JC / Railbird

Sweet Cat’s Sis Scores

– Life Is Sweet, a full sister to 2004 champion juvenile filly Sweet Catomine, routed her competition in the fifth at Belmont this afternoon, going 1 1/16 miles on the grass in 1:41.47. It was the two-year-old’s second career start for trainer Bill Mott. Debuting at Saratoga (in the same race won by Indian Blessing, who took the Frizette Stakes oh so impressively on Saturday), she showed little going 5 1/2 furlongs on the dirt, racing far off the pace and finishing eighth, more than 14 lengths back. Today’s distance and surface switch suited Life Is Sweet’s apparent style better: The Storm Cat filly picked off rivals on the outside then exploded at the top of the stretch, drawing away to win by nine lengths over Tessitura as the 9-5 favorite.

– Nobiz Like Shobiz won’t start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile despite his push-button victory in the Jamaica Handicap on Saturday. Trainer Barclay Tagg said the three-year-old colt, now 3-for-3 on the turf, will point to the November 25 Hollywood Derby instead (DRF). “The problem with running in the Mile is that even if he wins, he won’t get the accolades he deserves,” said Tagg. “English Channel or whoever wins the Breeders’ Cup Turf will probably be turf champion and he’s not going to be three-year-old champion, so what does he really have to gain by running in the Mile?” Well, maybe an Eclipse after all. Jim Gluckson explains to Paul Moran.


2 Comments

Me again. I LOVED Sweet Catomine, and was so pissed at her connections for that bizarre scenario right before her run in the Santa Anita Derby a couple of years ago. That whole scene seemed so sketchy that I’ve mistrusted horses from those connections ever since. Great news about this girl.

Posted by Teresa on October 7, 2007 @ 11:11 pm

My wallet has firmly and in no uncertain terms told me to stop asking Nobiz Like Showbiz to “prove it” on the turf. His Jamaica score was simply the essence of authority and who am I to argue at this point? The decision to skip the Breeders’ Cup is Tagg at his finest — stubborn, contrarian, brilliant. He can be absolutely exasperating (Funny Cide scratched because the weather was warm almost as often as he ran) but his expertise should never be questioned. He is one of our best, and one of my favorite, horsemen. In this year of year for 3-year-old colts, Nobiz is unjustly forgotten behind Street Sense, Curlin and Hard Spun, but he has to rank high in the class — he has won important races on dirt and turf and they have not. Like with his stablemate Showing Up, who blossomed when moved to grass after showing unmistakable talent on dirt, a case could be made that Nobiz is nearing the top of his division on grass, but also like Showing Up, he does not deserve an artificial Eclipse Award, which they almost created last year for 3-year-old colts and another for fillies on the turf. The new BC races have diluted the most important races of the year, by allowing filly and colt sprinters to be separated and dirt “milers” to avoid proving greatness by extending to the Classic distance or cutting back to win the sprint, etc. It’s not necessarily a question of finding the optimal distance for your horse as much as ducking the heavy heads. The new races denigrate the “true” ones; if they didn’t, don’t you think Hard Spun would be in the Dirt Mile? I lobbied as passionately as I could against more Eclipse Awards. We didn’t need to find one for Showing Up and we don’t need to find one for Nobiz, either. Ditto the “championship races.” Let the truly great horses show their superiority by overcoming handicaps and winning races we might not think them capable. When a natural miler stretches out and wins the Classic, or a route horse like Gulch cuts back and takes the Sprint, that’s how the crucible of challenge becomes definitive and we can go home and get into bed knowing we saw the best beat the best. — J.S.

Posted by J.S. on October 9, 2007 @ 7:22 pm