The library augury: BC picks from the card catalog

Once again, throughout the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, you'll find thoughtful selections for the Breeders' Cup. While other TBA members may turn to the traditional tools of the handicapper's trade to uncover the angles for this weekend's races, here at Turf Luck, you'll find a different approach: the Quinella Queen has replaced her crown with a scarlet headscarf (and the most awesome hoop earrings ever!) to bow before the oaken drawers of the aging card catalog -- and thus divine the future in obscure 3x5 cards. Here's what the catalog has to say about Friday's Breeders' Cup card:

Filly Mare Sprint
While I was astonished to discover that actual books have been written about Jesse Ventura, I was simply delighted to find that A Mania for Magnificence looks at both American and European culture, truly a good omen for Stormy Atlantic offspring. However, I could not resist when the catalog tempted me with Zaftig: The Case for Curves by Edward St. Paige. True, there's only one curve in the race, but the catalog and I both find it amusing to consider the word "zaftig" in connection with anything Californian.

Juvenile Fillies Turf
The catalog first pointed me to Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, and though it has one of those titles that I love to roll around in my head, I couldn't make it through this first novel from Stephen King's pseudonymous son , so rejected it as merely a tremor in the catalog force.

I then spent a few moments contemplating the many cookie books from Mrs. Fields, feeling a tad guilty that I was never such a Sugar Mom.. But at last, I found myself clutching the card for Naughty Girls' Night In by Shana Dutie. I noticed that you can find this book shelved in the Business section of the Brooklyn Public Library, and I reflected on Naughty Night: isn't that just another way to say Saucey Evening?

Juvenile Fillies
You can't read the entries for this field without humming a tune, but since last year's disastrous selection of a Dylan Thomas audiotape, I'm ignoring audiovisual materials completely this year.

So, even though I know the notes to sing, I will not glance at The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Doremifasolatido not withstanding. Likewise, there will be no crying for Evita Argnetina here, despite Nicholas Fraser's excellent memoir, Evita. And, fond as I am of coal-miner's daughters everywhere, that darn Loretta Lynn CD, Van Lear Rose, is staying in the Music Room's cabinet.

Instead, in these risky times, it seems, well, prudent, to follow the catalog's pick of Be Smart, Act Fast, Get Rich, a stock market guide from Charles V. Payne.

Filly & Mare Turf
I'm sure I could find a few Folk Operas gathering dust in the Music Room, but in light of my book-only resolution, my only catalog options are Halfway to Heaven, a well-crafted romance by Susan Wiggs that's set in 19th century Washington DC and Wait a While, a children's book about waiting for a surprise. The catalog seems to like them equally, so I'm my own here. Hmmn ... it's an election year, right? So the nod goes to the DC setting and Wiggs' numerous RITA awards. And hey, what's a Filly Friday without a little romance?

Distaff; or Filly and Mare Classic; or The Race whose name we cannot speak.....
Darn that book-only rule! I have to reject the catalog card for Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police.. Oh, but wait -- there's a book! Right there in the contents line of The Words and Music of Sting by Christopher Gable, you'll find ... Zenyatta. Go girl!

The muse tires now, but we'll be back late on Friday with our picks of Breeders' Cup: Saturday Edition.

2007 BC picks - from the card catalog

Yet again, the ace handicappers in the TBA are posting their picks. And yet again, I am overwhelmed by the handicapping acumen of my blogging colleagues. So what can a librarian with modest skill do but scurry to the card catalog for some guidance on racing's big day?

Sadly, I didn't get to post Friday's selections, where a peek at the the records for Maryfield Academy by Carla Tomaso, Now now now by Charles Plymell, et al, and Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian would have helped my intrepid readers cash some tickets. I'm hoping the catalog is on a streak and will turn up some winners for Saturday, too.

Juvenile Fillies
I expected the library catalog to have something on Phantom Income (finance), Indian Blessing (religion and inspiration) or even Smart Deb-utantes (Social life and customs). But I struck out with all of the entries in this race until, at last, I discovered Zee-Zee: A Comedy in Three Acts. Apparently, this 1927 play won a Penn Publishers prize; I'm hoping Zee Zee, until now a turf runner, can win on dirt.


Juvenile
Here I found plenty of options involving Globalization, and I was delighted to find that a search for "Wicked Style" leads to Tip on a Dead Jockey, a short story collection by Irwin Shaw, but in the end, the news from California led to my selection of Pyro, a novel about fire fighters.


