Rene Sues

Rene Douglas has hired the same outfit that took down George Ryan in the Licenses for Bribes scandal to take on Arlington Park for failure to install and maintain a safe racing surface. Of course, we're talking about the polytrack, which Rene didn't seem to blame for the horrible crash that paralyzed him last year. His unwillingness to talk to Theriot seemed to suggest blame fell squarely on the other rider. Apparently not. The Railbird will continue to track the events, though the outlook is not good for any sort of happy ending here.

With two weeks of action charted, the polytrack has played pretty fairly, inside posts and speed has done a little better, but not as dramatically as we saw at Hawthorne after a rain. Faves are dovetailing with the national average: 33%. Even the turf seems to be responding as expected with the rail out a lot farther -- giving the paint skimmers an advantage.

I went out on a cold and clammy Saturday and had the track pretty much to myself compared to the trip to Keeneland for the Blue Grass Stakes.

Junior Alvarado gave the most interesting ride that day on Last Wompus who was taking on some nice shippers in a sprint allowance. The fractions were suicidal -- I think everyone went on the tack that speed was holding and the clocks in their heads just melted. A half in 45 delivered a lot of spent horses at the stretch that Wompus reeled in after Alvarado dropped his whip. It was better to keep both hands on the wheel anyway. He threaded through the tiring foes. I was standing next to Percy Scherbenshke (spelling?), Last Wonpus's trainer during the race. It was really fun listening to him whoop WOMPUS, WOMPUS, WOMPUS while beating the form against his thigh. He scored at 10-1 in a 6 horse field. Way to go Wompus!