- In the first, Beyond the Trees (5-2) seems like a worthy morning line favorite for trainer Stanley Hough, who has eight winners from 44 starters. Here's a hot barn - 3-2-1 from its last eight runners, with each of the two seconds being by the narrowest of margins. Four-year old gelded son of Smoke Glacken seems poised to move forward stretching out and facing winners for the first time. He graduated at six furlongs with a sharp front-running effort; and all three of the horses who have run back from that race have run second. Extra distance should pose no problem, as he was second at nine furlongs at Gulfstream in April. Thunder Alley (9-2) ships in and drops in class for Wesley Ward; same pattern as his three winners (from eight starters) this meeting. Dirty Water Dog (6-1) goes for Barclay Tagg, and the percentages have caught up to this barn of late. After a streak of four winners in five starts, Tagg has gone 0-for-10. Worse yet, no less than half of those have been under 2-1; beware.
Better races on the card to be sure, but hey, I didn't get to them, sorry. The 7th is a neat turf sprint stakes with an excellent lineup, check it out.
As long as I mentioned Stanley Hough, here's that mention of Discreet Treasure, the half-brother to Discreet Cat who won his debut by 12 for the trainer on Saturday. If he were a two-year old, I'm sure that the phone would be ringing off the hook. Maybe it has been anyway; he sure would make a nice companion trophy for the Sheikh, who I'm sure has always dreamed of winning the Cigar Mile two out of three years with horses from the same broodmare. Of course, Discreet Cat fizzled out at age four like one of those McCain speeches when he gives that little smirky laugh - heh heh heh; and his non-effort in the World Cup against Invasor ranks up there with Big Brown's Belmont as one of the big disappointments of this racing century thus far. Still, he is happily standing at Darley for $30,000.
[Free pick today from DiscreetPicks.com.]
RSS Feed for this Blog
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Belmont Notes
Posted by Alan Mann at 7:37 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 Comments:
Hollywood - Race 5
#5 Dr. Zaentz (3/1 ml)
Virtual rematch of a race a couple of weeks ago, in which Dr. Zaentz may have been best but ran up behind traffic into the lane, and had to let Brian the Bold go clear to his outside before finally shifting out for running room. Really turned on the jets thereafter and was cutting into that one's margin with every stride. Comes into this race with the same pattern as last time, a nearly identical five-furlong drill 6 days before the race. Same rider (Tyler Baze) back aboard today, so i think he'll be a little more cognizant of getting some running room into the lane this time. Think he can turn the tables here.
Those recent stats for Hough have me wondering -- is he gearing up for Saratoga, or is his timing off?
Hi Alan - did you catch Obama's speech last night telling us that all our children should learn how to speak English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk
Obama should concentrate on having his supporters speak English.
By the way - I see Dick Durbin wants to drill now. I thought the dems had a better energy plan (ban).
Bob From NJ
Obama moving to the middle, guess he took something out of those meetings with the Clintons.
Time to dust off those Nader Raider jackets.
I am going with DWD, my sometimes fading memory seems to trigger a troubled trip in his last.
Although tagg has cooled I will still use the KISS rule and avoid the recent graduate trying to do something as a favorite he has never done before, and the dropping shipper from Ward, who always seem to be an underlay even when live.
Rebound from Doggie.
Strike that on Doggy. My memory totally missed the recent win, the trip race was two back.
Upon further review, the KISS horse is Stolen Greeting, repeatedly beaten but overdue in this condition.
Taken Not Given worth a look also.
Hi Bob - Not one of the Obamanator's finest moments I'll admit, and I tend to doubt that will be an issue in the campaign (I know you meant to say that he said that our children should learn to speak Spanish).
But how about this?
Durbin is apparently not the only Democrat to soften his stance on drilling after getting drilled by voters over the holiday. To me, the idea of us being able to drill our way out of the present crisis is akin to trying to deal with the Islamic fundamentalist issue by killing every terrorist on earth. It will take fundamental changes and a long term view which I believe Obama at least has a clue about, instead of wasting time and breath over a gas tax holiday that won't accomplish a thing other than depriving us of badly needed funds for highway infrastructure.
And I suspected I'd hear from the KISS guy for picking a recent maiden graduate against winners. But you should have stuck with Tagg! :)
Hi Alan – as usual you are correct. I did mean Spanish. However – I do agree with what he was saying. Our children should be learning more than one language. I was in Europe several years ago and I was impressed with the various languages that the population could speak. I met a Polish girl in England. She taught herself English by watching American movies.
We can’t drill ourselves out of the problem – but it has to be part of the overall plan to get away from imported oil. There is just too much to convert in the short term (10 to 15 years).
I do like Carnival City in today’s 5th. It is about 5 minutes to post.
Bob in NJ
Dr. Zaentz was kept way too far off the pace, some 10 lengths in the early going. He just missed second by a nose, but was well-beaten for the win by the loose frontrunner Anzisong.
Sometimes a faulty memory is better than the facts. KISS failed today, but at least I had fair value.
Post a Comment