Slow Thursday
Prominent (2nd) gallops out after the fourth on Thursday.
– Maybe it was the stifling heat and humidity that began early, but everything about Saratoga on Thursday felt slow and muted, from training hours on through the card. The eighth felt especially so, perhaps because pace for the 1 1/8 mile N1X was :47.48 and the final furlong :14.28. This was the first race of the meet run under the new bonus conditions for routes, and it drew 10 starters, swelling the purse to $100,000, but it also highlighted the problem the scheme aims to correct, with early leader Spring Elusion wilting towards the wire and 11-1 Borrowing Base, “outrun for six furlongs” (PDF), grinding to the lead over exhausted rivals in the stretch. Not to complain though — rewarding horsemen for prepping and entering their charges to run at a distance is a worthy effort. There’s only so many one-turn sprints, dirt or grass, any handicapper can take.
– On Saturday, Adirondack winner More Happy returns in the fourth, the ungraded Flanders Stakes, her first start since finishing fifth in the Spinaway nearly a year ago. She at least makes it back to the races (after throat surgery and a bout of pneumonia). Former stablemate Maimonides, another precocious Vindication baby who debuted last summer for trainer Bob Baffert and attracted much attention, was pulled from training with an injury after finishing third in the Hopeful, transferred to trainer Bill Mott in February, and hasn’t been heard from since.
– Out west: Rumors are fanned that Curlin might start in the Pacific Classic and mighty Zenyatta faces eight, including Tough Tiz’s Sis (the closest thing to a challenger the undefeated filly has these days), in the Hirsch on Saturday. Trainer John Shirreffs is posting training videos on YouTube (not via Jay Hovdey’s recent DRF+ column, since there was no link), including this one featuring Zenyatta’s July 26 work, in which she went five furlongs in 1:01 at Del Mar. The images are fuzzy at the start, but her pricked ears and gorgeous, fluid stride are clear in the final 100 yards or so.
