes, in the latter half of the book, second stage to the obvious focus any writer would have been looking to zero in on at the time this book was written Godolphin’s all-out assault on the 2001 Breeders’ Cup, held in Elmont, New York only six weeks after the bombing of the World Trade Center. (The two tie in thanks to a fortuitous late-nineties comment by Sheikh Mohammed that Godolphin would win the Kentucky Derby by 2002; Levin’s focus on Godolphin’s two-year-old 2001 string follows naturally.) To say the least, this book was not written with the seasoned horseplayer in mind; Levin takes time to veer off into anecdotes well known to every horseplayer over the age of twelve, but that would be unknown to the general public. Thus, we can deduce that the book was, in fact, aimed at the general public, rather than the specialist horseplayer. Quite a radical title for DRF Press to publish in the old days, but an interesting statement by the new guard.So, does it succeed? I think it does. Levin has crafted a book that, while it trips over its feet sometimes (some of those diversions mentioned in the last paragraph do tend to kill the pace instead of building suspense), would make a very good introduction to the world of racing for the non-horseplayer. Like Auerbach’s Wild Ride or Barich’s Laughing in the Hills, From the Desert to the Derby presents horse racing from a human, rather than an equine, angle, staying away from jargon and easing the reader into an understanding of the sport. Quite nicely done, this, and worth your time. *** bd