This will interest approximately three of you, but it looks like Wayne Catalano and Frank Calabresi split up again. Calabresi claims he's lost $2,000,000 in the past year. Whatever happens, the first month of the Arlington meet is going to be very interesting as bettors try to find their way.

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Fire Phil Emery

Count me in as 1 of the 3. Their strategy of claiming horses at a higher level and dropping them down to a much lower claiming level so they could win (and lose the horse as well) has backfired - finally.

I don't have a crystal ball, but for some reason I keep thinking if the housing market gets back in 5 years, AP will be converted into prime real estate and my favorite pastime will fade away. Lets home I'm wrong.

I'm number 2. Calabrese when he owned FCL Graphics he had cameras installed to watch his workers. Maybe he should have watched the Cat closer!!!! Maybe racing might pickup they have to go after young folkds like Irish Boy Benny the Bull outta of retirement. Maybe
IB can have a weekly post about the sport of Kings! PS Hawthorne said they didn't lose money during the fall meet

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I can believe that about Hawthorne, as a lot of the winter tracks run poly and Hawthorne has made a determined effort to make sure its signal runs everywhere it can. They also don't have to worry about actual purses. That being said, the quality sucks, the facilities smell like urine, and I can't see myself or many others spending as much time at Hawthorne in October or March as they do at Arlington in June.

I'm going to have a lot more on racing when the Derby preps heat up and the contenders start to separate. Right now, there's just too many names.

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Fire Phil Emery

Here's some thoughts around this:

1. These two have a love/hate relationship that goes back many years. This isn't the first time they've split and I predict that they will get back together at some point - maybe not all of Frank's horses, but some of them.

2. Frank's strategy will cause him to lose money as a horse racing operation. He makes this up by gambling. He can claim a loss on the horses and doesn't have to report the gambling gains. Why do you think so many of his horses go off at 4-5? He pounds them at the windows. Plus, I think the 2M number is exagerating considering the success of Dreaming of Anna and Lewis Michael.

3. I'll be interested to see which trainer he chooses to go with when he brings the horses north. He's using Rivelli and Slowinski (sp? who is Catalano's brother in law) In any case, I don't expect any of those trainer to put up with alot from FCC.

He announced a five trainer rotation. The only name I remember was Slomowski. Ravelli was not one of them.

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Fire Phil Emery

You are right and wrong.

Calabrese said the 35 horses he has in training will be split between Danny Miller, Larry ''High Strike'' Rivelli, Peter Walder, Wesley Ward and Rick Slomkowski -- Catalano's brother-in-law.
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/horserac ... 27.article

I don't remember that name being in there. Maybe the "High Strike" threw me off.

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Fire Phil Emery

I only think of Rivelli with a horse I follow - Raving Rocket who was previously owned by Dare to Dream Stable. Rivelli is a good trainer - if I am guessing, he's the one that ends up with most of the stock because he'll do whatever FCC wants.