Notes - Dec 11

- No winners for Gary Contessa with his six runners at Aqueduct on Sunday; three of those were favorites which were all 6-5. Two of those were coming off big figure wins, which is something to keep an eye on. When a barn gets this hot, its horses are sure to get overbet, and they almost become an automatic bet against, unless it's overlooked on the tote.

Lawrence the Roman romped in the Damon Runyan stakes for two-year old state-breds; that gives him three wins in as many starts, by a combined 25 lengths, stretching from six furlongs, to a one-turn mile, to Sunday's mile and a sixteenth. I imagine we'll see him try open company at some point soon; and yes, here's the mention of his possibly being a Derby contender.

Lawrence the Roman is by Point Given, and he's the seventh career stakes winner for the sire. All of those have come this year. Early in the year, it appeared as if the sire could be headed for a breakthrough with Baffert's pair of Point Determined and Point of Impact, but the former has consistently disappointed, while what the hell happened to Point of Impact? In any event, the improved performance by his progeny this year has not been enough to prevent Point Given's stud fee being cut from $50,000 to $30,000 for 2007.

- Score one for the morning line oddsmaker at Hollywood Park. He/she made Boboman (Kingmambo) the 4-1 third choice in the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup on Saturday off a couple of allowance wins. The bettors dismissed him at 9-1, perhaps because he was trying graded stakes for the first time, and with Beyers far below that of the other contenders. They went for TH Approval, but the 3-2 choice had little to offer (and was vanned off) as Boboman rolled home under Garrett Gomez. Winning trainer Richard Mandella noted that "he's come from grade school to Harvard." [LA Times]