He toyed with a full-field of contenders in his 8.5 furlong dirt maiden race in Kyoto on February 23, leading nearly from the break before pulling away for 11-1/2 length victory—under a handride. If you haven’t viewed it yet, here’s the video (the call is in Japanese); he is #8:
Keeneland’s third race today—a 4.5 furlong $50K maiden event for two-year-olds—was won with ease by Merkel, a $150K Steve Asmussen-trained colt by Forest Wildcat. Okay, so money can buy winners…I accept that. Then again, Todd Pletcher-trained Kickapoo (a $75K son of Indian Charlie) finished well back in sixth. I was most impressed by Cowboy At Heart who is by freshman sire Ocean Terrace, a son of Saint Ballado who stands at Mighty Acres in Oklahoma for $2,000. The colt had an impressive series of workouts leading to this start, and considering he broke slowly from the gate, and closed nicely to get second, Cowboy At Heart (trained by Bobby Barnett) looks to be a good little one—a $7K purchase, he earned $10K today. I'm putting him on my watch list for his next race.
Selections for Saturday's big races forthcoming...
3 comments:
That was the first baby race of the year as far as I can recall, there was an OKLA-bred in there by Wertaloona whoever he is?
As suspected the Helingbrot baby won, betting Asmussen in those races is like taking money to the bank.
Do you watch the races from Australia last night?
Lots for Grade 1s and 2s and good racing; I am starting to get the hang of it.
Thanks for the update on Casino Drive - I missed that.
John, I've been following the Australian racing groups on Facebook and they have some good tips. I wish I knew which Aussie races were on when so I could TiVo specific ones, rather than just telling it to tape random things overnight.
Casino Drive's race on February 23, 2008 in Kyoto, Japan was 1800 meters. This is 8.94772 furlongs, not 8.5. It was on dirt as the DRF reported, not turf as the New York Times reported.
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