Glittery
A big Beyer speed figure of 116 for Verrazano’s Haskell win*, which is second only to Game on Dude’s 117 for the Santa Anita Handicap, ties the Dude’s 116 for the San Antonio, and tops Fort Larned’s 115 for the Stephen Foster this year. If all three keep running like that, it’ll be a great Breeders’ Cup Classic. But what to make of Verrazano? He’s 6-for-7 in his career now, his 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby his sole loss (and the sloppy track gives him an excuse there), and he was the one Haskell starter running in the stretch:
No wonder he was able to open up 9 3/4 lengths over Power Broker — both the second- and third-place finishers were running a :27+ quarter. Verrazano was the only one coming in under :26 (watch the replay). In that way, the Haskell looks to me a bit like the Wood Memorial: it’s hard to tell, from the performances of the other contenders, just how well Verrazano actually ran.
Gary West saw a division-topping win:
Verrazano not only moved to the head of the 3-year-old class, but he also put himself in the discussion for Horse of the Year.
Ranking the 3-year-old males by wins through the weekend’s racing, I’d put Verrazano second to Orb, still hanging out at Fair Hill, with his Kentucky Derby and Florida Derby victories, and ahead of Palace Malice, with his Jim Dandy and Belmont Stakes scores. The Travers, which trainer Todd Pletcher said “would be a logical next spot” for the Haskell winner, should clarify where Verrazano fits, assuming the other division leaders show up. Maybe he is as brilliant as he appears, or maybe it’s that his rivals have been so dull.
Preakness winner Oxbow, who suffered an ankle sprain while finishing fourth in the Haskell, may or may not make the Travers, Jerry Bossert reports trainer D. Wayne Lukas saying, but the Breeders’ Cup is still his year-end goal.
*He ranked high on other scales as well: Brisnet, 111; TimeformUS, 124.
3:30 PM Addendum: More on Oxbow from Lukas, via the NYRA press office:
“The X-rays were all perfectly clean,” Lukas said. “It’s what you guys would call an ankle sprain, it looks like. I was more concerned with a condylar [fracture] or something like that but, boy, he had a pretty set of X-rays. It’s amazing. For a horse with that many [starts], they were really clean.”
This is great news, especially since Oxbow has been such a stalwart this year; the Haskell was his eighth start in 2013, his 13th career start.
Suffolk, Monday
Half-siblings Beijing House and Eight City Tour are a coupled entry for trainer Tom McCooey in race eight, an AOC going six furlongs on the main track. The elder is a veteran New England champion, the younger 2-for-3 at Suffolk Downs this year; together they’re 7-2 on the morning line. Beijing House is in for a $20,000 tag coming off a starter allowance win on July 10 — that race was the first time he’d found himself in the winner’s circle since June 4, 2012, ending an 10-race losing streak. Eight City Tour’s one loss at the track came going about a mile on the turf on July 15. He cuts back in this spot to the same distance at which he won an allowance on dirt the race before that.
Results: The Brothers Slacks finished out of the money as the 5-2 third favorites. Beijing House was fourth, Eight City Tour sixth.
One Fast Rose
Our Amazing Rose gets a Beyer speed figure of 91 for winning the fifth race on Thursday at Saratoga by 7 3/4 lengths. She went the five furlongs in :57.68, or .59 seconds faster than stablemate Corfu did winning the second. Both making their career debuts for trainer Todd Pletcher, of course. Watch the replay.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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