Last year before the Breeders Cup, I found myself in the always tricky position of having to choose a winner for the upcoming Breeder's Cup Juvenile. Sure, the Classic horses you know, and the Distaffers. Even the Turf horses and Sprinters are likely to be well known and well loved heroes by the time November rolls around. You've been following their careers all year, and you've got a pretty good idea of whom you like.
Not so juveniles.
At most, they have a handful of races under their belt and none have yet to truly find their niche in the racing world. And so, keeping all this in mind, I perused the past performance charts and threw a dart. Well, not exactly. I chose Pyro (Pulpit-Wild Vision by Wild Again) becase he was consistent, and I love a consistent hore. And by that I mean, I love a horse that maybe doesn't win every time out, but he's always in the money. Sure he lost the last time out (the Champagne), but he was a fast closing second. And he had the look of a horse that could strech out to distance races. War Pass (Cherokee Run-Vue by Mr. Prospector), who won the Champage, was probably the class of the field, but I just can't pick a favorite...there's no art in it. So, Pyro was my Juvenile pick.
He came in second. To War Pass.
But again, it was a fast closing second, and a move that looked to only get better with increased distance. I still liked him. I put him in my Road to the Roses stable, and sat back to see what would happen in the Risen Star Stakes this past weekend.
Goodness, it's nice to be vindicated.
Did you catch that last quarter mile? Of course you did. Randy Moss clocked it as 22.3 seconds, which, for the uninitiated, is really darn fast. Especially for the end of a race. Especially for a horse who gets hand ridden to the finish. Especially for a horse that had to swing 7 wide at the top of the stretch and circle the wall of horses blocking his way to the finish line. Especially for a horse making his first start as a 3-year old.
Mind you, not everyone's a believer. A number of commentators have stated that they don't believe that Pyro is a quality horse because the pace of the race was extremely slow (1:44.68 for the mile and 1/16). I will give it to them that the 3-year old fillies running a half hour beforehand on the same track would have left the whole field in their dust. But why exactly does that bring Pyro's quality into question? Logic, and history, states that when the pace is slow in a race, the front runners are less likely to get tired. As such, they're all going to have some extra kick left in the final furlong to help turn back the desperate late charges of the confirmed closers. A slow pace should make it well nigh impossible for a horse to pull off a Silky Sullivan finish like that (and yes, that hero of yesteryear is the first name that srang to my mind after watching the race replay). Andy Breyer agrees with me, and if that's not a name to convince you, then clearly you've come to the wrong blog.
So what does this all mean?
It means Pyro is a good horse. It means I am not a terrible handicapper (not a good one, mind you, but not terrible). And it means maybe I can justify starting my own blog about my hardcore horse racing obsession. So, without further ado, welcome to my blog. Let's see if it's worth the yearly $99 subscription to The Blood Horse.
Did I mention I called the trifecta?
No comments:
Post a Comment