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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Belmont Wednesday

Racing in New York may have been saved, but that does not change the present circumstance of the competitive purse imbalance with Monmouth, nor the attractive prizes offered in Pennsylvania. So quality, and quantity, may still suffer over the short-term....and perhaps until sometime next year when/if slots finally arrive. No less than five maiden claimers on today's Belmont card; with a cheap restricted state-bred claimer thrown in for good measure, yuck.

So it's slim pickens, but let's try the fifth, a nicely competitive restricted claimer on the grass, actually one of my favorite kind of races around here these days. Hangingonaprayer (5-1) steps up off a win off a layoff, and stretches out to a mile for the ridiculously hot Carlos Martin. With his last eight starters, this guy has four winners, and three close seconds at odds of 6-1, 8-1, and 14-1. Five-year old daughter of Grand Slam showed some improved form towards the end of last year after switching from the barn of Phil Serpe. A bounce is a concern here after a tough drive at six furlongs in her comeback win; and her last three wins have come at that distance. But she graduated at a mile and a sixteenth, had two pretty good efforts routing last fall after the trainer change; and finds a race with little pace in which she should have good position. So we'll go with the hot barn; but insist at odds at or close to her morning line. Higher Incentive (3-1) is a hard-trying seven-year old who drops to a level at which she should be right there for Gary Contessa and Ramon; but she also has done her best recent running at shorter. Interesting equipment change on morning line choice Double Dinghy Day (5-2); blinkers go on for Frank Alexander for the first time in her 29 race career despite coming off two bang-up efforts, the last at this level. Strictly one to beat. Good luck and have a great day.

11 Comments:

El Angelo said...

Shake Shack at Saratoga! Best NYRA related news this year.

steve in nc said...

Hate to be a chalk-eating weasel, but on Sheets, Hanginonaprayer's best #s are sprinting. Same's true for Higher Incentive but the difference isn't so stark. HI looks ready to give a nice effort and has a repeated route turf top about 4 points faster than your horse on Sheets. The other chalk, DDD looks about as good as HI. Bad card - hard for me to find a play today, except maybe High Prize in race 9. What were they smokin when they made him 30-1 in the ML? Maybe between 4-1 and 6-1.

Alan Mann said...

Tough beat for me, thought I had it at a fair price. Trainer continues to be worth following though.

steve in nc said...

Yes indeed. Too bad it wasn't 7f for you. My horses ran like.... well, they didn't. But there were no prices on them so I didn't either.

Looks like I owe the ML maker, who at NYRA is really good, an apology. High Prize in the 9th will be long, judging from DD prices. I know the connections are giving up on their investment in him, never a good sign. But he should do much better on turf and there isn't much here.

Anonymous said...

Monmouthguy says: Not only today Alan is a tough beat for you. Everyday you play horse's is a tough beat. How about some of those hunch bets for tommorrow at your favorite 3000 claiming race tracks.

steve in nc said...

Thursday's card at Belmont was actually a very good one, featuring horses that mostly had enough form to make things interesting and playable. Wish i could brag about a winning day, but a couple of very promising bets dissolved past the 8th poll.

But Monmouthguy, why are you so sour? I guess taking anonymous shots on a website is better than abusing the real people in your life...

Alan Mann said...

I have two guys at work here who are SO excited to go to Monmouth on Sunday. They don't know a thing about horse racing, couldn't fucking care less about big fields or $75,000 maiden races or Garrett Gomez. They're going because of the microbrew festival. Period. It's as easy as that!

steve in nc said...

Seems like we've got a microbrew festival here every weekend. If only we could get some horse races to go with it!

By the way, Mark Cramer's ride for the Thoroughbred Retirement Fdn is continuing - I hope horseplayers and bloggers across the political spectrum will sponsor his effort. You might have heard him yesterday on HTRV, and he's headlining today's Paulick Report:

http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/good-news-friday-sponsored-by-liberation-farm-tour-de-trf/

El Angelo said...

Alcohol, gambling, and the outdoors scene are the three Trojan horses racing can use better than almost any sport. Somehow, outside of the boutique meets, they never get this right, and even at the small meets, they get it right about 40% of the time.

Anonymous said...

Belmont should do a LOT better with that beautiful backyard, shame they can not figure out a way to fill the place every weekend.

Anonymous said...

One idea for Charlie, instead of hiring some of the very capable cover bands they employ all summer long try booking some of the Brooklyn Indy bands. Alan could pick out a few for you, and for the exposure they would play for next to nothing I wager and will bring a whole new demographic to the track.

Run a NY Bred maiden claimer in their name, have them present the trophy which will actually get thier following to the front side so they realize there is a track out there.

Advice, free of charge.