Filly and Mare Turf
The catalog yielded a number of choices in this race: the novels Passage of Time, and Simply Perfect, a parent's guide called All My Loving, and of course, that whole long shelf of books on Argentina in the 982 section. Though all of these books for adults are hard to ignore, I'm going with a children's book: Wait a While, part of the Reading Rainbow series.


Sprint
It's hard to resist Bill Holman's 1938 novel Smokey Stover, The Foo Fighter, but I'm going with the even more wonderfully titled Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, Irrational Power Brokers, Media Morons, and the Erosion of Common Sense by Francis Wheen. It's catalogued under "Thought and thinking -- History -- 20th Century"; who knew this was a subject heading?



Mile
The catalog is simply overflowing with Rebellion titles (including a romance from Nora Roberts!), and I was amazed by how many Jeremy's appear in titles. Still, I rejected them all, and narrowed down my choices in this race to Joseph Conrad's Typhoon and Purim! by Camille Kress. To help me decide, I took a peek at them in the paddock:





OK, that guy fighting the elements on the cover of Typhoon might indicate a lot of heart, but the exclamation point in Purim! makes me think this one's ready to run -- and I'm taking the backwards R as a wink. Since I always bet horses that wink at me, Purim gets the nod here.



Distaff
Here, my options were limited. There's the late David Halberstam's Teammates about 1940s-era Red Sox players (and geez, aren't the Sox in the World Series this year?) and not much else ... except Hysterical Fiction: The Woman's Novel in the Twentieth Century, a lit-crit tome by Clare Hanson. This is the sort of obscure suggestion from the catalog that I simply cannot resist, so the pick goes to (you guessed it!) Hystericalady.



Turf
No discussion here. Books about that grand couturier, Monsieur Worth and the English Channel be damned: Dylan Thomas rules. And he reads aloud on the audiobook that I've selected here, Dylan Thomas Reads.



Classic
OK, the father of our country gets loads of ink, but I think I'll have to go with the card that brought me the biggest payoff last year: Street Sense, It's Common Sense. Sure, it's getting a bit dog-eared, but isn't that appropriate when you're talking about a classic?


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Once again, a shout-out to library guru John Blyberg and his awesome catalog card generator!

2006 BC picks - from the card catalog

Again, members of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance are posting their picks in the upcoming Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships. This is serious business; the title of "Best John Deere-Bessemer Trust-Emirate Airlines-Powered by Dodge TBA Handicapper of the '06 BC" is up for grabs. Yet, despite my avid reading of all manner of racing info, I still feel rather inexperienced as a handicapper. So, once again, I've turned to the librarian's best friend, the card catalog, for help in my selections.

Juvenile Fillies
Before I get to my selection, I simply must note my distress at the absence of Alberto VO5 as sponsor for this race. Just reading the company's name in the program conjured up an image of young fillies in the paddock, whispering to each other, "Look, my mane is like, you know, so soft and manageable now." It made me smile. And Alberto VO5 was the only sponsor whose products I was actually able to purchase on my rather limited salary. Maybe I am the only person on earth whose shopping decisions are influenced by this sort of thing, but I've purchased six bottles of Tangerine Tickle shampoo in the past year solely because of that name being in the program. Now I'm going back to Suave.

But enough -- back to the card catalog, where I briefly considered Sutra as in Sutra and Other Stories by Simin Daneshvar, or more famously in The Kama Sutra, the classic discourse on desire. The library has a whole shelf of Kama Sutra stuff, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Kama Sutra. Surprisingly, these books don't circulate as much as they used to.

But I digress. For I discarded Sutra after a quick look at pedigree -- and a perusal of Anna Freud: The Dream of Psychoanalysis. Yes, my selection here is Dreaming of Anna, sired by Freud, and sporting the cleverest name of the entire card.

[... And I've changed this selection to Quick Little Miss who really was sired by Freud, unlike Dreaming of Anna who comes to us from Rahy. This selection courtesy of the book Little Miss Scatterbrain by Roger Hargreaves. I think the title captures my post-midnight state quite aptly.]

Juvenile
In this race, I was tempted by Got the Last Laugh, as I've always been fond of New Yorker writer S.J. Perlman's humorous collection, The Last Laugh. However, in today's terror-conscious world, it behooves us to pay attention to publications from our Federal Bureau of Investigation, so here the pick comes from the government documents section: Street Sense, in recognition of that scintillating safety guide, Street Sense, It's Common Sense.



