JC / Railbird

Saratoga Archive

No Bounce for Lawyer Ron

So says the Beyer: Lawyer Ron’s Woodward speed figure came back as 118 119*, two points higher than the figure he earned winning the Whitney in record time five weeks ago.
*Adjusted, and still two points higher than the Whitney, which was upped to 117. Dick Jerardi explains (DRF+).

Posted in Saratoga on September 2, 2007

Monday Evening Notes

– I’d say the glow is off Saratoga: Fans booed the results of a stewards’ inquiry into today’s eighth race (Newsday). The race was won by Karelian, scratched from Saturday’s record-setting Baruch Stakes (Blood-Horse), who bumped Dreadnaught in the stretch after eventual place horse Heat of the Night richocheted off him. For the sake of my exacta, I was rooting for the stewards to take down Heat of the Night; they declined to change the order of finish.
– Nobiz Like Shobiz worked five furlongs handily over the Oklahoma turf course in :58.54. The Tagg trainee is headed to the Kent Breeders’ Cup at Delaware on September 1. Also on the work tab: Curlin, who worked five furlongs in 1:01.65 over the training track. The move was the best of nine at the distance. Discreet Cat posted his first official workout in months, going three furlongs in :37.39 over the main track.
– Remember, it’s all about the stud fee: “He hadn’t won a Grade 1 yet, so this is very good,” said trainer Larry Jones of Hard Spun’s King’s Bishop win on Saturday. “It’s very important for his stallion career to have the Grade 1 under him. This is a very important race for making stallions, and that was one reason we looked at it” (ThoroTimes).

Posted in Saratoga on August 27, 2007

The Street Sense We Got

It wasn’t the Street Sense who dominated in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile or the Kentucky Derby. The Street Sense who won the Travers, writes Mike Watchmaker, “was the Street Sense who barely edged Any Given Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby, who missed in a photo in the bizarrely run Blue Grass, and who was nailed by Curlin in the Preakness when he pulled himself up after opening a clear lead in deep stretch” (DRF+). The great shame of Street Sense’s imminent retirement to stud (BRIS) is that he’ll never get a chance to overcome this immaturity and fulfill his immense talent. We might get to see how Street Sense does against older horses before the Breeders’ Cup Classic, though: The September 22 Massachusetts Handicap is among the BC prep options trainer Carl Nafzger is considering. “You need to run, I think, against older horses,” Nafzger said (Times Union). The possibility must be tantalizing Suffolk Downs officials. The MassCap lost its graded status after it was cancelled in 2005 and 2006, but the track is dangling a large bonus on top of its $300,000 purse to any winner of a Triple Crown race entered.

Posted in Saratoga, Travers Stakes on August 27, 2007