Friday Night Notes - Jan 20

- I’m going to miss HRTV when I dump Dish Network. Dish the only provider that doesn’t carry the Yankees’ YES network nor the National Hockey League on OLN, so I’ll be switching sometime between the end of the prime winter season at Gulfstream and Santa Anita and springtime baseball and hockey playoffs.

Bob and John was solid winning his allowance race today at 3-5. I could buy into Baffert’s description of him as a horse that’s slowly but surely developing physically and mentally, on the kind of pace that would have him peak sometime around May 6. He has the kind of classic pedigree that I find myself drawn to (and that haven’t won many Derbys lately). Repeating from a previous post:

Bob and John is a blue-blooded Stonerside homebred, by Seeking the Gold out of graded stakes winner Minister’s Melody (Deputy Minister), and a half-brother to 2005 NY stakes winner Connie Belle. Bob and John’s third dam is Too Bald, the dam of Exceller, Capote, and Baldski.

It was a pretty easy race for him, as he got to stalk a slow pace and was hand ridden home. Baffert said that he was goofing around a bit in the stretch when he opened up. I like the foundation this horse is getting. I feel as if he's improving and I like the way Baffert is handling him, getting him races while starting him slowly this year. Hmm, am I getting the first little tinge of excitement about a possible Derby horse? I’ll check him out in next week’s future pool; perhaps he’s still a bit under the radar, having been beaten fairly soundly by Brother Derek and Your Tent Or Mine in the Futurity. (If you needed any further confirmation of the quality of Your Tent Or Mine, Bob and John’s win should suffice.)

- John Servis served notice that he’s ready for a big meet at Oaklawn on an opening day attended by 21,913. His Jolted and Jostled (Storm Cat – Jostle) graduated in his third try, overcoming an extremely wide trip in a slow 1:40 3/5 on a track that was definitely not glib. Then, in the feature, Fidrych, making his first start since October, broke slowly, was four wide on the turn, but managed to rally gamely for third in the Dixieland Stakes.