Burns Park Loop/Levy Trail 5K Loop intervals

The Geezers, limited this morning to Bill Brass, Yevette Thompson, Sandy Venable, and me, walked the Burns Park Loop in 1:44:23. It's still dry and cool here.
After a half-mile walk/jog warmup, I ran 4X440 yards this evening in 2:29.4, 2:28.3, 2:17.6, and 2:22.0, with 3:15-3:30 quarter-mile intervals on the Levy Trail 5K Loop. I then walked and jogged the final half mile, 188 yards, and 2.394 inches to complete the 5K in 38:31, and three miles in 37:14. My mile splits were 12:55, 11:27, and 14:25. I felt good all the way.

Two Rivers Park/Levy Trail Loop 5K

The Geezers and I walked through Two Rivers Park this morning for 1:26:54. It was absolutely gorgeous, dry, cool, and bright blue.
I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to complete the Levy Trail Loop 5K tonight in a course-record 43:58, with mile splits of 13:50, 14:18, and 14:31. I Google-Earthed the course, with loops at the north end around the Levy Church of Christ and the south just before I got to Art's Marine, the boat shop next to I-40.

Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop early this afternoon in 32:31, and in the late evening walked the Levy Trail Loop in 31:50.

Levy Trail North/Levy Trail Loop

I walked Levy Trail North through very light rain this morning in 34:52.
This afternoon I walked the Levy Trail Loop in 33:39. It's cool and beautiful out. There were a bunch of moms, dads, and kids on the trail.

Orange Street Loop/Hash/Maple Street Loop

I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to complete the Orange Street Loop this morning in 39:34, with splits of 13:19, 13:03, and 13:12.
Basil Julian and I walked for 45:20 through Burns Park on Bill Brass' Hash run this afternoon.
Apparently that wasn't enough. Tonight I walked the Maple Street Loop in 31:15.

Maple Street Loop/Levy Trail

I walked the Maple Street Loop at lunchtime in 31:50. It's sunny, warm, and humid in Levy.
This evening, starting at about a quarter to six, I walked four miles on the Levy Trail in 1:02:37. At 6:49 p.m., it's 84°F.

Levy Trail South/Levy Trail South

Wow, I just now realized I failed to write this morning that I walked Levy Trail South in 32:44 (I think. Thirty-two I know, the seconds not). I started at about 11:45, after the rain slacked off some. This evening I did Levy Trail South again. It was raining slightly when I began but became a thunderstorm after about five minutes. Consequently, fearful of the lightning, I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to get done a little quicker and completed the course in 29:12.

Orange Street Loop/Levy Trail South

I walked the Orange Street Loop this morning in 46:30. It's felt like fall here this last couple of days. I wore blue jeans and a twenty-year-old sweatshirt on my walk.
This evening I walked Levy Trail South in 34:14.

Burns Park Loop/Ghetto Cat Loop

I was among nine Geezers who walked the Burns Park Loop this morning in 1:45:39. GPS measurements varied from 5.1 to 5.5 miles. I thought for the first couple of years the loop was 5.4. Then 5.0 for the last couple. Who knows? My legs felt good. When I arrived home, I saw Jo walk from Tom's yard toward my porch with a mouth full of dead sparrow.
This evening I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop in 33:12.

Levy Trail Loop/Levy Trail North

I walked the Levy Trail Loop at lunchtime in 32:25.
This evening I walked two miles north on the Levy Trail in 32:30.

Hash/Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop tonight in 33:42
Yesterday I walked 1.1 miles with the Little Rock Hash in 34:40. We started from a tiny city park way out in East End, not far from the airport, and spent a little over 25 minutes going half a mile through weeds and undergrowth that were at least as dense as any I have encountered on a Hash run.

OVERHEARD

OVERHEARD
"Hey, Pete, you diabetic fuck. Come on over to the Forge. Fuck you."
— telephone message from John Kelley, late Saturday night

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop this morning in 34:24. It's foggy here.

Levy Trail/Oaklawn Park/NCAA Tournament

I walked the Levy Loop this morning in 32:14.
I made a total of fourteen trips to Oaklawn Park this season and came out ahead $22.70. I lost $16.80 during four trips this week.
Pam 2 finished alone in 15th place in the NCAA Tournament office pool. Pam 1 was 48th.
I predict Jordan Spieth will fold like an old quilt this afternoon.

Levy Trail

I walked north on the Levy Trail this morning in 32:15.

