Moving On

Rap Tale came out of the Affectionately better than she did after the Ladies Handicap; that according to trainer Bruce Brown (four for his last 12 at the Big A, with two of those coming off claims). What's next is unclear. Part of the problem is that she won out of her first two allowance conditions at Philly Park in relatively slow races and against moderate competition. As Bob asked me yesterday, do you think she'd really have a better chance in a NW3x allowance here than she did in these two stakes? I mean, Yet Again hadn't been running any faster than Rap Tale of late. And this race fell apart badly. The winner only had to come home in 25.64 and 6.94 in the last three sixteenths to draw away by three! Who's to say that Rap Tale couldn't have not only gotten third, but won the whole thing had it unfolded differently?

A starters allowance or handicap might be a good spot as a reader suggested, but she's not eligible for the starters allowances we've been seeing, which generally exclude winners of a race other than maiden or claimer. And the starter handicaps have been for horses who have started for 16k or less, which she's also not eligible for. Another option is an optional claiming race with the lower allowance conditions which she's already surpassed; but we don't want to risk her for a tag at this point in time. Bruce Brown has done a good job scoping out those races at Philly, and I imagine she may ship out of town again. Further down the road, we'd like to give her another shot on the grass, and Virginia-bred stakes at Colonial are a possibility for later in the year.

Wherever she runs, it's a fair bet she'll have a different rider. Mike Luzzi told Bob after the race that Rap Tale was feeling so good that he decided to let her run, contrary to instructions. I don't make a habit of criticizing these guys - we all know the dangers they face each time they hop aboard, and they are regularly faced with split second decisions involving strategy and safety that are easy to second guess. So I generally don't, and I think that the record (in the form of this blog's archives) would back that up, other than some incidents of excessive or reckless whipping. But this was really, really disappointing. And it's been pointed out to me that Luzzi had ridden Spritely in her last four races, and was bumped for Dominguez by Pletcher here....and I'll just leave that at that. The Toddster's filly slowed to such a dead walk at the end that Rap Tale actually came within a length of catching her, and she then took a scary bad step after the wire.

- Jerry Bossert reported in the Daily News this past weekend that Underground Hero, who broke down in the second race on Friday, was the third fatality of 2009 at the Big A. This was a cheap maiden claiming race, so I didn't notice any of those schmaltzy oh my god isn't it terrible columns or blog posts like we saw for Wanderin Boy or Indyanne.

The thing is that, while only fanatical loonies would accuse the connections and/or riders of top stakes horse of cruelty, as we saw with Eight Belles, the case of Underground Hero is the kind about which far more reasonable (as in, sane) people could certainly be asking questions. The $160,000 son of Mineshaft debuted for a 75K tag in November, and passed tired horses for 5th. Here, in his second start, he was in for 16K, and was sent off at 8-5, yuck. While I have every confidence that Nick Zito would not have started the horse if he felt he was in danger, the appearance is bad, and would probably draw an investigation and statement by the stewards as a matter of routine in some racing jurisdictions overseas.