Zenyatta blows by Gio Ponti in route to Horse of the Year honors.
Today’s race of the day break down takes us to Santa Anita. It’s a small group of allowance runners going a mile on the turf and many of them are making pretty big class drops. Get the free past performances here compliments of Daily Racing Form.
#1 — Yorktown — this 5 year old bred in France by Red Ransom from Wedding Night looks to be the right one for the race. Rosario chooses to stay with him and gives up other contenders but Motion is 0 for 5 so far at the meet.
#2 — Monzante – this one gets back to basics for Mitchell. As one of the serious droppers his 2 to 1 price appears to be worthy based on his performance in the BC Turf when only trailing Conduit by four lengths across the finish line. After three G1 races at longer distances he’s dropping to where he can win and will be flying late.
#3 — Red Alert Day — third time Joe Talamo with a win over the track last month. He has the ability to show speed over longer distance after adding blinkers three races back and we think he’s the one.
#4 — Tres Borrachos — We used to like this guy and gave him many chances at the window over the years. Espinoza remains in the saddle but the more we think about it the more we don’t like Ecton Park offspring except maybe this one on a sloppy track. Not today anyway.
#5 — Sir Dave — he’s an Untuttable 5 year old NW4 who’s 0 for 2 over Santa Anita’s turf course. He’s dropping down from graded races but Rosario sticks with Yorktown. Carava is doing well but is 0 for 6 with Mike Smith in Arcadia.
#6 — Dakota Phone — not particularly fond of Zavata offspring on any surface but he did break his maiden over the Hollywood turf course with Bejarano in ’08. He made his drop into the allowance ranks in his last and gets Bejarano for this.
Our selection:
#3 Red Alert Day — we like this one in memory of Bobby Frankel but that’s not the only reason. He added blinkers and looks to be a different horse. Look for Joe Talamo to put him into the race early and the Santa Anita race last year at this level makes him the likely winner.
