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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

All Yours

- Half Ours (Unbridled's Song) makes his first start, at the Big A on Thursday, since being purchased for $6.1 million, an astounding sum for a horse whose shot at three-year old Classic glory has long passed. He went two-for-two as a juvenile in the spring of 2005 for Pletcher, who remains as trainer.

Half Ours earned a Beyer of 81 in taking the Juvenile at Churchill in his last start, defeating two eventual stakes winners, Spotsgone (Prairie Mile) and Dance Daily (G2 Santa Ynez).

We know that Pletcher excels with layoff horses - even looong layoffs like this one. So while he's an automatic bet-against on principle at 3-5, why bother with Pletcher invovled? Besides, his workouts are spectacular. However, I'll throw out one idea. Touchdown Kid flashed a big form reversal when he won his last at 25-1 for Bill Mott. But he'd shown some promise in the past - his Beyer of 96 equaled his career high achieved in his very first race - so perhaps he's just back on his game.

He was three wide all around the turn, and came home in 12.2 while racing a bit erratically in the stretch. The 5th and 7th place finishers came back to win their next races (in an open allowance and a state-bred one respectively), and third place finisher Mister Supremo missed by a neck in allowance company has next time out. Second place finisher Barbados is a sharp Pletcher trainee. Touchdown Kid gets nearly six weeks off since his last, and his best races have been off similar layoffs.

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