BC Notes and Photos

- I'm on the Churchill Downs media list and been getting photos, so I thought I'd share a couple.







Here's Uncle Mo arriving at the track from New York, where he breezed a half in 49 4/5 on Sunday, his first work since the Champagne. Just ten pre-entered against him for the Juvenile.






He arrived, along with several other BC runners, just Tuesday afternoon. So no, he was not the Rand Paul supporter who stomped on the head of the woman from Move On before a Kentucky Senate debate on Monday night. Good thing for her I'd say.

The Juvenile is usually a race that I look to take shot somewhere. After all, it's like a blank canvas for these young horses, especially these days when they've raced so little. And it's often the case, as with Uncle Mo this year, that the favorite is trying two turns for the first time. But this year, the picture is especially uncertain - each and every one of the 11 juveniles will be running around two turns and on real dirt (in North America) for the first time (the 'in North America' is for Murjan, who raced at a mile in Peru). So while it's against my principles to bet a favorite who's doing something he or she has never done before, in this case Uncle Mo is surely not alone. So I'm thinking of him as a single candidate at this point. It certainly appears as if the route won't be a problem considering the way he's finished. Though that's all I have to go on really; not much on the catalog page, really, for this son of Indian Charlie out of a minor stakes placed daughter of the Super Derby winner Arch.



- Here's Haynesfield working over the track for the second time; this one a bullet (out of 7) six furlongs in 1:13 3/5. Asmussen's colt figures to face tactical problems given the presence of other speedy types like Quality Road, First Dude, and the improving Morning Line, but it certainly seems to me that he's a serious racehorse at this time.




Here's Switch breezing five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 (2/32) for the F&M Sprint....and this will be a switch for Switch, and in more than one respect. John Sadler's three-year old daughter of Quiet American has been routing of late, and comes off her career-best effort running second to Zenyatta in the Lady's Secret. But Sadler sounds like a man with a plan.

"I am not sure she wants a mile and eighth as a three-year-old....If the Sprint was six furlongs, she would not run but it is not really a 'sprint' sprint. Seven-eighths to a mile is her best distance. Next year we can come back in the (Ladies') Classic at a mile and an eighth." [BRIS]

She's also moving to real dirt, on which she's only raced once, a 4th in the Bonnie Miss at nine furlongs. She sure seems to love CD though; this work follows a bullet (of 40) half in 47 flat last week.