Bright Thought World Mark Passes Muster and Morality

Bright Thought has been officially credited with a world record for running the mile and a half G2 San Luis Rey Stakes in 2:22.72.  This according to the American Racing Manual, the "official record keeper for American racing."  Really?  Didn't know that they were in any position of authority (and they don't even have a website!).  Apparently they were consulted on the matter because the first 3/8ths of the race are run downhill.  However, explains Santa Anita oddsmaker Jon White:

  The difference between world records and American records, are that a world record is the fastest time under any conditions, on any surface." [Bloodhorse]

  So, there you go.  Hawkster was the prior world record holder; he ran the distance in 2:22 4/5 back in the day where that amount of precision in timing was acceptable (and to me, it still is), and was subsequently credited with 2:22.80 in the hundredths age.  The Handicapper's Edge on the Brisnet.com website (which Churchill Downs treats as if it has been granted landmark status as a tribute to 20th century internet aesthetics) notes dryly of Little Mike, who blazed the same distance in 2:22.83 in last November's Breeders' Cup Turf:

His time stacked up morally, if not according to the record book, with Hawkster's.

  Bright Thought is the story of the year so far I guess given his rise from a 25K maiden claimer at Laurel just last November methodically up the class and distance latter to a Grade 2 win in his first stakes start.  Trainer Jorge Gutierrez said:

"Bright Thought came out of the race in good shape, but for now I think we're going to back off and give him a breather."

  A breather for this horse means the Woodford Reserve at Churchill on Derby Day.   That's seven weeks, not so long in this day and age as far as breathers go.  But it's long for this horse, whose last three starts came off breaks of only 23, 18, and 23 days.  And that's cool; an easier spot might be the 1 3/4 mile San Juan Capistrano at SA; to ship to Kentucky, cut back to nine furlongs and run in the spotlight of Derby day seems like a sporting endeavor on the part of the connections.  So we'll look forward to that, hopefully.

Bright Thought is a four-year old by the Japanese champion Hat Trick out of a Smart Strike mare.  Not much to see under his first two dams.  But go back to her third dam Right Word; she's the dam of Ascutney, who is, in turn, the dam of BC Classic winner Ravens Pass; and you'll also find G1 turf winners No Matter What, Just As Well, and Rainbow View in the family.

 - Good job by track announcer Frank Mirahmadi exclaiming; "LUKAS 1-2!" in deep stretch as Will Take Charge ($58) edged by stablemate Oxbow in an exciting edition of the Rebel.  D Wayne is enjoying a bit of a graded stakes revival; he has nine graded stakes wins in the last five years, and four of them in 2013.  The winner is by Unbridled's Song out of the $2.5 million earner and multiple multiple G1 winner Take Charge Lady; and after three nondescript foals to start her career as a broodmare, it's her second 3yo stakes winner in a row (Take Charge Indy won the Florida Derby last year).  Both Will Take Charge and Oxbow earned Beyers of 95.  No excuse at all for favored Super Ninety Nine.  Oh.  Check that.  “That track was too deep for him,” Baffert said.  Treasury Bill, who I picked here, turned out the be quite the popular wise guy choice and went off at an unappetizing 3-1.  Saw some people trying to make excuses for him on Twitter, but nothing that I could see.  His stablemate Title Contender played the rabbit role to perfection, but it was the Lukas duo that benefited instead.

 - Wait A While, another $2 million+ earner and multiple multiple G1 winner, got off to a faster start as a broodmare as Zaikov, her first foal, by Distorted Humor, made quite the smashing debut at Gulfstream on Friday, winning off by 14 lengths and earning a Beyer of 99.  Despite his mom's proclivity for grass, he'll stay on dirt for now.