Friday Morning Notes - Feb 8

- Whatever you do, don't miss checking out the replay of Thursday's 8th at Aqueduct, available at Cal Racing amongst other outlets. You'd think it was the first rather than his sixth start for Be Bullish, as greenly as he raced. After being bumped and steadied at the start, he suddenly shied towards the rail - you have to watch the head on to see. It's a wonder that jockey Chuck Lopez stayed aboard. Then, from dead last, he bore out turning for home and went about a million wide, and not only rallied to win, but did so going away. Unreal. And to think, Teresa wanted to go in part because he was running, but instead went to work and then to a crappy hockey game.

At Gulfstream, the 7th was a maiden race in which only one of the ten entrants had ever started. And guess what, the bettors were right on the nose, as the favorite and second choice ran 1-2. How do they do that? The exacta returned $15.40, and there's just no way you can tell me that's a good bet on two horses that had never started! (Not that I haven't done it myself.)

Understatement, the 5-2 morning line favorite was bet down to 6-5 for the Toddster. This Triple Crown-nominated son of Distorted Humor was purchased as a yearling by Winstar for $1.05 million. He's a half-brother to the Black-Eyed Susan winner Roar Emotion, out of a Capote half-sister to Mayakovsky. Nice wire-to-wire win in a snappy 1:09.28, final 1/8th in 12.07. Runner-up and second choice Keep Laughing, 5-2 for McLaughlin, is also by Distorted Humor; he's a half-brother, out of the graded stakes winner It's Personal (Personal Flag), to It's No Joke.