The pronoun & adjective used when referring to Mushka & Proviso above, of course, should be “she” & “her.”

For “Mushka,” I - like Proviso - have no defense.

As for the owners who saddle their fillies with names that end in unfeminine vowels - “Provis - O” - an apology does not appear to be necessary, but is still offered.

Great to hear from you. Your colleagues at TVG have been really great to work with on this.

See you on the road!

Ray

Congratulations on getting the trip together. I’m pleased that TVG is lending its support to this worthy cause. I look forward to tracking your trip on the “Morning Line” show in the coming days. Good luck to you and Brad.

Bob Baedeker, TVG

My better half’s judicial ruling, this evening: “It’s coming out of the Breeders’ Cup money budgeted for betting.” She’ll be wiring the money tomorrow (and thank you for your Oct. 13th message that you were undertaking this adventure).

We ourselves had driven to Lexington Oct. 7th-8th for Keeneland’s opening weekend (Oct. 9-11), & then drove back Oct. 12-13th - in all, @ 1600 miles.

The distance travelled was well worth it, & especially notable for what follows. May you encounter a prescient local handicapper at Turf Paradise who will do the same!

Best,

Don

*****

The longshot rampage that started on Friday (Opening Day) continued, but our longshots were the slowpokes. The money pit was winning the battle. Then, on Sunday, luck struck.

A local stable hand graciously gave me a tip while we were watching horses getting saddled in the paddock before the 2nd race. Fortunately, he knew what he was talking about - but not even he would have been able to predict that Mushka would win in the way she did.

*****

We had finished chatting & he turned & walked away. A minute later, he was back. It wasn’t a conspirator’s whisper of a voice that he used, but this wasn’t a matter to be broadcast on TVG, either.

This was an extraordinarily unprompted revelation, conducted with the same casual pace that one would see if a neighbor, on his way to work in the morning, had gotten ten steps out the front door & then had returned to the house to retrieve an umbrella.

The race went off & Mushka, in the 11 gate, got off to an anticipated slow start. Kent Desormeaux finally guided her to the rail, where on the first turn, she trailed all but one of the other ten horses in the field.

I had had my doubts @ Kent; it looked like he was still in a slump. Off to a rough start on Opening Day, he finally won a race, the nightcap; but by then, the cold weather proved to be too much, & we had left. His racing luck on the following day was even worse.

Maybe I should have been more motivated, on Sunday, after he finally reversed the trend on Interactif, in the race prior to his mount on Mushka. But getting involved in a kamikaze, last-day-go-for-broke bet was a juvenile thrill that, seldom rewarded, had long ago lost its appeal. The amount bet hours earlier, for better or for worse, was going to remain as is.

Mushka continued to trail on the backstretch. Then he gathered speed on the far turn, & that he was a closer was becoming obvious.

Then, neither one of us then could understand or see a reason why Mushka - now in the stretch & gaining on Proviso (GB) - had suddenly bolted to her right, insuring that she’d finish 2nd to Proviso.

“INQUIRY” shot up on the tote board, a second later. THAT was fast. Something quite obvious to most but not to us must have happened, & this had potential. They sure weren’t going to DQ Mushka.

I walked over to the other end of the building to stand on a terrace. Already there was a veteran bettor, & it was his reasonable opinion that Proviso was coming down. What Elena & I hadn’t seen was that Proviso had been the first to bolt to his right - forcing Mushka, directly behind her, to veer.

I wasn’t jumping into an empty swimming pool despite the regard I had for this guy’s opinion. “This is a Grade One race. The stewards are going to think long & hard before they disqualify a horse at this level of racing.” To this, he agreed.

I didn’t have to mention that these things aren’t automatic. In a race up at Saratoga only @ four weeks earlier (on the day that Rachel Alexandra had won the Woodward), Callide Valley had committed the exact same foul in the stretch against Captain Stone.

An inquiry must precede a disqualification - and neither event, inexplicably, had occurred. My Captain Stone win ticket (at 39-1) is now a souvenir, among others, in the racing shoe box.

So we watched the multiple replays of the finish on the large-screen atop of the entrance gate, & Proviso had absolutely no defense. He committed the foul. And we waited.

And then Mushka was declared the winner. This was going to make the 800-mile drive home, thru West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, a whole lot easier.

Anyway, I’ll be donating before week’s end. Have a fun & safe trip.

The TCA supports:
Thoroughbred rescue, rehabilitation, retraining, adoption, retirement and euthanasia; Backstretch workers including disabled jockeys, farm and track employees with little or no medical coverage and child care for them while working; Equine educational organizations including those who provide equine-based scholarships and those who utilize Thoroughbreds in their educational programs; Therapeutic riding programs which include the use of Thoroughbreds in their programs; Research into equine diseases and ailments.

Coming on here to complain about where the money goes is really poor form.

Cancer research is a worthy cause, of course. Americans have poured zillions of charitable dollars into cancer research and will continue doing so, with or without this particular affiliation.

How much more appropriate if the BC had suggested coupling the Disabled Jockeys Fund with a charity that provides directly for the industry’s castoffs - whose numbers are likely to increase in the current economic downturn - and how typical that it didn’t occur to them.