The Works

- I hope you’re getting to watch The Works on TVG; it will be on two more days (Wed-Thurs) at 11:30 A.M. Eastern time, repeated at 9 PM Wed and 8:30 PM Thurs. Todd Schrmph, or whatever his name is, hosts, with Frank Lyons and Tom Amoss doing a great job. This is Emmy material as far as I’m concerned! Just watched Afleet Alex’s workout, and wow, Jeremy Rose was absolutely motionless, and you saw the time he registered. At least one reader, Mike E, wrote in the comments section that he does think that Alex will be favored, and I wouldn’t be totally shocked if he’s right, so powerful and appealing are the stories surrounding him. You could get at least three separate movies about the people connected to this horse, with Tom Hammond as Tim Ritchey. My qualms about him are the inexperience of his rider, and I just don’t know that 10 furlongs will be his best distance based on his breeding.

Lyons and Amoss continued to tout Wilko, who made a spright appearance galloping on the track. Tonight they interspersed stretch runs of the preps with the works/gallops, and they showed the SA Derby, in which once again in my opinion, he had no excuse, despite his wide trip. He had dead aim on two horses he should’ve passed. Jill Byrne did a piece on Sun King, showing his work and his daily consistent gallops since then; she said that “nothing changes for this horse.” But he’s going to have to change his figs drastically upward in order to be competitive. His trip in the Blue Grass really was ridiculous; the Form comment line has him “7-8w lane.” Still, he never threatened. He was also, for what it ‘s worth, dead on the board, just getting bet to 3-1 at the end after being 5-1 earlier, and his race made the Beyer folks look real good.

Sun King is a son of Derby winner Charismatic, out of Clever But Costly, an extremely successful Clever Trick mare who has also produced stakes winners Ocean Drive and Traitor, and is the granddam of millionaire Peeping Tom, and stakes winners Hurricane Bertie and AllAmerican Bertie. Charismatic is inbred to Secretariat’s dam Somethingroyal, and Clever But Costly adds another cross of his broodmare sire and distance influence Princequillo; Sun King also has inbreeding to Northern Dancer and his 3/4 brother Icecapade. I don't think his breeding is an issue. But while he was once considered Zito’s best, but I’d say he ranks number 4 at this point.

- Kudos to B. Wayne Hughes, who bid $37,000 for a season to Northern Afleet, with the proceeds going to Alex’s Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer (and a nod to Afleet Alex’s owners for helping to bid up the price). Still, I don’t like either of his horses; Greeley’s Galaxy never raced as a 2 year old and needs more experience; and again, if after all this Don’t Get Mad comes in and wins off a week layoff, I’m going to seriously consider changing the topic of this blog to something that makes sense.