#beach master

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Your daily dose of adorable monster.

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Picture of the day: The king of the beach

Picture of the day: The king of the beach

Todays image is from the magnificent island of South Georgia, and the whaling station of Stromnes. This is the a male Elephant Seal, and more precise the “Beach Master” on that part of the beach. The role of beach master is to be the “alfa male”, and control certain parts of the beach and the inhabitants. It is a though life that consist of “entertaining” the ladies, and fighting the other large…

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Brave Dave Looks for Easy Money in Jack Price

The longer Real Quiet Stakes is on this weekend as well over at Hollywood Park, but between picking between the CashCall (I) prep and an early Gulfstream stakes prep, I'm going with the latter. Calder-based horses have done well for themselves growing up, especially those that succeed in the Stallion Series. While favorite Brave Dave has not raced in those, he is a G3 winner already looking to add another to his resume.

$125,000 Jack Price Juvenile Stakes - 2-Year-Olds. 7 furlongs on dirt at Calder Race Course. Post Time: Saturday, November 10 at 1:47pm EST.

[Post Position, Horse - Jockey, Impost, Trainer - Summary, Opinion in italics]

1) Brave Dave - Paco Lopez, 122 lbs, Edward Plesa Jr - The nearly-black Put It Back colt is 2-for-2 at Calder and was the winner of the Sapling Stakes (III) at Monmouth by 3/4 lengths over Special Jo despite a bad start. He wired the field easily last out in the 6-furlong Birdonthewire Stakes at Calder, and looks to stretch out just a bit serving as the likely pacesetter. With an inside post and working very well, it's Brave Dave's to win.

2) Sr. Quisqueyano - Jozbin Santana, 119 lbs, Luis Olivares - With 3 wins and 2 places to his 5-race career, the Exclusive Quality colt was an impressive stakes winner at Calder a few starts back, coming to life on the turn of the 1-mile Seacliff Stakes to win by 13 1/4 lengths on a sloppy sealed track. He went wide last out in the Birdonthewire to be bested easily by Brave Dave.

3) Too Fast to Pass - Eduardo Nunez, 117 lbs, Kathleen O'Connell - The With Distinction gelding has been out of the money just once in 6 starts-- all at Calder. He won his last race in a 6-furlong allowance by taking advantage of a super hot pace. Plenty of passed him despite his name, however his sire has picked up some status since Merit Man narrowly lost the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint and Decisive Moment was a decent middle-distancer/sprinter as a juvenile. Still, everything would need to work out for him.

4) Uptown Anthem - Juan Levya, 117 lbs, William Kaplan - Cutting back in distance is this Gottcha Gold gelding, who has the same connections as Musical Romance. He was well-beaten by In Reality winner Speak Logistics last out and has just his maiden win to his credit. He'll have to improve greatly with that cutback to best these horses.

5) Beach Master - Luis Saez, 117 lbs, David Fawkes - The Black Mambo colt was "outrun" in the In Reality Stakes two starts back, but realigned himself to win a 5 1/2 furlong allowance on a sloppy track. Fawkes gives this longshot some upside, but class is a question.

6) Trip N Run - Jose Alvarez, 115 lbs, Aubrey Maragh - The Double Honor colt is hit-or-miss with some excuses. Running mainly in claimers, he was steadied in his first allowance start fresh off his maiden claimer win and won his last 6-furlong claimer by a nose. Long shot coming in off of claiming success.

Top Picks in Order:

1) Brave Dave

2) Sr. Quisqueyano

Brave Dave is the class of the group with a G3 win and stubborn early speed and precocious pedigree. Sr. Quisqueyano has the next best record with a stakes win and has bested better performers than the remainder of the field. Feeling a little foolish trying to make a good race analysis out of this field, feel confident in unloading on Brave Dave.

Value Pick: Sr. Quisqueyano

[votifi]

Thanks Joe! You are a Beach Master

By Lou Aronson

We just returned from attending both the Republican and Democratic conventions in Tampa, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.  Both cities were very hospitable and overall the trips were exciting and eye opening.  

What did we learn? 

There are a good number of people who care about the future of our country. They truly and deeply care.

Both cities know how to have a good time

The protesters were more visible in Charlotte than in Tampa; probably because Mr. Obama is the incumbent and not a nominee. We do wonder though if the protests are a sign of a Get Out The Vote problem for the Democrats.

As for the protesters I would suggest maybe locating in areas where they aren’t diffusing their brand by standing near good people:

Lastly we think that the fried chicken in Charlotte is better. So if in town please try out  the King's Kitchen

No sooner did the pols return from their quadrennial self-love fest that Congress got back to the business of doing absolutely nothing. This morning's Politico Playbook reads like a bad Seinfeld episode, or, even worse a politico remix of Groundhog Day:

With the convention pomp and pageantry over, another production now begins on Capitol Hill - this one featuring meaningless show votes and theatrical hearings. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) will hold an oversight hearing this week titled: The Obama Administration's Abuse of Power. House GOP leaders will try to pass a bill to roll back automatic defense cuts - a bid to undo a law many of them supported in the first place. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will continue to push a central plank of the Romney-Ryan campaign: a vote to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.

I was struck by one other sad thought today.  We have lost our way. We fight over small stuff and ignore big stuff.  I wonder if we as a nation have the stomach to challenge ourselves to accomplish huge things and overcome extraordinary challenges.  What caused this?  Certainly I took little pleasure in the endless bloviations of self-promoting television personalities on jumboscreens scattered around watch party venues. It wasn’t listening to Al Sharpton or the other name droppers and blame givers.  Rather it came from an obituary I read about a beach master.

Beach Master. What is a Beach Master?  These guys were basically the traffic cops at Normandy on D-Day. Pretty thankless job in our view. I read today about Joe Vaghi a Beachmaster and decorated war hero from WWII who died on August 25at the age of 92.  

Joe led a D-Day invasion

Joe was awarded a Bronze Star

Joe saved lives

Joe served in the reserves until 1959

Joe started an architecture firm and raised a family in Bethesda

Joe did not ask to accomplish great things and never sought accolades for his accomplishments. I wonder if we, as a nation, can ever return to this state of character to do great things without being asked? And, when we do this to then not seek a statue for doing what we are supposed to do.