Filly and Mare Turf
While a librarian must consider the various "typhoons" that turn up in the catalog -- Mark Joseph, Robin White,Charles Ryan, and the incomparable Joseph Conrad have all penned books entitled Typhoon -- I simply cannot resist The Ouija Board by Edmond Gruss. Subtitled "A Doorway to the Occult," it outlines the dangers involved with supernatural phenomena. I'll take that as an indication that supernatural Ouija Board will introduce her rivals to the great beyond.



Sprint
Here, the catalog is murky: I first considered Nightmare by J. Anthony Lukas about the Watergate affair as well as the rather obscure novel Pomeroy by Gordon Williams. However, when I came across Malibu Is Cooking Again, a cookbook featuring recipes from firemen as well as gourmet chefs and published back in 1995 to benefit the Malibu firestorm survivors, and I realized I'd found my "Everyhorse." The pick in this one: Malibu Mint.



Mile
Of course, you'll find more than one Librettist in the card catalog, and hopefully, Free Thinking aplenty, but in this category, it's really a toss-up between two classics: Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy and Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings. What tips the balance is this: in The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn first meets Frodo at the Inn of the Prancing Pony. You can't ignore the horse connection, so the pick goes to: Aragorn.



Distaff
Apparently Balletto is Italian for ballet, so the entire shelf of 792.8 practically screams out for a wager on the Albertrani entry. And, while the ballet books do actually get checked out now and again, the latest Hollywood Story is what really drives the circulation numbers up. Nonetheless, I'm drawn to an obscure pick based on Nikki Giovanni's Cotton Candy in the Rain. We all know how you make cotton candy: Spun Sugar. Mix in a 400 Tomlinson Wet number and her Black Eyed Susan win on a sloppy track, and you'll see why I'm hoping for rain.



Turf
While Andrew Kaplan's 1985 CIA-thriller Scorpion may jump to mind, or even the more stylishly suspenseful Scorpion by Mildred Davis, my selection in this race is most influenced by Scorpion, A Good Bad Horse by the inimitable Will James. This tale of a seemingly untameable chestnut is not as well known as the Newbury-winning Smoky the Cowhorse by the same author, but still Scorpion strikes me as the perfect play here.



Classic
For this race, I really wanted to turn to a classic, like say memoirs by George Washington or Giacomo Casanova, or even Nancy Mitford's biography of Louis XIV, Sun King, but I got stuck in the children's section. There I found a number of books by one Robert Bernardini, who seems to have specialized in Christmas stories. One that captured my attention: Christmas All Over, because surely, fans all over are hoping Santa comes early and fills their stockings with winning tickets. So yes, the Classic pick goes to Bernardini. And I'm going to bed... with visions of Spun Sugar plums dancing across the finish line first in my head.



Note: Special shout-out to Ann Arbor District Library techno-genius John Blyberg for his fabulous Catalog Card generator; it's a blast!

Breeders' Cup reading

It’s official; we’re in Breeders’ Cup season now. According to the Average Horseplayer’s Breeders’ Cup snazzy new countdown widget, there are only 23 days left until the big event. Still plenty of time to get in the proper mood with some BC reading.

So I've been paging through the Thoroughbred Racing's Greatest Day by Perry Lefko. Last year, I was cheap, and borrowed the 1996 edition from the library, but this year, I'm reading the 2002 edition published to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Breeders' Cup.

Of all of the racing titles I've read in the 14 months since I started this little project, this book remains the most irritating. As expected, it does indeed cover the history of the Breeders' Cup races, but in such a maddening, disorganized fashion that it grows even more annoying with each perusal. I wrote about this last year, but it still vexes me that this book:

* does not have an index.
* does not list the fields for each race, or even the winners of each race, in a way that would allow readers to find a specific race.
* does not provide chapter subheadings.
* does not provide information in a chronological fashion.
* does not flow smoothly, due to awkward constructions and confusing repetitions.

Basically, this book needs an editor.

To his credit, Lefko does include a number of great stories – the ever-entertaining Frankie Dettori gets an entire chapter – and Canadian horses like Dance Smartly and Awesome Again receive extensive coverage in a chapter entitled “The Maple Leaf Forever.”

Also, for someone who knows nothing about the championships, the book provides an introduction to the trainers, jockeys, and owners who perennially appear at the Breeders' Cup. And I suppose I should acknowledge that the chapter on Andre Fabre influenced my lucrative wager on Shirocco in last year's Turf race. (Biggest exacta payoff of the day, no less!)

