The First Half
Monday marked the midpoint of the Saratoga meet; Wednesday kicks off the fourth week of racing. Ahead lies the Alabama (this Saturday) and the Travers (the following). I’ve had a great time in the past three weeks. The meet got off to a bit of slow start for me — before last Saturday, I’d made a total of nine bets and cashed only two tickets, one on the Michael Matz-trained Quadrant, who ran an excellent second to Ice Wynnd Fire in the same allowance race on August 6 that Noble Causeway was pulled up in, and another on the Suffolk Downs-based Carlow. The filly, trained by Karl Grusmark, paid a generous $28.20 when she won on August 8, despite beating similar company in the Niagara Stakes at Finger Lakes just a month before. Things turned around over the weekend, with a couple of nice plays, including one on Congo King in the third on Saturday. The two-year-old paid $16.00 to win. Seeing this colt up on the board at 7-1 felt like an unbelievable gift, what with his precocious pedigree, steady record of workouts, and trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.’s two-year-old stats. On Sunday, I survived blanket madness by watching the races from the backstretch and cashing a $141 Dave-Provincetown exacta in race nine. Not bad. Anyway, more Thursday on the meet and what I’ve been doing all this time, as well as a look at the Alabama and the Travers.
