Notes - Jan 25

- A coiffure you can't refuse.

- Race of the Day: No, this doesn't mean I'm actually going to pick a Race of the Day everyday, but I have one today, OK? In the fifth at Santa Anita, Fabulous Sun reported home first in a performance that I thought was rather extraordinary. She's a three-year old filly trained by Richard Mandella, who was looking for his first win of the meeting after 17 runners. This daughter of Maria's Mon was making her third start, second on the turf, and ran well enough last time to be sent off as the second choice (though both he and favored Gout de Terroir went off at 3.30-to-1).

Starting from the ten post in a nine furlong grass race, Victor Espinoza was unable to move inside, entered the turn four wide, and actually blew the turn and bore out. 99% of the time, you can rip up your tickets in a case like this. She managed to gain ground coming out of the turn and settled in third. She then proceeded to circle the two in front of her while three wide the entire turn, and edged clear from a host of pursuers, getting the final eighth in 12.04. Quite a performance.

Fabulous Sun is inbred 5x4 to Ribot, and is a half-sister to Colony Band, stakes placed in France, and a stakes winner on the dirt in the U.S. (the Doubledogdare at Keeneland in 2005).

- Alan Shuback, writing in the Form, took Simon Crisford's statement on Discreet Cat as having "defused speculation"...."stating emphatically that the undefeated son of Forestry has the Dubai World Cup as his major early-season goal."

Again, the quote was: "We've got plenty of options....But the plan at this time is to prepare him for the Dubai World Cup." Sounds to me like he's leaving the door open to ducking the race more than just a crack, though perhaps Shuback is more familiar with Godolphin-speak than I.

- And here's one that I really don't understand. Harness driver Eric Ledford, who had his license suspended for 10 1/2 years as a result of the Meadowlands EPO blood doping scandal, his father Seldon, and two others pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance - Equipoise, an anabolic steroid. In return, all of the race-fixing charges were dropped, and there's speculation that Ledford could be back in the bike in a couple of months! But as far as I recall, it was the blood-doping agent Aranesp that was suspected in the drastic reversal of form by the Ledford barn. So the whole thing - the drugs and syringes found "all over the house," and the sudden form reversals all seem to have added up to next to nothing.