Red Rocks the Turf

- In the Turf, Better Talk Now might have thought it was like old times and that it was Shake the Bank, rather than Icy Atlantic playing the rabbit up front. The latter served more as a target than a bunny in the Turf Classic, going 51.1 and 1:16.1. Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey, talking before the race, discussed just that. Moss warned that if Icy Atlantic went too fast, it would set the race up for horses from way back. Bailey said that if you see the horse tossing his head around then "Johnny's in trouble."

And though Pletcher said afterwards that "Icy Atlantic did his job,” Frankie Dettori, on the winner Red Rocks, said, "Beyond my wildest dreams, I didn't expect a furious pace like they did go today." [Courier-Journal] And “That was a crazy pace. I knew they couldn’t keep up that pace. They were going ridiculously fast." [Equibase] And both ESPN commentators were right on. English Channel fought Velazquez through the stretch the first time, and perhaps the rider was unable to put him on the rail when he had a chance prior to that, approaching the first of the three turns. He ended up wide on all three turns, relatively close to the pace, and actually ran a fantastic race to be third. As Moss predicted, it was the horses that were third and second to last who finished 1-2.

Hurricane Run was pounded at the windows in the last few minutes, going from 7-2 to 5-2, and that's a lot of Euros to cause a move like that. But, as related by the UK's Guardian, he put up a moody show and trailed home sixth. English Channel was the slight favorite over Cacique, both at 7-2, and the latter, my most confident selection of the day, was awful, putting in a move on the turn, but fading back to 10th, yuck! Seemed like the race was a quarter mile too long for him. Prado said that he "pulled me every step of the way and tired from those efforts. Yeah, whatever.

In my opinion, Red Rocks was the most inexplicable winner of the day. For one thing, he was 9-1 morning line, and I don't know if I've ever seen that before. I admit that I don't know much about European racing, and most everything I do know I learned from Walter. But it just seemed to me that Red Rocks was clearly a cut below even an off-form Hurricane Run, certainly Scorpion off his Grade 1 wins last year. Plus, he's a three-year old, and one who, at least the way I read the Euro form lines, was not really improving, and seemed a notch below Grade 1.

Many feel that that's plenty enough class to beat the top American horses, and it's hard to argue with the results over the years. This one may be more attributable to the circumstances of the race though, especially since Better Talk Now, who has clearly slowed down a bit this year, lost by just a half-length. So, Red Rocks is one that I really didn't get; even Miesque's Approval made more sense to me. (OK Walter, let me have it.)

As we've mentioned, Red Rocks is a son of the English and Irish Derby winner and champion Galileo; and he has unusual breeding in that he's very closely inbred, 2x3, to Sadler's Wells (the sire of Galileo) and his full brother Fairy King. He's also inbred to Mr. Prospector, Hail to Reason, and Native Dancer.