JC / Railbird

Races/Results Archive

On Saturday

– Rockport Harbor returns from a nine-month layoff in the Essex. “He’s been training very well,” said owner Rick Porter. “He’s gained some weight, and we’ve seen a lot of positive things. All systems are go.”
– This could be the year for California fillies in the Kentucky Oaks, if the Las Virgenes field is anything to go by. Wild Fit, second to Folklore in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, will start, as will Dimplomat Lady, upset winner of the Starlet.
– Count Fleet winner Achilles of Troy looks like a lock in the Whirlaway. A very confident owner Ernie Paragallo says the $65,000 stakes over Aqueduct’s inner track will be Achilles’ last easy start. “After this race we’ll go tackling more talented competition.”

Posted in Races/Results on February 10, 2006

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.

Posted in Races/Results, Racing on February 4, 2006 / Tagged Kentucky Derby

Good Races Galore

I’m playing the Saturday races at Gulfstream and Santa Anita for the first time in several weeks and I’m doing it old school, marking up a paper copy of the Daily Racing Form. The Saturday edition of the Form came with an extra, a new glossy insert called “Gulfstream Scene” filled with aspirational ads padded by an ode to Frank Stronach (“The Stronach philosophy has always been to think big … Gulfstream represents Stronach’s greatest gamble, and possibly a model for the future of the sport”), an article in which really rich people express delight with their really nice homes, and another offering south Florida restaurant recommendations. It’s an upscale lifestyle magazine for horseplayers, which is nothing if not an interesting expansion of the Form’s brand …
Anyway, there’s a plethora of good races on Saturday. For older horses, there’s the Donn at Gulfstream and the Strub at Santa Anita. Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo makes his first start in eight months in the Strub, and he’s 6-1 on the morning line. There are plenty of good reasons he’s not the favorite — he’s making his first start in eight months, his speed figures are too low — but there are also plenty of reasons to like him. Giacomo comes into the race a big, strong four-year-old, says trainer John Shirreffs:

He also has a steady workout tab, and, as the DRF’S Brad Free contends, “The Strub field is weak, and Giacomo is simply the best horse.”
The morning line favorite in the Strub is High Limit, who won the San Pasquale on January 7 going wire-to-wire. All of High Limit’s wins have come that way, and none have come in races longer than 1 1/16 mile. I’ll play against him for that reason alone — the colt hasn’t shown much facility rating and trying to go wire-to-wire for a full nine furlongs isn’t that easy, especially when there are competitors capable of running him down in the final yards, like Giacomo or the interesting shipper Dixie Meister. The Steve Asmussen-trained colt ran second in his last start, the New Orleans Handicap on January 7, and likes to come from well off the pace, as does Bob Baffert’s nonsensically named Hockey the General, who lost the Sir Beufort by a nose in December.
Also on Saturday: It’s a big day for Derby prospects, with the Hutcheson (featuring the three-year-old debut of First Samurai) and the Holy Bull (Barbaro tries to do on the dirt what’s he’s done on the turf) at Gulfstream and the Sham at Santa Anita. Bob and John, who won an allowance on January 20 after finishing third behind Brother Derek and Your Tent or Mine in the Hollywood Futurity in December, is one of six entered in the Sham. In addition to the recent race, the colt worked four furlongs in :47 3/5 on January 30 — he’s certainly fit. The only other starter of real interest is Sacred Light, an improving colt by Holy Bull who won his maiden by disqualification and then ran a big third in his next race off a five month layoff.

Posted in Races/Results on February 3, 2006