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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thursday Notes

- Having a busy end-of-week with little time to post, and other than Lava Man's retirement, not much going on anyhoo. So, DiscreetCat, picker of three winners in a row on this site, gets the front page today:

Saratoga - Race 2

#8 Valiancy (7/2 ml)

Second-time starter for Asmussen finished a late-running second in his Churchill debut after a slow start, finishing 3 lengths clear of the remaining 8 horses. Comes into this race off a heads-up drill with stakes-winning barnmate Noonmark, and Asmussen has already won with a couple of second-time starters at the meet (3 if you count Jardin in the Adirondack Stakes). Today's rider Bridgmohan was aboard both second-time maiden winners, btw. One of those (Cognito) was shipping in off a second-place finish @ Churchill, just like this one.
I'll just add that Pletcher, who got his second first-out juvenile winner of the meet with Double Domino on Wednesday, has the 3-1 ML favorite with the debuting Keep'em Movin Dan, a $875K son of Distorted Humor, and a half to stakes winning Quiet Cash.

As long as I'm having readers provide the content, Glimmerglass checks in on Zappa taking the Cougar Handicap at Del Mar, and gaining a spot alongside the sacred how-dare-I-attack Evening Attire in the BC Marathon.

9 Comments:

El Angelo said...

While I still think 12 furlongs is a bit on the short side to truly be a "marathon", that's going to be a fun race come October, and presumably, every year thereafter. It's not a championship of any sort, but still, kinda neat.

Anonymous said...

Count me as another looking forward to the half marathon, although I doubt Zappa, or any other horse for that matter, was in any danger of being excluded from an event unlikely to overfill.

Superfecta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Superfecta said...

Sorry, edited a bit:

I'm with El Angelo...let me know when we start running 20 furlong races, then we can talk terminology.

Having said that, I still like the idea of the race (and Evening Attire) - I just wish there were more competition.

Anonymous said...

Superfecta
If you can get the replays from Goodwood UK, Twinspires has them, checkout Wednesday's 1st race. 2 5/8 on a beautiful course. Also the 3rd race two American breds, Henrythenavigator vs Raven's Pass.

RG

Anonymous said...

Henrythenavigator is reportedly being pointed at the BC Classic now. We shall see. Wouldn't be a huge shock as O'Brien has run a few other milers in the Classic as well.

Unknown said...

The last one O'Brien ran died on the track. I'm shocked he's trying this again after last year's debacle.

Anonymous said...

Last year's surface was a complete disaster, and bears no relation to the upcoming Pro-Ride version of the Breeders Cup. I don't see why the death of George Washington would be any deterrent here.

Of greater note, i think, would be O'Brien's record with his top-level turf horses in the Classic. Gerorge Washington ran okay a couple of years ago, and of course Giant's Causeway missed by a nose at Churchill, but others such as Hawk Wing and Galileo ran terribly. So, to a large extent, i think he's wasting these horses' best effort in a race that they're not particularly suited for. Maybe it'll be different on a synthetic track, who knows.

Anonymous said...

Larry Jones will be crucified IF he runs Proud Spell, or any other filly, against the colts in the future.

So why should O'Brien get a pass for continually running turf horses on the dirt simply to increase their perceived stud value?

At least Jones did it for sport.