Izarra

It is life's simplest pleasures that please me: a horse ridden well to the wire first amid rank horses in bad weather; the way beer cools off fast if you put it in the freezer for a spell; watching my dog play with and win over people who do not much care for dogs.

Last night was a night for simple pleasures. A little 10 year old Aberlour before dinner, nothing fancy about a well priced scotch. Then dinner of bean and olive soup and a plate of baked fresh local russet potatoes mixed with Roma tomatoes and local cooking onions, dabbed with olive oil margarine and sprinkled Anarchistically with soy cheese and Cajun spice.

After dinner I began my consideration of this weekend's Breeders' Cup races being held at Monmouth Park. I do not usually bet on more than one or two of these so-called championship races. They are hard nuts to crack, but since my game has been solid all summer I think I will play most or all of them.

You cannot win if you are not in, motherfuckers.

One name caught my eye as I looked over the horses' forms for the first time. The name is Janis Whitham. She runs the odd horse at Dope City Downs, uses David Forster as her trainer. Janis has a two year old filly named Izarra running in the first Breeders' Cup race, on Saturday. The horse will carry high odds but Janis, who races her horses all over the place, has delivered the occasional bomb in the past, like the time Forster and her ran Ezra, who was later stakes placed, in a cheap maiden claimer and won the race at odds of 28-1. Izarra is the best bred filly of the lot but if she is going to win will have to show the world what she is made of because we have not seen it yet.