Archive for February, 2009

« Older Entries

Quality Road Adds Lasix To Win Fountain Of Youth

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Quality Road was being touted as a Derby contender early in the season after winning his maiden start at 6 1/2 furlongs. In that race he earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure but was bet down and beaten by Theregoesjojo as the heavy favorite to open his three year old campaign.

Today he turned the tables on Theregoesjojo by winning the Fountain Of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park with John Velasquez riding for the first time.

The surprise of the race came when Edgar Prado put This Ones for Phil on the lead from the 12 hole. The fractions were fast through the first half mile as Velasquez stalked in second down the backside. Turning for home Quality Road had the leader in his sights and Theregoesjojo was on the move. By the eighth pole, Quality Road had taken the lead and was going away in the end to win handily.

Theregoesjojo looked to be rallying strongly but was no match for the winner while finishing well ahead of Beethoven who closed late to get third. Capt. Candyman was the luke warm favorite and ran fourth.

We had selected Theregoesjojo, the son of Brahms, to beat Quality Road today but after seeing the race we consider the 1 1/4 mile Derby distance to be too far for him. Our exacta payoff was $77.20 for the $2.00 ticket.

Quality Road is the son of Elusive Quality who sired Kentucky Derby winner, Smarty Jones, and Breeder’s Cup Classic winner, Raven’s Pass.

Several other runners in the Fountain of Youth were expected to show more but were ‘run off the road’ as we continue to follow Quality Road to the Derby.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Gulfstream Park, Kentucky Derby | No Comments »

Free Pick in the Fountain Of Youth Stakes

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Today, the road to the 2009 Kentucky Derby continues with several stakes races for 3 year old horses including the Fountain of Youth Stakes which will be run at 1 mile for the first time ever and the field is full of contenders and some pretenders.

Click here for free past performances for the Fountain Of Youth.

In handicapping the race, there are three horses entered who have not run a stakes race to date. One of those, Take The Points, is scratched. That leaves #2 Theregoesjojo and #11 Quality Road as the two newcomers to the stakes scene. They both exit a money allowance race in which Theregoesjojo defeated Quality Road as the prohibitive favorite.

Trained by Kenny McPeek, who is only 5% in graded stakes races, Theregoesjojo will be ridden by Kent Desormeaux and is listed at 15 to 1. Quality Road, who may have bled last time, gets Lasix for this race and will be ridden by John Velasquez. He opens at 8 to 1, and for those of you unfamiliar with morning line odds — 8 to 1 is sort of like saying ‘he has a shot’.

The are several speed horses led by Notonthesamepage, Taqarub, and Quality Road and should set up nicely for one of the closers.

The odds maker has made This Ones for Phil the 3 to 1 morning line favorite after posting a 116 Beyer in the Sunshine Million Dash. You may recall there were several trainers who questioned how This Ones for Phil could go improve his Beyer number by 40 points after switching to Richard Dutrow’s barn. On paper, he looks like he has enough conditioning but his early races were in the claiming ranks and unless Dutrow can turn This Ones for Phil into Big Brown I don’t see him beating Dunkirk or Old Fashioned down the line.

Today’s free horse race pick in the Fountain Of Youth is the longshot Theregoesjojo.

Exacta Box: 2, 11, 12

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Gulfstream Park | No Comments »

Il Postino Strengthens Dunkirk As Derby Favorite

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

If you were betting at Gulfstream Park today chances are you took notice of the winner in the 5th race, Il Postino, who won in a romp by 12 lengths.

Normally, I wouldn’t think much of a horse who was purchased in September ’07 for $300,000 at a Keeneland yearling sale, and who only beat $20,000 claimers today — but this horse is trained by Todd Pletcher and ran against Warrior’s Reward in a maiden special weight on January 31.

If you’re not familiar with Warrior’s Reward, I had mentioned him in an earlier post when he ran second to Dunkirk who I have made my favorite for this years Kentucky Derby.

Warrior’s Reward beat Il Postino by 12+ lengths on 1/31 then came back to run a winning race while finishing second to the spectacular Dunkirk. After seeing Il Postino crush the field he faced today I went back to see just how strong of an effort Warrior’s Reward was against Dunkirk. You should watch it again because Warrior’s Reward was sitting in fifth down along the rail then moved outside of Dunkirk and looked to have had plenty in the tank for the stretch run but there was no way he was going to beat Dunkirk.

Today, Il Postino was 5/2 going a mile for the $20K tag under John Velasquez. He broke well then settled back into about sixth down the backside. Going into the far turn Velasquez had him on the move and he did it with ease going from sixth to third to first before they hit the top of the stretch then drew off down the lane.

I have long been a fan of the “key race” angle and consider the January 31 maiden win by Warrior’s Reward a key race. More importantly, I consider Dunkirk’s allowance win over Warrior’s Reward to be a phenomenal race.

What do you think?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Gulfstream Park, Kentucky Derby | No Comments »

Pick 6 Pool at Santa Anita Close To $2,000,000

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

One of the things that synthetic racing does is create huge exotic wagering pools. Today’s Pick 6 at Santa Anita is going to get close to $2 million dollars. Here’s our ticket:

3
1,4,5
2,5
6,7
7
7,8,13

The total bet is $72

Posted in Fair Grounds | No Comments »

« Older Entries