Easter Sunday

- A maiden won the G3 Palm Beach at 9f on the turf yesterday. I don’t imagine that this race will be graded next year; out of the eight horses in the field, three had one or no wins, and only one, Killenaule, had any kind of stakes win on his resume, and that was on the dirt. Interpatation (Langfuhr), was making his 7th start, and had run second twice, and lit up the board at 39-1 when he nosed out the 4-5 favorite Tadreeb.

- Todd Pletcher on his up and down, or actually down and up afternoon at Turfway yesterday.

"You get beat with a 2-5 shot (in an earlier stakes), then you win the half-million (race) with a horse making his third start."
.......
"He's a tremendous horse," said [jockey Jorge] Chavez. "He's still green. His next race will be better. I was shocked when he was dropping back. I said, 'I know the horse has more guts than that.' Then he started running again. I said, 'Oh, my gosh.'

"Down the backside, he was jumping, jumping. I knew I had plenty of horse, but he didn't want to pay attention. He was going sideways, was everywhere. Even with all that, he still won the race." [Louisville Courier-Journal]

A serious new face for the Derby? Doesn’t sound from this that he was one who benefitted from the track condition yesterday; Pletcher had also said that the kickback on the wet track was particularly distracting to the colt.

He’s a son of Distorted Humor, the sire of Funny Cide, out of a mare by Lycius, a son of Mr. Prospector, to whom he’s inbred 3x3, top and bottom - his sire and dam are his grandkids. He’s also inbred 4x4 to Northern Dancer. His dosage index is 1.73, and he comes from a line of mares that are very classy as far as their foal production goes, if not so much so on the racetrack. His fifth dam is Goofed, the dam of Lyphard, and he’s also from the family of millionaire Urbane, as well as multiple stakes winners No Review and Dance Colony.

Cat Shaker, the winner of the Rushaway yesterday, is by yet another sire son of Storm Cat, Catienus, who stands in New York for $3500 to approves mares, for the Ramseys. He is also inbred to both Northern Dancer (4x4) and Mr. Prospector (3x4), and also comes from a female family that has fared far better as broodmares than as racemares. His 4th dam, Home By Dark, is the dam of 1968 champion 3 yo filly Dark Mirage; and his 3rd dam, Grey Mirage, is the granddam of multiple graded stakes winners Missys Mirage and Classy Mirage.

- It’s Easter Sunday, and apparently a lot more racing going on around the country that I thought...but not for me. It’s a family day, so have a great holiday and arrive at your destinations safely.