well the time has finally come!

Alinghi to run tonight (early tomorrow morning). Does anyone know if we will be able to watch live?

Don't know about TV, but 2KY's going to broadcast it live and I assume other stations may possibly do something similar.

ALINGHI post time is 4:47 p.m. EDT. It seems like 14 hrs ahead is the standard for most of the post times in Australia compared to US. For instance, most of your racing cards start at 10 P.M. EDT here the night before your early afternoon. So I guess depending where you are it will be early morning for you Tuesday. I'm looking at the Daily RAcing Form for the race right now and will give everyone my UNBIASED Yank opinion.

Oh by the way, rain is supposedly on it's way so the turf may be good to soft. I know one thing, New Orleans is about to get demolished by Hurricane Katrina in about 4 hours. The whole city of 4 million was told to evacuate and they are using the Superdome football stadium as a shelter for anyone unable to get out. Really bad stuff in a city that's highest point is one foot above sea level.

was there a couple of months ago ..the highlight of my trip to the states .. its hard to imagine what they are going though..
Been watching the coverage on cable here...and it looks real bad ..
thoughts and prayers for all concerned

Mr Ed, et al, Betfair bet on US races every day, and it's mainly UK money, so Alinghi won't mean a thing to them.

ALINGHI looks all the class in this race with only a couple of others racing well consistently at the Graded Levels. Ironically, this turf race looks full of speed with at over half the field wantig the lead or just off it and from the way our form reads, Alinghi looks to show early speed and have Edgar Prado postion her just behind the first pack of speedsters. The others trying this tactic should be

#6 Stupendous Miss (trained by Wallace Dollase 6-1-1-1 at Sar 2005 w/ Gary Stevens up)
#11 Snowdrops (Cristophe Clemente 16-4-2-1 Sar 2005 w/ Jerry Bailey up after opting off #7 Delta Princess trained by his main emplyer Bill Mott)
#12 Que Puntual (Angel Penna,Jr. 10-1-3-1 Sar 2005 w/ Cornelio Velasquez)
and of course #10 Alinghi (Bobby Frankel (33-6-7-4 Sar 2005 w/ Prado 20% wins Sar 2005)


Behind these should be
#3 Spring Season (Johnathon Sheppard 21-1-2-3 SAr2005 w/ Ramon Dominguez-great turf rider from my neck of the woods giving it a go at the best meet in the United States, Sheppard also stables at Delaware Park and is known for his turf and steeplechase expertise although he has tailed off as late)
#7 Delta Princess (Mott 54-8-13-8 Sar2005 w/ Robbie Albarado)
#8 Cloak of Vagueness (Phil Hauswald (7-1-0-0 Sar 2005 w/ Eibar Coa another Del Park rider up)
#9 Risakverse (PJ Kelly 27-3-1-2 Sar 2005 after winning 2 races on Sat. w/Jose Santos up)

all trying to make one late run on the top two flights.

If the turf comes up soft to good as it might, it may stop the horses up front and favor the closers. Frankel says Alinghi will be closing at this distance and that she was a bleeder in Australia, so the lasix should help her get this distance.

Personally, I feel that the distance may be too much for Alinghi (1 1/16 miles) and that she will make a big run, but fall short in this one due to so many factors working against her including the bad post position, the first race in North America and in 5 months, and the different type of racing than she is used to.

She certainly is the class of this field but I fell that her connections have MUCH bigger goals than the Ballston Spa on a Monday afternoon at Saratoga. She may be in for a good tune up for the fall Breeder Cup preps and the F+M turf at 1 3/8 M. She would be no surprise however if she won.

I will play #8 cloak of VAugeness and # 9 Riskaverse (who one time was a classy graded performer and may be getting back to her old self, Not to mention she likes the Saratoga course and PJ Kelly is on a small roll)
followed by #10 Alinghi, #3 Spring Season, and #12 Que Puntual.

8-9-10,3,12

Good Luck mates down under and no matter what happens here, there is a whole lot more racing ahead for Alinghi.

Lets hope the Lasix can have the same affect on Alinghi that it had on Keep The Faith.

I just hope Alinghi isn't ridden for speed. US turf races are run at a much stonger clip than here. But what she does have is a world-class sprint. I'd ride her cold, just get in behind them before the clubhouse turn & stoke her up from the 600m. Its her only hope first-up over that distance.

THIs whole distance question made me think of something. Why doesn't the Breeder's Cup have a turf sprint at 6 furlongs or so! Not the mile (which may be what Frankel is really pointing Alinghi for instead of F+M Turf at 1 3/8 m.), but an honest to goodness rip and roar turf sprint for turf horses lackin stamina. Or if they don't like that idea, how about the Breeder's Cup Claiming Plate for cheapies to show how souped up these tracks are for big days over here. When these claimers come home in 1:08.3 for 6 f, we'll all know how good the rest of the times are! LOL!

A couple of weird twists for today's race that only a superstitious horse player could think of. My dog is an Australian Shepherd (Kerry- named after Co. Kerry, Ireland), Bobby Frankel is huge animal lover who has two Aussies himself, Bobby trains Alinghi (from Oz), #3 Spring Season's dam is ALICE SPRINGS(Val de L'Orne FR) and trained by Englishman Johnathon Shepherd, #8 CLoak of Vagueness is sired by El Prado*Ire and was last ridden by E. Prado who now rides Alinghi. If you throw in the whole historical England shipping out unwanted Irish to Australia you have the easy trifecta. Alinghi, Cloak, and Spring Season. It's that easy, but don't leave out that hard-knocking Riskaverse who has no connection at all but may be ready to go if her slight ankle injury is healed up.