Going West

- With opening day at the Spa out of the way and, especially, having seen the entries for what looks on first glance like two excellent betting cards at Del Mar for the weekend, my thoughts are drifting west. I'm still in New York, but my mind is somewhere over the divide between the Central and Mountain time zones. Full fields, two year olds, impossible looking graded stakes....why it almost seems like....Saratoga!

Except on Polytrack. Any idea that the track was starting to play faster there was dispelled on Wednesday, as the times slowed to a virtual canter - a mile and a sixteenth in 1:48.2; a 48.3 half in a 5 1/2 furlong race; a mile in 1:41.3! And though some winners were close to the pace, none wired the field, and I think it's fair to say that that's the prevailing, and increasingly familiar trend when it comes to Polytrack. Looking back through the charts going back to Thursday, I see only four winners who led at every call. Being naturally inclined to betting closers and stalkers, I should feel right at home in my first ever Del Mar appearance.

Bob Baffert is bringing his three-year old EZ Warrior back against older horses in Sunday's Grade 1 Bing Crosby; quite an ambitious spot! He'll be facing the likes of Bordanaro, Battle Won, 2005 Crosby winner Greg's Gold, In Summation, trying the Poly for Clement, and Declan's Moon, coming off his first win since March of 2005. Baffert is either losing his mind or knows something about his son of Exploit that we can only imagine. There had been some speculation that Surf Cat would run in the Crosby, but he did not turn up in the entries.