Easter Re-cap

Good morning! I hope everyone's enjoying their peeps (mine are purple!). Hey, can anyone tell me why Ben-Hur is not playing on any TV stations this whole weekend? Last night The Ten Commandments was on two different stations at the exact same time, but no Ben-Hur. How can you not show Ben-Hur at Easter time? I'm probably the least religious person you'd ever find, but I like me a good Charlton Heston epic film. Plus, its main feature is horse racing, how can you go wrong? Sport of kings indeed. Speaking of which, I didn't win anything this weekend, but I don't think that I did half bad with these races (which seemed fairly open to begin with).

Lane's End Stakes

Adriano (A.P. Indy) became the next turf star to successfully transition to polytrack. He was eased at the finish, having had an absolutely lovely trip around the oval. I won't take anything away from this guy, but I don't think he's Derby material. He absolutely flopped on dirt during the Fountain of Youth. Not far behind him in second was Halo Najib (Halo's Image), who pretty much has to give up his Derby hopes after this. And in third was Medjool.

Okay, I've read several recaps of the race, I've read a bunch of bloggers responses to the race and no one, I mean no one, is talking about this horse. Maybe I'm biased because I thought he had a good chance at winning, but I seriously thought he put in a stellar performance in this race. He was 3 wide through the first turn, settled nicely, challenged going into the second turn (perhaps a tad early), was 5 wide (actually 6, given the large gaps between horses) coming around the final turn, was held out in the middle of the track by the horse just inside him (when he was obviously trying to get in and save ground), and still hung on for a game third. Not bad for a mere allowance winner previously. I said I thought he was a horse just about to break out of his shell...mark my words...give him even a moderately clean trip and he will.

That being said, I have serious concerns about his ability to run on real dirt as well, and at this point it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that he could never get the graded earnings necessary for a shot at the Derby. Ah, well.

1. Medjool- 3rd
2. Cannonball- 6th
3. Halo Najib- 2nd

Rushaway Stakes

Ho hum...do we really care about the outcome of this race? I was busy entertaining my parents with cheeses and other delectable foodstuffs while it was on and it thoroughly failed to grab my attention. That's saying something. Turns out Big Glen (Cactus Ridge) took it from favored Miner's Claim (Mineshaft), who himself proved that he could come back from his career two wins at two to put in a good performance today. I have no excuses for my poor performance in handicapping, except for the fact that maybe I just didn't care enough.

1. Tejano's Eliminator- 6th
2. Big Glen- 1st
3. Targe- 5th

Let's just forget this week. And that's soooo easy to do, because next week is gonna be a doozy: the Palm Beach Stakes (g.III), the Bonnie Miss (g.II), the hotly contested Florida Derby (g.I) and, of course, the official return of Curlin in the Dubai World Cup (g.I). Put on your lucky racing caps, the season is about to begin.