Notes - Oct 23

Two more winners for Levine on Thursday, he's 11 for 39 at the meeting. He won the 4th with bombshell The Mailet ($88), and it occurred to me that you don't often see this barn win at prices like that. So, since I have nothing better to do, I checked out Formulator, and check this out (if you care, of course). Levine has won 465 races in the last three years, and this was by far the longest odds (23-1 was the previous high). Only 11 of those 465 winners went off at double digit odds, while 143, or 31%, were even money or less. Another 127 were less than 2-1. With a median payout of $5.55, not a barn one can make much money on.

Unless you had The Mailet. This two-year old filly was making her first grass start after two dismal dirt tries; she's by Rock Hard Ten, out of a Smarten mare who is a half-sister to the G1 winners Stellar Jayne and Starrer. The sire is struggling in his first year, with his fee down to $30,000 from 50K. The Mailet was just his 4th North American winner; he has a stakes winner in the UK.

Kitten's Joy has been far more successful in his rookie year at around half the price; 15 winners, 4th on the first-year sire list. Gary West writes of two of his progeny, trained by Michael Maker, who are competing at Retama this weekend with an eye on the Breeders Cup juvenile turf races. Kera's Kitten is a colt out of a Dixieland Band mare, and a half-brother to Talent Search, third in the Sprint in 2007. Lisas Kitten is a filly out of a Woodman mare with some interesting inbreeding for grass - 5x4 to Buckpasser, 5x5 to Tom Fool.