3/24 ATR: Browning, Catalano, Baffert, Stidham, Johnny D, White

[Kasept]

Monday ATR..

10:30 Fasig-Tipton Co's Boyd Browning
10:45 Wayne Catalano
11:00 Johnny D
11:35 Bob Baffert
12:00 Michael Stidham
12:25 Jon White

Capital Off-Track Betting TV 6-9a Tuesday; Archive, etc., www.stevebyk.com..

[pmayjr]

I might not be able to catch the replay until much later tonight, did you ask Catalano how Poker Player and Solitary Ranger came out of the Spiral and what tentative plans are for them? I'm hoping he gives Poker Player 1 more chance in 3 weeks in the Bluegrass

[Kasept]

No set plan on exit. Said he will discuss with West manager David Glass (Poker Player) & Mrs. Moulton (Solitary Ranger) and go from there. I asked directly and it didn't sound like Blue Grass is in the offing for Poker.

[pmayjr]

thank you for asking... yeah Catalano didn't seem to make excuses. He just said "we took our shot..." and will go back to the drawing board with something else. But I think there might've been some excuses/reasons to try again-

For me, since it seemed like no one closed in the Spiral, I just wonder if the track played a certain way or there was major kickback issues or something. I mean, were Tamarando and Poker Player really THAT inferior?

Artie closed, but he was close to the lead and actually hung pretty bad in the stretch before finally getting his nose down just in time. Asserting Bear also made a closing move, but was also close to the lead and flattened out badly.

That's why I wanna see another try from some of these in 3 weeks. I think honestly that's why a few of these were entered in this race and the Sunland Derby, to give them one more chance if things didn't work out in those races over the weekend, to have another chance 3 weeks later.

I'd also like to think that in the case of both Tamarando and Poker Player, that when they were asked for run, and neither responded, that the jocks took their foot off the gas pedal. Neither horse probably came out of the race all that worn out. So we'll see what happens in the next week or so.

The reason I care in the case of Poker Player, is he seems like he's bred to run all day on dirt, and Catalano has run him only on synth and turf races. I get a lot of that has to do with being based at Arlington and Keeneland. And to PP's credit, he's been a solid performer. I just really wanna see him get a shot to run on dirt.