The Works

- A bunch of workouts today, including the likely Classic favorite Saint Liam.

He broke off slowly and was in no hurry as he coasted through opening fractions of :13 2/5, :26 2/5, and :38. With [Rudy] Rodriguez still sitting virtually motionless, Saint Liam began to pour it on with his ears still cocked. He was still going so smoothly and easily, it was hard to believe he was coming home his final quarter in :23 3/5 and last eighth in :11 3/5. [Bloodhorse]

Rock Hard Ten galloped a mile and a half at Santa Anita with a new shoe on his bruised left front foot. For more details on all the works, try the links in the Breeders’ Cup section in the sidebar – Haskin, DRF Clocker Notes, NYRA BC Notes, Sporting Life, etc.,

Also, TVG is once again presenting The Works at 11 each morning, and endless replays in the early morning hours. I heard one of their guys urge us all to tune in to get a clearer picture of the Breeders’ Cup, but all I get when I see great-looking horses working out great and read or hear every trainer talk about how great their horse worked out is confused. If I had made my Derby bets according to the comments on The Works, I would have had Bandini squarely on top, used horses such as Noble Causeway and High Fly in my exotics, and had Afleet Alex and Closing Argument completely off my tickets. (That means that I would have had a similar losing result to what I ended up with anyway). I’m actually trying to NOT pay too much attention to the workouts this week, unless I read that so-and-so didn’t handle the soft turf course or something like that. These races will not be won or lost on the training track this week.

Let’s check out some of the comments from trainers of horses who worked or galloped this morning.

Paul McGee (Suave): “just fine”
Nick Zito (Sun King): “went very well”
Richard Dutrow (Saint Liam): “he’s doing good”
Murray Johnson (Perfect Drift): “he’s doing super”
Beau Greeley (Borrego): “he went very well”
Jeff Mullins (Choctaw Nation): “He's doing everything the way we want him to”
Tom Tomillo (Lord of the Game): "He looked like he finished up real good”
Bill Mott (Shakespeare): “He handled the ground well and finished nicely”
Neil Drysdale (Fourty Niners Son): “He's doing very well”

The point is that these are good horses, and they’re here because they’re doing well for the most part, so it’s expected that they will make favorable impressions in the morning. The news will be when one doesn’t, and even that has been known to lead bettors down the wrong path at times.