Yikes!

- Whether or not you fully appreciated Lava Man's win in the Hollywood Gold Cup, you just MUST check out this photo taken right at the start, via the Final Turn Gallery. As a poster on the Derby List said, YIKES!

- The 4th race at Belmont on Sunday was pretty cool; one of those six furlong grass races for maidens that we'll surely be seeing a lot of at Saratoga. I mentioned Left Me Breathless after her last start, when she was dead on the board in her debut at 17-1 despite a stellar turf pedigree. She closed a ton for second that day, so it was no surprise that she was the 3-2 favorite here.

But a couple of first time starters attracted a lot of money. Dowell House is trained by Todd Pletcher, so what do you expect? Plus, she’s by Danzig out of Pico Teneriffe, a multiple graded stakes winner on grass. She was the 7-2 second choice. John Ward had a first-timer too. Ocean Fever was the 4th choice at 5-1. At $450,000, she's another high-priced Oxley/Ward purchase, but a look at Formlator showed that for Ward to send one out on the grass first-time is very rare - to the tune of just twice over the last three years. She's by Fusaichi Pegasus (still looking for his second North American stakes winner of the year - his Shermanesque was second in the Bashford Manor on Saturday), out of Ocean Cat, a stakes winning daughter of Storm Cat. Her second dam is the Grade 1 (Matron, Delaware Oaks) winner Pacific Princess.

But the firsters were no factor, as longshot Brouhaha opened up a big lead, and managed to hold off Left Me Breathless, who no doubt will benefit from a stretchout. The Frank Alexander-trainee is from a more modest background - by Mecke, and a "mere" $130,000 two-year old purchase; but she has a little turf pedigree of her own, being inbred 4x4 to Dr. Fager, and 5x5 to Tom Fool.

- Thanks to reader Stalusk for visiting, and for pointing out that Grey Swallow has been sold to Australian interests and is done racing in the U.S, at least for now. He's due to be shipped down under later this month, and will be prepared for a start in the W. S. Cox Plate (Aus-G1), Australasia's weight-for-age championship, in October. [Thoroughbred Times]