- The Green Monkey continues to train for his debut, but has been left behind at Belmont, at least for now. He worked five furlongs in 1.03:22 (23/29) there on Tuesday; perhaps he's a bit depressed at being left alone. $16 million colts can get lonely too, y'know. Pletcher told the NY Times that the colt will make his debut later in the Saratoga meet.
“Usually colts bought in 2-year-old sales are hard to train because they have been taught mostly to go fast....This horse has been easy to teach so far. But there is a lot expected from this horse, and when I take him over there.”- The Haskell, to be run a week from Sunday, is drawing a nice field despite the Jim Dandy being run the week before. A field of nine is expected, including Bluegrass Cat, second in the Belmont, Strong Contender, Deputy Glitters, Awfully Smart, and Praying for Cash. John Ward told the Asbury Park Press that the Monmouth track is better suited for Strong Contender. "Strong Contender tends to like a harder racetrack....When he runs or works on a deeper surface, he doesn't like it. He likes to hear his feet rattle, so that's one reason we decided on the Haskell for him.”
One horse whose feet we most definitely do not want to hear rattling is Barbaro. The latest word is that his infected foot is doing as “well as can be expected,” which is about as good a report as we can expect. "Over the last several days, his temperature has been normal and his blood work has significantly improved, suggesting that the infection in his right hind is under control." [Thoroughbred Times]
4 Comments:
...posted twice over the Saratoga site, but apparently neither one took, as it's been a couple of days now and they never did appear...oh well...
...huge effort by the Biancone 2nd-time starter City Snitch today...his fractional times compare very favorably with both Rondo and Star Dabbler...in fact, he finished up a good bit faster than did Rondo (though i'm sure that one was well within himself)...haven't seen the chart from the stakes race yet, but i'm guessing he'll have outrun them also...incidentally, City Snitch was getting POUNDED at the windows, and ended up going off the favorite...i found that to be a bit surprising, considering the wealth of talent signed up for this one...i guess the word was out...
....quick note regarding Rondo's fractional times...when i say that City Snitch finished up a good bit faster, i was referring to the 5-furlong split...City Snitch got there a full second faster, after posting a near-identical half-mile...however, Rondo finished up with a final furlong in 11.39 seconds, according to the charts...there may be a typo on Rondo's 5-furlong split, as the 5th furlong looks too slow (12.82), and the 6th furlong looks too fast (11.39)...in any case, City Snitch ran equally well as Rondo did today...and much better than the stakes horses (i just saw the chart from the Schuylerville)...
Walter,
City Snitch indeed got pounded at the windows. And while I didn't see the Rondo splits because of a malfunction in the tote board I was watching. And yes, people were talking about the final fraction in Rondo's race - 11.39.
I'll report your experience with the comments to the webmaster; that shouldn't be.
A few notes on opening day:
First, it looks like a lot of fun up there, from my living room it looked like a carnival atmosphere as opposed to hard core gambling.
Second, I thought the main track played very fast, and the bias was more of a rail than a speed bias, with the lone closer to win doing so up the rail in a terrific ride by Castellano.
Third, Santo is riding horrible, use his horses at your own risk.
Last, Shippers are being overbet, especially Frankel. There were not many of them on Day 1 due to preponderance of NY Bred races, but it appears that you can find value by downgrading shippers chances and instead playing last out Belmont runners.
In the past, this angle has worked very well for me in the first few weeks, it then reverses later in the meet when the shippers have had time to adjust.
Good luck to all. - E
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