Three kids + Two new preps including a capstone paper course have kept me away from horse racing and blogging. 

A couple thoughts

- Pyro, while visually impressive, has not run particularly fast and has gotten into a bunch of trouble in his last two. He looks like a major bet against in the Derby.

- I like Adriano in the Lane's End at Turfway. His last at Gulfstream is a complete toss - he had the kiss of death 12-hole in the Fountain of Youth and was forced wide and steadied. Back on the synthetic with a good draw against an unaccomplished field, he should score at a good price. Throw Racecar Rhapsody and Macho Again underneath.

- I was at Oaklawn Park last Thursday to witness their incompetence first hand. I had a pile of money on Dancing Fern at 3-1 and also had decent size exactas with Dancing Fern over Pure Baby and Apple Martini (playing against favorite French Kiss). French Kiss was carried wide into the first turn and didn't respond to urging down the backstretch. Dancing Fern stalked Richwood Silver and moved to even terms with her on the turn with Pure Baby and Apple Martini a few lengths back. Dancing Fern was running easy and looked full of herself - I was starting to count my winnings. I was watching all this on the monitor from the apron when I glanced to top of stretch and saw the gate still sitting at the 1/16th pole. A friend of mine on his first trip to Oaklawn yelled out "What kind of hillbilly operation is this?" I was bent at the time, but I suppose it is funny in retrospect. However, there were no apologies to the gamblers just refunds. Why not seed a pool when there is this kind of screw up? They did award purse money to all runners but I guess the customers don't matter as much. I still can't bet Oaklawn with Premier Turf Club or Youbet.com so it is hard to believe that Oaklawn really cares about its patrons. They are just greedy slots whores like everyone else.

- First time starter Apache Honor in Gulfstream's 9th looks like a good spot play.

- Australian Racing now offers 2.5% rebates to bettors who bet with their ADW service. Really generous given 26% trifecta takeouts. Youbet's advantage points are a better deal. I've gotten two ipods so far this year from Youbet. I keep waiting for point inflation given their financial woes but it hasn't come yet.

- Twinspires.com blows. Its interface is crappy (same as Brisbet but with a blue instead of green) and unstable. Their rewards program sucks with the exception of free Brisnet past performances. It takes almost $20k of wagers through Twinspires to get equivalent of what I can get with $4k of wagers with Youbet.com.

- I'm sick of the synthetic. I have bet a tiny amount on Santa Anita and have stopped following their races. Do synthetics cause less breakdowns? Do horses run more frequently? Too little evidence so far. Of course the industry seems much more concerned with image than anything else.

- TVG hardly has any tracks over the winter and HRTV has too many (GP, SA, OP, FG). Oaklawn is often lost in the mix which is too bad. It is a solid meet and offers great 3yo racing.

- Despite being busy I've made two live meets this year - FG and OP. That is two more than last year.