Levy Trail Loop

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning, starting at about 9:45 a.m., in 31:04. I believe I reported seeing a kitten on the Levy Trail about half a mile south of 43rd Street back in November or so. Maybe in December (I looked. On Dec. 11). She was there again this morning, only two or three times bigger. It looked at first as if she were stalking me through the tall grass, but I stopped and made my clicking noise and she ran right to me and took a couple of laps around my left leg. She let me pick her up, and I was pleased to see that someone had put a flea collar on her.

Levy Trail Loop/Oaklawn Park

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 31:03.
I won $0.20 at Oaklawn Park today to put me up $39.50 after ten trips.
Pam 2 needs Michigan State to beat Duke today in the NCAA Tournament newspaper pool. If it does, and Kentucky wins the championship two days from now, then she'll finish in a four-way tie for third. The tiebreakers are pretty tight. Pam predicted 128 points will be scored in final. I think someone else predicted 130, and another 122, or something like that. So to win outright, Pam will need the final points total to be between 126 and 128. Oh well. That's what she predicted.

Chandler Street Loop/38th Street Loop

All right, this may sound as if I'm lying, but as I lay in bed this morning before daybreak, wide awake though I had slept no more than three hours, my legs felt springy. The springiness was confirmed with a walk to the bathroom.
I next alternated ninety-second jogs with three-and-a-half minute walks to complete the Chandler Street Loop in 41:12, with splits of 13:54, 14:25, and 12:53, and it was a picnic, absolutely easy.
Tonight I walked the 38th Street Loop in 28:52. Before that I wrote an advance for the Fantasy Stakes that pleased me at least a little. It takes less than five minutes to read.
By the way, I read the word picnic in a short story by Richard Yates this morning and decided to wear it out. I think it will be removed from the following story, and think that would be OK.

PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — No more than the flesh of their nostrils separated Sarah Sis from Take Charge Brandi. Though it was difficult to tell which filly led, this much was unmistakeable; momentum was with Sarah Sis and she and Take Charge Brandi were inches apart, 30 yards from the finish of the one-mile Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Felix sat in the jock’s room at Oaklawn on Friday, 30 hours before the start of the Fantasy Stakes, the Grade III, $400,000 apex of Oaklawn Park’s season for three-year-old fillies, and he reminisced. He will ride Sarah Sis in a field of 11 three-year-old fillies over 1 and 1/16th miles in the Fantasy today, with post time scheduled for 5:09 p.m. And Felix said he will ride with confidence, and without hesitation agreed with Sarah Sis’ owner Joe Ragsdale and trainer Ingrid Mason that the assurance they feel was born on the homestretch of the Martha Washington late on the last day of January.

Take Charge Brandi, the Eclipse Award winner as the top two-year-old filly for 2014, won’t get a rematch this season. On the morning of March 10, four days before she was to start in the Grade II Rebel Stakes, trainer D. Wayne Lukas noticed an infirmity, which later that day was diagnosed as a non-displaced chip in her right knee. Lukas said she would miss the next 60 days, thus eliminating her from the Fantasy Stakes and any chance at the Kentucky Oaks, Churchill Downs’ equivalent for fillies to the Kentucky Derby. Take Charge Brandi missed the Grade III, $150,000 Honeybee, the 1-mile and 1/16th stakes race won by Sarah Sis on March 7.

Even with Take Charge Brandi out, none of Sarah Sis’ connections expect a picnic in the Fantasy. Listed at 7-2, she is in fact the second choice to south Florida shipper Feathered, the 3-1 morning-line favorite. “Absolutely, Feathered will be a test,” Mason said. “There are a couple of fillies in there. I mean, they’re all tough.”

Feathered, by Indian Charlie, is trained by Florida-based Racing Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher. Ricardo Santana, Oaklawn’s riding champion last season and the current leader among riders this season, is slotted to ride Feathered. “Todd Pletcher trains horses so that they are ready,” Santana said. “Todd Pletcher trained this horse, so she is ready to win.”

Achiever’s Legacy and Oceanwave are each listed at 5-1, followed by Pangburn and Lady Tapit at 8-1.

Pangburn, by Congrats, is trained by Kenny McPeek, who said he hopes for a fast early pace set by several starters. His filly’s success in four career starts, with two victories, has come with late runs. “We need speed to soften up the front runners, and hopefully we’ll get a dream trip,” McPeek said.

Ragsdale, Mason, and Felix know they’ll face challengers from top to bottom today, but in the Martha Washington there was no doubt that Take Charge Brandi was the three-year-old filly to beat. Felix remembered that he glanced her way with the finish less than two seconds away. He said he thought Sarah Sis had taken a slight lead. Later he didn’t want to specify his precise thought from that moment. Mason said after the race that it’s usually unwise to count on anything before it arrives, a philosophy most horseman adhere to, including Felix. “I don’t think you should count your chickens before they hatch,” Mason said.

