Believe DRF's excellent correspondent Mary Rampellini is at Delta tonight, but don't know if she is blogging. I'm gonna keep track of these races, and will put up a post or two as the night goes on.
First off -- it's snowing. Let me say that again. It's Dec. 4, this is Louisiana, and it's snowing. Got it?
Precip has rendered the main-track sloppy. After a bizarrely fast-playing night Thursday, the surface slowed down to a more typical time range Friday, and seemed to be so again in race 1. In that 2yo MSW at 5fs, front-ender Old Man Who was run over in mid-stretch by stalking first-timer Werblin Friend, who drew off easily. Werblin Friend, from the barn of Olivo Inirio, was bet hard early, middle, and late, and paid just $5. He broke from post 10, and off the one race so far, you wouldn't say the surface is speed- or inside-biased. But we shall see.
No scratches out of the $750K Jackpot or the $500K Delta Princess. But Tend, who I thought had a great chance in race 8, the $125K Delta Mile, has been scratched.
Two minutes to race 2. The Doors "Riders on the Storm" playing on Delta's inimitable simo feed. Farasino was a very late scratch here -- leaving me with 9-1 Little Miss Halo and the post-time chalk, I guess, in the first 50-cent pick 4.