Since Lefko’s book left me wanting something more, I’ve ordered a copy of Jay Privman's 2001 book, Breeders' Cup: Thoroughbred Racing's Championship Day. My copy hasn't arrived yet, but it appears to be one of those lovely coffee table books, capturing the feel of BC Day with lush, full-color photos.

I’m also thinking about picking up a copy of Progressive Handicapping’s Crushing the Cup 2006 by Jim Mazur and Peter Mallett. Its various angles on each of the eight BC races get a rave review from Cindy Pierson Dulay, the gal behind the About.com site on horse racing. In her review, Dulay notes: “The Crushers also help the bettor determine how to incorporate the European imports in their wagering strategy; with increasing foreign participation in the Breeders' Cup including in the dirt races, these angles should not be ignored.”

I really enjoy the Europeans, on turf or dirt, and something like this might enhance my appreciation. Also, each chapter includes the DRF past performances for the last few Cup winners in each race, which appeals to that odd part of me that loves to look up things.

Still, it’s kind of sad, I think, that there’s not a definitive reference book of the Breeders’ Cup, a veritable tome where the first decades of BC race results are summarized so that an interested reader could easily discover whether a particular horse ever took the field in a BC race, or who won the 1991 Sprint, or which jockey has the most BC wins.

Maybe after a few years on ESPN, the Breeders’ Cup will get the book it deserves.

Toto, we're not in West Virginia anymore: the Breeders' Cup

Wow! is the only word that can capture the frenzied day at the races yesterday. A couple of months at Mountaineer did not prepare us for the fast pace and thick throngs of a Breeders' Cup day. We left our hotel in NJ at 9am and didn't return till after midnight -- tired but happy. This despite the fact that we learned once again that there are so very many ways to lose.

Other things I learned yesterday:

I really should've brought the winter coat. And gloves. And hat. The wind when we got off the train at Belmont was biting. Fortunately, I picked up a souvenir BC scarf after the first race. Of course, that meant that I missed Scrappy T running in the Discovery, but I did get to watch it (kind of) while I stood in line to pay for the scarf. The souvenir booth was encased in plastic sheeting which made the picture on the big screen a tad blurry, but at least I could hear the calls.

Mom was right: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Especially on BC Day. I did get a chance to pick up a donut in the train station, but a couple of energy bars in my purse might have helped my betting strategies. Yes, food was available at the track, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend time in lines for food when I could be in line at the betting windows or in my wonderful seat gawking at the track, the post-parade, and the fellow attendees.

Everything is slower, except for the horses. There were extra trains running to Belmont, but of course, they were all full, so it took longer for them to empty. Then, the whole trainload had to get through the turnstiles. Then, they all stopped to buy programs. I had thought, for some insane reason, that we'd get off the train and walk right in. In reality, there was a crush of people at the gates, and by the time we got in, it was 11:45, and I didn't even have a Racing Form or program yet. I "handicapped" the first race while standing in line at the betting windows -- and missed the last page of past performances. Yes, the page that had winner Captain Squire on it.

This seemed to set a tone for the rest of the day.

I had planned on analyzing the post positions & jockeys in my leisure time at the track, but I know now that THERE IS NO LEISURE TIME AT THE BREEDERS' CUP. Fortunately, my husband and I had made our notes on the DRF advance guide. Unfortunately, we often screwed up when copying the post position numbers from the program to the advance guide. Consequently, my husband bet a trifecta with Host (1) instead of Leroidesanimaux (11) in the Mile, which we discovered while the horses were loading. (Of course, in the end, it didn't make much difference, since he didn't have Artie Schiller at all.)

And then there are the weird mistakes I made, like playing an exacta box in the Juvenile Fillies on the 1-5 and the 5-10, but not the 1-10. I just forgot it while playing the Daily Double and a little show bet on Sensation. So, Wild Fit (10) ran second to Folklore (1) and I'm standing there looking for my ticket -- the one I never actually bought. Ugh!

But reading saved the day! Because The Greatest Show on Turf featured a chapter on Andre Fabre and his BC success, I was high on Valixir in the Mile and Shirocco in the Turf. And because I read something good about Ace online, I picked him instead of Bago or Azamour for an exacta box with Shirocco. Yes! I hit a pseudo-quinella (aka exacta) that paid $296 and change. The sad news: I had four horses in that race circled in my notes. Yes, they ran 1,2,3,4. I really gotta learn to play the superfecta now and then.