Afterward Felix would offer little more than praise for his filly and a grudging salute to Take Charge Brandi, but with a day to go before the Fantasy, he at last acknowledged his thought that formed 30 yards from the Martha Washington wire. “Did I think we would win?” Felix paused to laugh and said, “Yes I did. Yes I did. Yes I did.”

Ragsdale said he thought so, too. “I thought about three jumps before the finish that we were going to get there,” he said. “I really did.”

Two differences stood out before the two fillies pulled nearly even as they crossed a horizontal stripe on the track where the starters had raked less than two minutes earlier, 30 yards out. The first was that Take Charge Brandi was then the classiest three-year-old filly in America, winner of the Eclipse and the Breeder’s Cup championship for two-year-old fillies. Sarah Sis had yet to win a stakes race of any sort. Next was that Sarah Sis had struggled from the start. She was going backward when the gates opened, and then hopped forward and was consequently blocked by fillies to her left and right. Take Charge Brandi started gracefully and immediately took charge. She led all the way into the homestretch and was unchallenged until Sarah Sis cut inside near the rail and pulled close. Then, according to Take Charge Brandi's  jockey Jon Court, and Felix, she reminded Sarah Sis and everyone else at Oaklawn that she was a champion. She suddenly surged forward to win by A nose.

Perhaps there are moral victories. Those close to Sarah Sis left the track that day full of optimism. They all felt their filly should’ve won. It was her first trip around two turns, or beyond six furlongs. Ragsdale said he figured Sarah Sis ran at least 100 yards further than Take Charge Brandi. Mason guessed twice that distance. Felix said the start and the wide trip around the first turn cost Sarah Sis 10 lengths.

But Sarah Sis appeared from the start as a filly with much to overcome. Ragsdale remembers the trip he and Mason made to an auction at Ocala, Fla., in June of 2014. Ragsdale said Mason told him she liked what she saw in Sarah Sis. Ragsdale said he had complete faith in Mason’s judgement, though he was unimpressed by what he saw in Sarah Sis. “She was an ugly ducking to me,” he said. “I guess Ingrid saw athleticism or something in her.”

Ragsdale bought Sarah Sis, who has thus far earned $203,000, for $20,000.

“Ingrid has a great eye for horses,” said Ragsdale, owner of a company in Tulsa that sells oil and gas equipment. “She pointed out several that were out of my price range, and they were all very talented. When she said go for Sarah Sis, she didn’t have to tell me anything else.”

Felix remembers his first ride on Sarah Sis last summer. “It was like kissing a girlfriend for the first time,” he said. “You never forget that. She felt like she could go a lot faster, and a lot further, too.

Sarah Sis proved that in the Martha Washington and confirmed the proof in the Honeybee. She has qualified for the Kentucky Oaks and the chance it offers for unqualified glory.

But first a Fantasy awaits.

“I think we will break sharp tomorrow and then we’ll see what happens,” Felix said. “There are good fillies in there, but I am very confident.”

Levy Trail North/Maple Street Loop

I walked twice today, beginning with a Levy Trail North* early this afternoon, which I completed in 31:38. This evening I walked the Maple Street Loop in 34:17. The walks were interrupted by several telephone interviews with characters apparently destined for involvment in this Saturday's Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
My legs are deader than a Kenyan undergraduate, despite my light workload. Maybe I need some fried chicken. What made me think of that, hours after I completed my last walk, was a commercial for Church's Fried Chicken I just saw. It seems they have a new dipping sauce for chicken strips and fried chicken called Purple Pepper Sauce®. There were no hints how it might taste, but I imagine it would be sweet and spicy. I could see that working. Anyway, the two teenaged boys in the commercial looked as if they really liked it. Now I need someone who knows someone who likes chicken strips to go try it, please.

*From here forward, Levy Trail North represents the out-and-back, two-mile Levy Trail course that passes the Levy Church of Christ and all those government subsidized apartments. Levy Trail South passes the old Dixie Pig, which made shitty ribs from 1975-13

Burns Park/Maple Street Loop

I walked with the Geezers at Burns Park this morning. We started on the green trail but wandered about after the first forty-five minutes or so. We were out for 1:34:14. I wore a long-sleeve cotton shirt, which was a bit too much. The temperature was close to 70°F when we finished.
Early this evening I walked the Maple Street Loop in 31:59. I found a dollar bill just off a curb on the north side of 47th Street. Not too many people let those get away in Levy, so I felt lucky.