Quick Saturday Results
Barbaro remains undefeated. The Michael Matz-trained colt showed he could handle the switch from turf to dirt (or at least, from turf to slop) and deserved to be considered a legitimate Derby prospect, winning the Holy Bull Stakes by three quarters of a length over Nick Zito’s Great Point, who trailed the field in twelfth through the first half and closed impressively in the final yards to finish second. Barbaro stalked Aventura winner Doctor Decherd to the top of the stretch and then pulled away to briefly open up a three-length lead. It was a nice race, with a final time of 1:49.31. The fractions though show the Holy Bull slowing with each quarter, with splits of :23.1, :24.05, and :25.82. The final furlong was run in a weak :13.16. As Andrew Beyer notes in the Washington Post, Barbaro “was only .25 second faster than a fair group of mares who ran an hour earlier.” Given the numbers, the horse that really comes out looking the best in the race isn’t Barbaro, but Great Point. If he’d had a few more yards, the results could well have been reversed.
More: Barbaro earned a Beyer speed figure of 95 for the Holy Bull.
In the Hutcheson, “First Samurai ran faster than the track record for 7 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Trouble was, Keyed Entry ran faster.” Todd Pletcher’s colt ran faster from the beginning, speeding from the gate to take the lead from favorite First Samurai, who was making his first start since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. First Samurai ran about a length behind Keyed Entry for much of the race, and finished one and a half lengths back. At least the colt was capable of staying within striking distance (even if he couldn’t quite mount a strong challenge), unlike the rest of the field, which lagged nine lengths or more back when Keyed Entry and First Samurai hit the stretch.
Wow: Keyed Entry earned a 110 Beyer while setting a track record in the Hutcheson.
Bob and John looked terrific in the Sham Stakes, which was basically another workout for Bob Baffert’s hardworking Derby hopeful. Comfortably stalking the pace-setting Hawkinsville into the stretch, Bob and John easily drew clear to win by four and a half lengths. Disqualified in the Real Quiet last November, the Sham was Bob and John’s first official stakes win. “This will be the last powder puff race he gets,” Baffert said after the Sham. “From here on out, it’s going to be all heavyweights.” The March 4 Santa Catalina may be Bob and John’s next start.
I was wrong about High Limit. Very, very wrong. I said he couldn’t rate, but High Limit has proved that he’s more than capable of sitting off the pace and waiting for the right moment to run. That’s exactly what the four-year-old did in the Strub today, “the finest performance of his career.” Longshot Top This and That finished second, while Giacomo ran in his usual late rallying style to finish third.