Despite all of our mishaps, it was simply fabulous to be surrounded by so many people who were really, truly excited about the races. The people in attendance, as much as the horses on the course, made the day special. Though it was crowded, there was an underlying congeniality in the air. I talked with well-heeled dandies from Britain and a hard-nosed cop from Chicago and lots of big city folk from New York, and universally, they were as bright-eyed as kids at Christmas. And for me, a cheery meeting with fellow TBA bloggers Patrick, Jessica, Alan, and Brian was one of the high points -- as memorable in its way as my winning pick in the Turf.

All in all, it felt like a big frat party, with less beer, more horses, and a very big, very drafty frat house. Maybe, like many fraternities, horseracing's membership is dwindling, and its past seems more glorious than its future. But, as I learned yesterday, like all good fraternities, it can still throw a good party.

BC picks -- from the card catalog

As a member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, I've been asked to post my picks for the Breeders' Cup. Regular readers realize that I'm no Brad Free, merely a novice at this sort of thing. Still, as a librarian, I can offer the following selections (with tongue firmly in cheek!):

Juvenile Fillies
The librarian's choice in this race is obvious: Go with Dewey 398 - Folklore. A horse with its own Dewey Decimal number has got to be a winner!

Juvenile
Again, another outstanding choice is available for the literature fiend that lurks in so many librarians. Ivan Denisovich, protagonist of Solzhenitsyn's classic novel, is a pick that simply can't be resisted.

Filly and Mare Turf
Here the selections get murkier, but children's librarians will understand the appeal of Flip Flop. Allusions to flip-flops abound in juvenile literature, but this horse most reminds me of Katherine Paterson Flip Flop Girl, which features a heroine who dreams of fame and glory.

Sprint
Another tough category for the literary handicapper, but I'll go with Lion Tamer, in homage to prolific young adult author Peter Dickinson and his collection, The Lion Tamer's Daughter and Other Stories. The title story features a doppelganger,and it just might take an evil twin to beat the favorite in this race. (Yes, I'm ignoring Lost in the Fog by Loretta Krupinski; it just doesn't seem right to use a picture book about a boy rescued by geese to make a pick.)

Mile
Possibly my weakest selection, here I suggest Singletary, as Michelle Singletary is quickly filling up the 332 shelf with her personal finance books. True, Limehouse prances all over the fiction section, popping up most frequently in titles by Thomas Burke, but libraries seldom have these books from the 1920's and 30's anymore.

Distaff
Here I'll have to go with Hollywood Story; librarians know this type of thing as "the books that circulate". Examples are legion.

Turf
This pick, Shakespeare fills rows of shelves, though the books there are only checked out by students.

Classic
Though it's tempting to highlight Jack Sullivan, for editing The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, I simply must go with Super Frolic...

'cause that's what this post has been. Good luck on Saturday!

The Greatest Show on Turf

As we gear up for our trip to Belmont, I picked up The Greatest Show on Turf: A History of the Breeders' Cup, a 1996 book by Perry Lefko. A writer with the Toronto Sun, Lefko gives a detailed look at the origins of the event, from a mere glimmer in the eye of John R. Gaines to a media event complete with television coverage and sponsors. (Yes, I now know that De Beers Consolidated Mines sponsored the first Turf, while Mobil Oil sponsored the Distaff.)

After covering the first Breeders' Cup day, Lefko then devotes chapters to Pat Day, D. Wayne Lukas, Jack Van Berg, Shug McGaughey, Andre Fabre, The Paulsons, and Angel Cordero Jr. A few of the horses are highlighted in chapters titled Go for Wand, Dance Smartly, Arazi, and Cigar.

This organizational scheme forces each chapter to skip around in time, so there is no linear chronology to anchor the reader. Worst, there are no tables listing the fields or even the winners of the various runnings of the BC races, which means it is no help if you'd like to find out who won the 1988 Distaff. (Answer: Personal Ensign.) The race is covered in the chapter on Shug McGaughey, but it's a challenge to find it. Subheadings throughout the chapters would've helped.

Overall, I was rather disappointed by the book, though it does have a few strengths. Tons of quotes from the owners, trainers, and jockeys provide glimpses of the personalities of those involved with the races.

And the chapter on French trainer Andre Fabre was interesting, as it focused on how frequently Fabre horses win in the BC while going off at longshot odds. One example: Arcangues, the 1993 Classic winner, paid $269 on a $2 win ticket.

So, yes, you can bet that I'll be watching the odds on the Fabre entries this weekend: Valixir in the Mile and Shirocco in the Turf.