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Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter. Big day at Santa Anita, five Grade 1 races.
First of all, thanks to all of you who emailed your well wishes on this new venture. And thanks for all your suggestions on how to make it better. Like I said this is an evolving process and hopefully by mid-century we’ll have it perfect.
We’ll be tackling a variety of issues but we can’t get to all of them right out of the gate. Otherwise, what would I write about next week?
Today has a couple of debuts. First, we’ve decided to do a play-of-the-day and have called upon Jeff Nahill, who handicaps for our sister paper the San Diego Union-Tribune, so we know he’s used to being stuck on the road trying to get to or from Del Mar. (My comment, not his.)
And, today will be what I think is the most exciting part of this newsletter - full charts with trip comments.
But before we review Friday and preview Saturday, please allow this shameless plug for a friend.
Need something to read?
One of the sport’s all-time good guys, Bill Christine, is out with a new book “Bill Hartack - The Bittersweet Life of a Hall of Fame Jockey.” And he’ll be signing (and no doubt selling) copies at Santa Anita on Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m. outside Champions! Gifts & Apparel. It’s also available at Barnes & Noble. I haven’t read the book, but if Bill wrote it, it’s got to be good.
You may remember Bill was the horse racing writer for The Times for a couple of decades awhile back. He owned the sport. I remember when I had this silly idea I could be an investigative journalist and heard this great rumor: Secretariat was put down for the insurance money.
So I call Bill. “Hey, do you have Penny Chenery’s number?” Yup, he had it. “Hey do you have the number of the guy that did the necropsy?” Yup, he had it. “Hey do you have the number of that polo pony vet that once treated him?” Yup, he had it. Then he offered up some numbers at Claiborne Farm....