Post-Belmont Stakes 2012 Thoughts

 In a sentence great day, great time. The Gang of Four I was part of arrived well before race #1 and once again Beautiful Belmont Park did not disappoint.

Belmont is one of the few tracks where even on big stakes days you can feel comfortable and not overwhelmed by the crowds. After 100,000 or so the place starts to feel tight, but Belmont comfortably handles a crowd of 85,000 plus.

Emperor Cuomo, you missed a good time.  

Here are some photographs taken by yours truly with my Blackberry cell phone camera:

Loved seeing John Ortiz (back to the camera) aka Turo Escalante of the prematurely cancelled series Luck, throughout the day bounding through the Belmont Park like a kid on Christmas Day.

The vastness of this track never ceases to amaze me. Here is a photo of the final turn taken before the 1st race of the day.

                       Union Rags warming up on the track before the Belmont Stakes Start

                                            Atigun looked real good pre race

                                         Mike Smith up on Paynter approaching the starting gate

                   And down the stretch the come with Union Rags coming up on the rail.

All this access with no seats and simply paying Clubhouse Admission pricing and walking around. What a game.

HBO's Luck-Series Finale Thoughts

HBO's Luck is now over for good with the season and now series finale airing Sunday night. As a racing fan, the last few weeks have been like a continual nightmare, the really bad one that keeps going forever, the one you think you will never wake up from.

First we hear of the sad news that HBO, under pressure from PETA after a 3rd Horse fatality, quickly decides to cancel Luck. On the real life tracks, we read of the deaths this season on the inner track at Aqueduct. And than, the NY Times this past Friday ran a front page story titled "Death and Disarray at America's racetracks".

With all this dreary news running circles in my head I watched the finale of Luck.
Although it was filmed with the assumption a second season would be coming, the season one finale does serve nicely as a fitting ending to the series.

Many early viewers of the show thought the show was dreary and dark, but there was a lot of hope and optimism in the final episode, from the competitive but mutual admiration of the two trainers, Turo and Walter as their horses finished one, two in the Big Stakes race, Ace reuniting with his grandson, and the Foray Stables Foursome and friends happily celebrating a big win with Mon Gateau.

I admired the many wonderful actors in this show, especially John Ortiz, who could have simply kept quiet after the cancellation news, but instead increased his many tweets (@johnortiz718) about the show, continued to show up for #LuckChat Twitter chats (final session on Monday 3/26 from 9-10pm) and personally tweeted thanks to many viewers who contacted him via Twitter.

As I said in my last post, I can't question HBO's decision to cancel the show. The deaths to the horses happened and despite the care that was taken by the production crew, the reality of what happened had to be dealt with. For some background on the treatment on the horses on set, Ray Paulick in his Paulick Report, details the great care the production crew took with the horses.

How fitting then that the show ended with just one actor on the screen, the equine actor playing 3 year old colt Pint o' Plain, standing peacefully in his stall. We see this beautiful horse poking his head out of the stall, and than the screen fades to black.

Out of Luck

After a reported 3rd death of a horse during the production of HBO's Luck, the series is no more, abruptly cancelled. The final episode of the 9 episode season 1 will be shown this Sunday March 25th. Work had begun on Season 2, but Season 2 is a no go.

No one wants to see animals hurt and not being on the set or knowing the safety protocols in place, I can't possibly argue in good faith that the series should continue. I trust the right decision was made.

I feel saddened for all involved including the fine actors involved. Particularly Richard Kind, John Ortiz and Kevin Dunn who all shined among the large cast.

I've read on the various websites and Twitter that the show was boring or uninteresting. Well TV is art and opinion of art is just that, we all have opinions and its all subjective. It is interesting to note that many of the critics watched only the 1st episode. As any fan of creator David Milch knows, his shows evolve over time with almost every spoken line in one episode a key to be remembered in future episodes. (Syntax is how I know, Syntax!)

Some found the show depressing and saw the characters as "down and out". I'd argue the shows characters were not down and out at all, but rather real people just like the many folks I've met over the years at the track. Look at the evolution of the 4 gamblers who were labeled simply degenerates by critics of the show. Had the critics stuck around to watch these 4 characters develop they would have seen they were more than that, 4 men with dreams and depths of emotions who loved not just gambling but the animals they bet on as well as each other.

