Danger: Triple Crown Buster – Union Rags

Photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese
Sleepless night … I keep picturing the last time that big, beautiful beast ran at the Big Sandy … Talk about Champagne nightmares … Someone needs to slap a big warning label on Union Rags hindquarters … Danger: Triple Crown Buster … Maybe if I’ll Have Another sees it before the race, he will be prepared … I don’t know … And I saw him up close at Churchill … Oh brother, Rags is a Man, man … The Derby is a toss … You know it as well as I do … Rags had a worse trip than that hippie chick I sat near at an Oakland Dead Show back in ’91 … He’s like a bomb that has a delayed detonation … He’s ready to explode … New rider in the saddle ... What’s he going to look like in those big open spaces at Belmont Park … And you know Matz is going to have him ready for 1 ½ … Seriously, someone get that warning label on this horse … I’m nervous. I tell ya, I’m nervous.
 
I wonder if I will be able to sleep tonight … What’s on the Golf Channel at 3 am … Need to mellow out with some TC footage from Affirmed-Alydar … Breathe in through the nose and out the mouth … Oh man, how is I’ll Have Another gonna breathe in New York … Breathe Right Nasal Strips … Are we really talking Breathe Right Nasal Strips … Outlawed in NYC like a Red Sox cap … Isn’t he gonna need all the oxygen he can get in the 11th and 12th furlongs … I’m gonna wear one of those things on my nose tonight … I’m nervous. I tell ya, I’m nervous.
 
Eyes are blurry … I want to get this 2012 Belmont Stakes done ... What … Light blue and yellow silks again … You cannot be serious … I’m starting to fidget more than Johnny Mac … If there was a tennis umpire around right now, I’d go off on him … Paynter goes straight from a 5 ½ furlong debut romp to the SA Derby … Talent … It scares me … Lost by only a few, and if he doesn’t stumble at the get go, who knows where he finishes … Derby Trial was wet … toss it … Paynter can run … You saw it on the Preak undercard … Wasn’t the Derby and Preakness enough … It’s like some sort of sick horror movie reincarnation … Just when you thought Ahmed Zayat and Bob Baffert were off this Triple Crown Trail … Is that Jason Vorhees’ arm coming out of my lake … I’m nervous. I tell ya, I’m nervous.
 
Dullahan … He was my pick for the Derby for cryin’ out loud … How can I sleep on Dullahan … Literally … I cannot sleep … He just keeps coming … Don’t do it … Don’t you do it, whatever you do, do not look at his running line in the Kentucky Derby again … seven wide on the turn … Still 5th by 7 in the stretch … and then he only missed all the money by 1 ¾ … He’s like one of the powerful Euro horses that just starts to get going after they’ve already run a mile … 12 furlongs for Dullahan, could be like peanut butter for jelly … I need a Triple Crown winner ... And there's Alpha … He’s all about New York … Rousing Sermon can close … Mark Valeski won over the track … Does Atigun remind anybody else of Sarava … I’m nervous. I tell ya, I’m nervous.
 

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