Weekend in Review

I would have been happy with my two RttR horses finishing anywhere in the money in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (g.II). And they did. So it's not really for me to complain that they didn't finish exactly as I expected them to and that they got beat by a horse I certainly didn't think would come back from a 7th place in his previous stakes performance. But let's save the analysis for its proper place.

Fountain of Youth

Cool Coal Man (Mineshaft-Coral Sea, by Rubiano), a Nick Zito sleeper, followed up his recent allowance victory with his first stakes win. I must admit, I had this horse pretty much nowhere on my radar, and though I can't argue with plain facts (he won the race, I saw the replays) I'm still not convinced of his ultimate superiority. The pace for this race was essentially non-existant, making it hard for any closers to shine, and Cool Coal Man, breaking from the one spot, received a perfect trip under Kent Desormeaux. Even still, the colt was only just able to hold off a late charge by none other than...

Elysium Fields (El Prado- Dreams, by Silver Hawk)! Yes, my shot in the dark pick proved he's got some talent, stalking the pace, making his move early on the turn (possibly a little too early) and then almost coming back to catch the winner after switching from an inside track to the outside halfway through the stretch. Cool Coal Man went from leading by 2.5 lenghts in mid-stretch to besting him by only half a length, which makes one wonder what would have happened with an extra 1/16 of a mile to run? Or farther? Oh yes, Elysium Fields is firmly ensconced in my stable now.

Good boy!

And who was that limping along in third place 5 and 3/4 lengths behind the number two horse? Why Court Vision, putting in a less than stellar performance. In his defense he came on in a rush from last place to get where he ended up and with the pace being sloooooowww he didn't have much of a chance to catch the leaders. Sure, he should have made his move sooner, but I think we can chalk that mistake up to inexperience (it was his first 3-year old start). I'd like to see him try this distance again, or even a little farther. I'm not giving up on him yet.

And from the annals of horses one should give up on? Z Humor. Yep, no big surprise that he couldn't recover in 8 days to come back with a stakes win. In fact, the big surprise was that he finished in the money at all, coming in fourth behind Court Vision. I was actually rather impressed by his finish (given my total lack of confidence in him otherwise). Unfortunately, I think he's just too green still to be on the Derby trail, but he's got the makings of a good racehorse to come. Similarly, Halo Najib failed to turn things around after his 13 day layoff, and now looks to be a Derby prep footnote.

Anak Nakal was a pretty big disappointment, but it means I made the right choice for my RttR stable. Strangely, Anak Nakal killed Cool Coal Man last year in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (g.II). But here he could only manage 8th...never firing. Seriously, does Nick Zito even know which of his multitude of talented colts is the best?

We apparently can't say anything one way or the other about Monba, who was bumped and faded to last. His connections are likely to blame the interference on his poor performance. I'll reiterate that I think he should be sent to the turf.

Regardless, good race. Good horses. I'm happy to add 16 more points to my stable (overall ranking- tied with lots for 1621st place). I like that my horse (Elysium Fields) came out of the race looking like a better prospect than the eventual winner. I am, in general, pleased with the outcome. Not so much my attempt at calling the turf races.

Photo: Coglianese Photos

Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes

Einstein (Spend A Buck- Gay Charm, by Ghadeer) showed that my complete lack of faith in him was misguided, becoming the first horse to ever win the grade I turf race for the second time. Sure, he looked like the class going into the race, but every once and a while I go out of my way to convince myself that the favorite is not actually the best horse. It's something of a prejudice I have, not wanting to believe in favorites. Anyways, that appears to be what happened here. I dismissed absolutely everything in Einstein's favor and went with (what appeared to be ) a promising colt (Shamdinan) who finished...what...ninth?!? Out of 10?!? What the heck!! My other picks, Cougar Bay, Dave and Zann, couldn't manage better than 5th, 6th, and 7th.

So....ummmm...right, no more turf races for me.

Meanwhile, let's all give a shout out for Helen Pitts for winning it with the game old veteran. Get a clue folks, this woman trains stakes winners. Maybe if you could get your noses out of your good-ol-boy playbooks you'd see that. Heaven forbid that a woman be allowed to train a Derby hopeful through his spring preps. Sigh.

In other news . . .

In the least surprising performance this entire weekend, War Pass (Cherokee Run- Vue by Mr. Prospector) wired the field in the one mile allowance race that followed the Fountain of Youth. He won by 7 1/2 lengths going away to remain undefeated in 5 lifetime starts (including last year's Breeder's Cup Juvenile, g.I). Never challenged by his 4 rivals, who have been generously described as 'overmatched', he ran his race is a fairly liesurely 1:36.38. One wonders if he broke a sweat. That being said, I don't genrally look to front runners to win the Derby (though it happens) and I don't normally look to horses that open their 3-year old season in late February with an allowance race against meagre competition period. Sure he's in my stable, he's in just about everyone's stable, but he sure isn't doing us any good there staying out of stakes company. Can he prove another Street Sense and capture both the juvenile championship and the roses? Who knows at this point. His true ability remains to be seen, and I'll withold comment until I actually see him fight for a win.

In completely unrelated news, I just realized I have commentors! Awesome. Thanks for actually looking at my stuff.