Dave Feldman

No graded stakes that I can see for Sunday, but an interesting non-graded one at Gulfstream tomorrow, the Dave Feldman, a 60K grass race at 1 1/16 miles on the grass for 3yo. Some nice looking turf colts here. Lord Robyn (Robyn Dancer) was hapless on the dirt and was way up the track in a 25K N2L claiming race in October. Switched to the turf, he’s gone wire to wire three times in a row, the most recent in the Grade 3 Tropical Park Derby on New Year’s Day with a career high 95 Beyer, a pretty remarkable turnaround. He’s been out for almost two months, and in the Form it shows a decent 14% win percentage in the 30-60 day category for his trainer David Fawkes; but Formulator shows that all his wins were within 33 days, and the results dropped off sharply as you get towards the upper range. I am getting carried away with this, right? The kids had the PC laptop all day so I’m just getting my hands on it now, since Formulator and Macs are about as compatible as Jose Canseco and half the major leagues. Dubleo (Southern Halo) has a bad post and comes off a nearly three month layoff, which may compromise any edge in class he may have over his abovementioned rival, who breaks from the inside 3. Dubleo, trained by Todd Pletcher, is 4 for 5 with a neck loss on the turf, with a Grade 2 win at Woodbine, and a Grade 3 win in the G3 Generous at Hollywood in his last start; his lifetime best fig is 92. His dam, Secret Red (Secretariat) is a half sister to 1992 champion sprinter Rubiano. Both of these colts want the lead, and that could set things up nicely for a couple a closers. Crown Point (Honor Grades) has a nice post from the 4 spot, and came from off the pace to win the Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont last fall. He hasn’t run since trailing an unchallenged Lord Robyn in the Trop Park Derby, and he should have more pace help today. That was his last race and his trainer’s record with layoffs around 60 days are better than what is shown in the Form. Tadreeb (Theatrical) is a deeper closer than Crown Point, and trailed him in the Pilgrim, then returned 1/29 with a game winning run in an allowance, beating a hot even money Pletcher import from Argentina. He gets Bailey, who will have to maneuver from the 11 post to save some ground, but this looks like a colt ready to improve. He has the same workout pattern as his last of two one-minute breezes, and should be gaining ground through the stretch.

Of course, there's a chance of heavy thunderstorms tomorrow, in which case this could all go down the drain. It was fun though.