A Del Mar Weekend

I'm heading down to San Diego this down in Del Mar this weekend for a few days of R&R&HP (Rest and Relaxation and Horse Playin'), and it's looking like some great holiday cards are on tap. Sunday's program is highlighted by the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby which will run as two divisions due to the overflow number of entries. The first division will go to post as Race 6 with a field of 10 and a couple of AEs. The second division is scheduled for race nine and will also include a field of 10+2.

The dual Del Mar Derbies are nice an all, but I'm pumped for the eighth race on Sunday's card, a six furlong Allowance/Optional Claiming ($80k) event for older fillies and mares due to the presence of one Kinz Funky Monkey. If your first thought is, "hmm, "monkey" in the name. I wonder if this is a seed off The Green Monkey.

For those that follow this sport closely, the story of The Green Monkey is well known. More casual fans, however, might not be aware of the $16 million horse and his lifetime record of 3-0-0-1 and career earnings of $10,240.

Ironically, or maybe "fitting", is the fact that The Green Monkey as actually produced a few winners among the 26 named colts and fillies one finds in the PedigreeQuery database. Overall, offspring of The Green Monkey have won 18 of 94 starts, a solid 19% clip, and have finished in-the-money 49% of the time. His best runner to date is the aforementioned Kinz Funky Monkey, a filly out of a More Than Ready mare (Pretty Ready), with a record of 5-2-1-2 and lifetime earnings of $119,402.

Anyway, I've probably written more words about The Green Monkey than are ever required but, hey, it's The Green Monkey - I have a great deal of curiosity about this horse given his place in horse racing history and now I'll get to check out one of his progeny in the flesh at Del Mar. Pictures will be forthcoming.

As for the Del Mar Derby(s), the second division has a gelding that I'm really hoping draws in, and that's the 12AE No Jet Lag. After beginning his career in England, with mixed results, this son of Johar found his way to San Diego where he proceeded to close like a freight train to beat a group of OC/N1Xers. I don't know if it was the addition of Lasix in his continental debut or the rock hard turf in Southern California, but he absolutely woke at Del Mar back on August 11. He has a bit of a habit of breaking slowly; he was tardy leaving the gate in his Del Mar debut, as he was in his final two races in England.

Out in New York, they'll run a little thing called the Woodward today at Saratoga, along with the Forego.

I'll be in and out of the comments most of the weekend, along with posting some pics on the Twitter thing that all the kids use these days.

This is your weekend open thread.