Barbara Bush Wows Crowd
Former First Lady Barbara Bush did appear Saturday at North California and the track set a record for attendance. It is estimated some 60,000 simsters attended the racetrack to get a rare glimpse of the former first lady who unexpectedly made last minute plans to be in attendance for the 9th running of a race named after her, the Barbara Bush Stakes.
Ok, track officials have informed me that the race was actually named after a horse who ironically was named Barbara Bush, but that didn’t stop them for years to try to get the first lady to attend. I did have an opportunity to meet Mrs. Bush, shortly after her presentation of a bed of flowers to the winning horse and a trophy bearing the image of the first lady (and they tell me the race was named after a horse…Hah!)
The first lady is truely sweet, but a bit upset as she bet on the horse I handicapped as the winner (I’ll get to that in a moment). I had my handy-dandy camera with me and she agreed to pose for a picture with me. To my demise, I forgot to charge my batteries, so I have no shot to share. She did promise to send me a photo of herself and told me that the Secret Service already had my address.
Anyway, security was extremely tight and some fans had to wait up to almost an hour to gain access to the track and viewing of the race, which played out like this:
As the horsed left the gate, a three-way battle ensued for the lead. Blue Fox, Beat Boxer and Wicked Wench spread out across the track, tightly packed. As they made the way to the midway marker, Jockey Munoz tapped Wicked Wench once with the whip and quickly serged to the lead. As the field spun around the finally turn, Wicked Wench just continued to pull away from the field and was never touched, winning by 4 lengths, at a speed of 103, at odds of 5-1. And I was concerned about a late season injury last year…was I proven wrong!
Norse Princess, who was my top choice and apparently the First Lady’s choice came in second. Norse got away forth and held that spot until late in the race when she made a move to rally but not enough to reel in the eventual winner.
Beat Boxer was in the early battle for the lead and just got beat by Norse in the final strides, settling for the show spot (and was my third pick).
Neuschwanstein took the forth spot. She got away last but pretty much ran evenly as she benefited from other horses tiring around her.
Blue Fox was used early in the battle for the lead and had nothing left for the stretch run but held on to get the fifth place check.
Red Royal, who has been running a pattern lately of finishing second every other race was my second pick in hopes that this pattern would continue. It didn’t
Semi Charmed Pye was never a contender, and finished way back in the field. Heck, I think she was still running while the trophy ceremony was going on.