What is so ironic with the cancellation is that with each episode you saw how much the human characters really cared for these horses. Last weeks episode faded to black with Dustin Hoffman's character sitting in his bed late at night watching on his laptop via webcam his prized 3 year old horse in his stall.

Luck Starting to Payoff

In our last post yours truly defended HBO's Luck. We argued that these type of series take investment of time and patience. Often it is difficult to see the depth of each character and where they are going but if you stay with it you will be rewarded.

After 5 episodes the payoffs are starting to come in. We now see that these characters are not purely one dimensional, they all have a story to tell. As for the track itself the last two episodes featured beautifully shot races. We all could quibble about the "reality" of the series but I'm enjoying it thus far.

Reviews since Episode 2 seem to be trending positive and twitter interest seems high as evidenced by the Luck Chat series on Monday Nights at 9 on Twitter (enter hastag #LuckChat). The Chats include series regular John Ortiz (Turo Escalante) and Chantel Sutherland among others. If your around Twitter at that time, check it out.

Defending HBO's Luck

Two episodes in for the HBO series Luck and many critics abound, calling it slow, boring, hard to understand, etc.

Maybe because I'm a David Milch (creator of Luck) fan I knew to expect slow character development. I loved his Deadwood series on HBO but watching the show took dedication to the many plot lines and story telling. I'm also a big fan of HBO's series in general, and a lot them also took time. Remember how many times you watched a Soprano's episode, and complained about the lack of action and confusing endings? And how many people missed the brilliance of the HBO series The Wire because they bailed early, confused by the many characters and plots.

These type of shows take investment of time in exchange for a build up and subsequent payoff. Yes reading tweets on twitter will give you an instant payoff but sometimes wading through a long book is worth the later payout.

Luck on HBO gets 2nd Season Go Ahead

After Just one episode Luck on HBO has been renewed for a second season. Based on some articles and blogs I read reviews were mixed. Some were displeased with the the characters in the show, feeling they were stereotypes and exaggerated caricatures. But remember stereotypes are there for a reason, they are usually true.

I have a few friends who are hard core racetrack gamblers who resemble the 4 slovenly gamblers who won the Pick 6 in the first episode. Anytime I have ever been to a track and retreat from the stands to watch the race from an inside simulcast TV, I see folks just like the gamblers portrayed on Luck. I love those guys-they are part of the fabric of the track and to omit them would be a white washing of who really inhabits the track. I also liked that the lingo was not dumbed down for a mass audience.

On the down side, I found the Dustin Hoffman character to be a bit over the top and his front man Dennis Farina, seemed almost too naive to be picked by the Hoffman character as a front man. But HBO dramas typically have a slow character build so lets see what happens.

Pilot Episode of Luck on HBO-DVR Alert

Certainly seems like HBO is putting a big push on promoting the new fictionalized series "Luck" -a behind the scenes look at the world of racing. If it fails it won't be for lack of talent. Headed by Dustin Hoffman, the show is loaded with veteran actors.

HBO has been running numerous promotional trailer ads on its' network and this Sunday, 12/11/11, the show's pilot episode will be shown at 10 pm following the season finale of the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

The details of the pilot episode arrived in my hands and here is the cliff notes version:

As the series opens, Chester "Ace" Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) is released from three years in federal prison and is eager to get back into the racing game. We soon meet his buddy/driver/bodyguard Gus Demitriou (Dennis Farina), who will front as the owner of the $2 million Irish horse that Ace just bought.

The episode than introduces a talented but disreputable trainer (have you heard that one before?), the Peruvian Turo Escalante (John Ortiz). His girlfriend is track veterinarian Jo (Jill Hennessy).

Meanwhile we meet the veteran trainer-turned-owner Walter Smith (Nick Nolte). He also has a promising horse but he's wary as we get hints there is some sort of scandal behind the horse. Filling out the pilot we meet Four hard luck gamblers, Marcus (Kevin Dunn), Renzo (Ritchie Coster), Jerry (Jason Gedrick), and Lonnie (Ian Hart), as they pool their monetary resources to bet Jerry's Pick Six ticket.

In addition to the above actors the show also features Richard Kind, and current Jockey Chantal Sutherland and retired Jockey Gary Stevens.