Preakness Picks

[psprowler]

Man we were in Texas Roadhouse and about 10 minutes before the start of the race the satellite mysteriously had an error - something about not authorized outside the local viewing are or something to that effect. Now mind you WAVE3 had been on the entire time we were waiting to be seated. I looked at Jerry and said "I guarantee you that satellite comes back on when the winning horse/jockey are being led to the winners circle" (or whatever it's called). Sure enough it came back on as they were handing that big bunch of yellow flowers to the jockey. Is there some sort of "blackout" criteria? We were in Clarksville. Or was it just coincidence?

Should be a good Belmont.

[Tim_T]

Man we were in Texas Roadhouse and about 10 minutes before the start of the race the satellite mysteriously had an error - something about not authorized outside the local viewing are or something to that effect. Now mind you WAVE3 had been on the entire time we were waiting to be seated. I looked at Jerry and said "I guarantee you that satellite comes back on when the winning horse/jockey are being led to the winners circle" (or whatever it's called). Sure enough it came back on as they were handing that big bunch of yellow flowers to the jockey. Is there some sort of "blackout" criteria? We were in Clarksville. Or was it just coincidence?

Should be a good Belmont.

Prowler, it should not have been a problem, WAVE 3 is the NBC affiliate and that is who had the broadcast rights to the race. Not sure what happened there.

[psprowler]

We used to get those errors on our satellite too. Switched to cable a couple of months ago.
Bad timing I guess.

What do you guys think about the Phillies (as in female horse, not the ones from Philadelphia)(sp?) being able to run 5 pounds lighter than their male horse counterparts? Big deal or not?

[RoadToad]

We used to get those errors on our satellite too. Switched to cable a couple of months ago.
Bad timing I guess.

What do you guys think about the Phillies (as in female horse, not the ones from Philadelphia)(sp?) being able to run 5 pounds lighter than their male horse counterparts? Big deal or not?

"Big deal?" Hmmmm I guess that depends on what you mean by big deal. The "conventional wisdom" is that one pound = one length. So, if that's true, then Rachel would have gotten beat without the five pound weight allowance. I'm not saying that it's true, it's just the "conventional wisdom." I don't think it's going to make a big difference in the Belmont. She's going to like that track a whole lot better than she did Pimlico. The surface is a lot kinder than Pimlico's, in fact it's quite similar to Churchill. And Pimlico has real sharp turns, and a short stretch compared to Churchill. Belmont, being a 1 1/2 mile oval, has nice wide, sweeping turns, and is one of the more "honest" tracks around, by which I mean that the surface itself is rarely what gets horses beat. Here's a little factoid for ya: Belmont's rail is DEAD if it's sloppy. So about the only thing I see getting Rachel beat is it's sloppy, and she gets stuck down there on the rail. Unless that happens, I don't think it matters if she carries 5 lbs MORE than the boys; she's just much the best.

[RoadToad]

Moot point now. Rachel is not running in the Belmont. They're giving her some time off. Can't wait to see her in the breeders' Cup!