First Dance A Doozy

After getting off to a slow start, Dance Tale ($3.80) just powered by the field in the stretch to win her debut going away. She ran the final two eights in 11.88 and 11.89. She would seem to have a lot of potential; and that makes us owners of her full sister pretty excited, having visions of grandeur as we are for a horse we don't even own. Her final time of 1:11.52 compares favorably with the rest of the day's sprints, especially considering the slow start and her being geared down at the end.

Not quite as favorably though as Karakorum Fugitive (Ten Most Wanted), a state-bred three-year old filly who also broke slow and drew away late, and also won in her third first start, with a final time of 1:11.21. This was another winner for jockey Anna Rose Napravnik, her third of the weekend....and for trainer Jimmy Jerkens, it was his third winner from nine starters on the inner track.

Nkosi Reigns ($5.80) was another class dropping winner for David Jacobson.

Cal Racing has changed the format of their replays, and I can't find the head-on shots, if they still have them. And NYRA's race replays, via Race Replays.com, just don't work for me, no matter how many times I download Real Player, not on Firefox, Safari, or Explorer, Windows or Mac. So I haven't seen the head-on shot of what happened in deep stretch of Sunday's 9th race.

I did have a dog in the hunt, as I selected runner-up Indymine here, and had a rare straight win bet, away from the action as I was today. So while I may not be exactly impartial here, I must say that, even upon my initial viewing of the standard pan shot, it did seem that something happened to make jockey Orlando Bocachica and his mount suddenly lose the momentum that I thought was going to carry them, and me, to victory. So, lacking all of the necessary visual aids, I'll take the word of the three of the four commenters who say he should have come down, and say....he should have come down!

Pumpkin Shell ($26.80) was dead last down the backstretch in the Busanda on Saturday. She snuck up on the field between horses down towards the inside, evading the notice of track announcer John Imbriale until she was already well on her way to the win. This is a three-year old daughter of Lion Heart, who ended up as #2, behind Tapit, on the 2008 first-year sire earnings list. His 33 winners were the most of any rookie other than Chapel Royal, who had 37. Pumpkin Shell is the fifth stakes winner for Lion Heart. Out of Changing Ways, a graded stakes winning daughter of Time for a Change, she's a half-sister to the grassy stakes winner Pays To Dream (High Yield); and this is the distaff family of Tejano Run, Husband, Simply Majestic, The Deputy, and the Japanese champion King Kamehameha. Wouldn't be surprised to see her on grass at some point.