- With heavy rain expected here tomorrow, I took a peek at Sunday's races at Hollywood, and I see that Patrick Biancone is there to begin his annual winter campaign. Julien Leparoux will be in town to ride the two startes that Biancone has on the day. In the sixth, a maiden two-year old route race, he starts first-timer Got A Question, a Giant's Causeway half-brother to the G2 winner and router North East Bound. Biancone has been sharp with these juvenile debut runners of late; %if you look at his last 11 such starters, he has those two winners, along with three seconds and two thirds.
Biancone/Leparoux have Grande Melody (Grand Lodge), the morning line favorite in the feature on the day, the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Stakes at nine furlongs on the grass for three-year old fillies. She's a French import who made her U.S. debut a winning one at Keeneland on 10/11. Bet down to even money, she won off by 4 1/2.
But two things about that race. For one thing, it was a weak entry-level allowance field that she beat. And secondly, as in a couple of other cases I've noted lately, the trip comment in the Form gives a faulty impression. It reads Sluggish start,5w,drvg. The fact is that Leparoux saved all the ground on the turn for home, and swung out 5 wide in the stretch while rallying home for the win. If you were thinking from that comment that she was five wide on the turn, you'd be giving her more credit than she deserves; and a look at Trakus shows that she fared pretty well as far as distance traveled went.
So I'd look to try and beat Grande Melody if she's the favorite. La Mottie (King's Best/Kingmambo) is another Euro import, but she had better lines over there than Biancone's filly, and a decent ground-saving sixth in her U.S. debut, the Grade 1 Garden City at Saratoga, won by Magnificent Song. She comes from some grass family. Out of a mare by Lyphard, her third dam is the grass champion Trillion, her second a full to the multiple Group 1 winner Triptych. This is also the family of Australia's recent Caulfield Cup winner Tawqeet, and that should get reader Stalusk excited. La Mottie seems to me like a superior filly to Grande Melody, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she is the favorite instead.
I should know better now than to bet against three-year olds from Europe, but my upset choice from the U.S. horses is 12-1 Ballado's Thunder. Here's a filly with just five starts who is clearly on the upswing for trainer Rafael Becerra. The barn is hot too, with two winners, and a second, third and 4th with its five starters at this meeting.
Ballado's Thunder changed tactics and rallied from well off the pace in her last, swinging three wide coming into the turn, and finishing up in 23.3. Her last two quarters were faster than the prior one; this is a filly with a nice late kick, and she could better her prior effort at this distance with rating tactics. Ballado's Thunder is by Saint Ballado, out of Instinct, a stakes winning Thunder Gulch mare who's a half-sister to the dam of the Grade 1 grass winner (Flower Bowl) Colstar.
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Sunday, November 12, 2006
Looking for Thunder Out West
Posted by Alan Mann at 1:33 AM
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1 Comment:
Thanks for the heads up with La Mottie. The connections of Tawqeet will be keen for her to grab a stakes win over the next 6-9 months, to provide a nice platform to promote Tawqeet as a stallion here. Group 1 winners at 12 furlongs (generally) are not greatly supported here. Tawqeet may be aimed at the Dubai World Cup meeting next year.
Yet another record crowd (78,158) attended the final day of the Flemington Carnival, the four day combined attendance was an all time record of 418,069, besting last year's record by around 35,000. 4yo mare Divine Madonna (Hurricane Sky) charged home from the rear to win the Emirates Stakes (one mile) for South Australian trainer Mark Kavanagh, defeating Niconero (Danzero) and last year's winner Valedictum (Umatilla). More Than Ready's son Perfectly Ready was desperately unlucky in fourth place, while US import Honor In War was also luckless in running (badly checked after two furlongs and blocked in the straight) finishing 14th in the 16 runner field.
Hussonet, Langfuhr and Montjeu all had stakes winners on the day. Local stallion Flying Spur (Danehill) had two winners including Group 2 sprint winner Magnus. Stallion of the carnival had to be the extremely successful Encosta De Lago, who had 5 winners over the four days, capping the meet with Brom Felinity, winner of the Group 2 ten furlong (mares only) Matriarch Stakes.
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