Highland Cat Tries Again

- Highland Cat goes in the ninth at the Big A on Friday; it’s a one-turn mile for maidens with claiming tags of 50 down to 40K. It’s the lowest level yet for our not-that-fleet grey gelding, and he’ll meet nothing like horses like Great Point, Flashy Bull, and Greeley’s Legacy that he’s been crushed by before. Nor even Scots Pine, the even money winner of his last effort. He’s worked really well since then, including a bullet (of 11) half in :47 4/5. Our trainer Bill Turner says that he disliked the loose inner track and will do better on the main; and he feels he’ll like the slop that is likely given tomorrow’s forecast.

But if he doesn’t like getting hit in the face with dirt, which is evident to me from watching his races, I can’t imagine he’ll relish mud in the face either. The biggest disappointment to me about Highland Cat is that he’s never shown the speed from the gate that the trainer and his exercise riders were confident he would when he was training for his debut up at Saratoga last summer. He breaks from the outside nine post on Friday, and that’s a good post for this distance; if he can get away from the gate, and if he does relish slop, perhaps he’ll improve. The problem is that even at this level, he’s just plain slower than others. Forest Phantom improved markedly in his debut for the Contessa barn. Kris’s Affair has two seconds at this level and a 74 Beyer two back. Honored Nation closed well for third at this level in his last and stretches out from six furlongs.

I still think that our horse will do better on the turf; he has the breeding for it. If he’s unsuccessful tomorrow, we’re told that he’ll try it next time. Still, the trainer is confident and my man at the barn says we should be no worse than third. We’ll see.

- Paul Moran in Newsday writes of recent Derby winners that the conventional wisdom….is mired in a long losing streak. With Barbaro expected to be one of the favorites, one of those conventional wisdoms, that a five-week layoff it too long, will get perhaps its biggest test of recent years. Because the fact is that, as detailed by Watchmaker in the Form (sub. only), only 19 horses have even attempted it in the last ten years, and an even closer look finds that most of them had far less imposing credentials than Barbaro will. Most of them, in fact, were rank outsiders; only three started at odds of less than 10-1. Interestingly, two of those, Stephen Got Even (1999, 5-1) and Perfect Drift (2002, 7-1) had last raced in, and won, the Lane’s End. The other, High Fly, was, in my opinion, an extremely dubious 7-1 last year, especially considering that his own jockey, Jerry Bailey, had publicly expressed doubt about the horse’s ability to get the distance.

- David Hofmans will have two starters in Grade 1 races on Saturday; Sacred Light goes in the Santa Anita Derby, and Balance will race in the Ashland at Keeneland. Guess where he’ll be? He decided to make the trip to Lexington because Balance "needs a little special attention because she can be a handful." [Louisville Courier-Journal] Perhaps he doesn’t want to hurt Sacred Light’s feelings; I’d guess that he’d be at Keeneland even if Balance could saddle herself. The filly worked a leisurely half in 51 seconds yesterday. "It was a good little blowout….I just wanted to take the edge off." [Lexington Herald Reader]

In 1997, Hofmans faced a similar situation when he had Touch Gold running in the Haskell on the same day as Awesome Again was going in the Jim Dandy. Both horses won that day. It’s unlikely that the same will happen on Saturday (though man, Sacred Light's pp’s sure are reminiscent of those of Giacomo). Brother Derek has been installed as the 3-5 favorite, and all systems are go for the prospective Derby favorite. Dan Hendricks told the Courier-Journal: “He's fresh and going into the race with what I hope is a lot more in reserve. He seems to be advancing -- and he needs to."

Of course, he doesn’t need to win, and he’ll face a couple of horses who showed nice improvement in their last race in AP Warrior and Point Determined. I could be persuaded to take a little shot against the favorite here.

- At least one prominent and knowledgeable horseman doesn’t think much of this crop of three year olds. The Team Valor website tells us that their president Barry Irwin has barely seen a legitimate Grade 1 horse in the crop, let alone a horse up to normal Classic standard. He thinks the only true Classic horse in the crop could be Discreet Cat, who has run but twice [now three times] and currently is training in Dubai. Team Valor has purchased a French colt named Oh So Awesome (Awesome Again) with an eye to the Belmont. “Can you imagine what will be left of this bunch by the time the Belmont Stakes is run?” Oh So Awesome is scheduled to run in France this weekend, and if all goes well, he’ll try the “off the plane” strategy in the Belmont that Irwin used with My Memoirs, who ran second to AP Indy in 1992.