I was enjoying my favorite late night Friday pastime—watching (and betting) the races from Australia via Twinspires—when I noticed something curious about race 4 from Morphettville; it was called the Hard Spun Handicap (run at 5-1/2 furlongs), so I thought to myself, okay, maybe there’s a famous old Australian horse called Hard Spun. But then I noticed race 5 was the Bernardini Handicap (1-1/4 miles), followed by the Street Sense Handicap (5-1/2 furlongs) as race 6, and then skip ahead to race 8, the Any Given Saturday Handicap (5-1/4 furlongs). See a pattern here? Is Darley so desperate for business that they actually need to advertise their studs for the season there, for $1000 a pop?
I also watched the Presque Isle opening day—not a lot of value with chalk and short-odds horses doing well. In the Inaugural Stakes, I did get nice WPS on Ride Em Cowgirl, as well as the trifecta fleshed out by Mrs. Petroski and favorite American County. Psycho DJ scratched.
Ryan Fogelsonger didn’t exactly set the place on fire, finishing dead-last on his first two mounts (One Sweet Thing and Smooth Ace), and landing in fifth on Steve Asmussen’s Wonderful Luck in the Inaugural, but he did come on to win the finale with All Bets Down ($5.20). Top jocks for the opener—leading Philly jock Kendrick Carmouche had two winners and two third-place finishers, followed by Mountaineer regular Rex Stokes III with one win, three seconds, and one third. Dale Beckner had a winner, plus two seconds and two thirds.
Information to file away for future reference: Modern Verve, who finished just a nose back in second in race 3, is pregnant. Love how these racing mares’ hormones get revved up when with foal—remember Sabellina and Iron Goddess last year?
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3 comments:
I wrote about Sabellina and Iron Goddess racing in foal at Saratoga last summer--Sabellina raced a couple of times, and as I'd been a big fan of hers, I was watching her closely. Was sorry to see her not do better, and eager to hear about her Pulpit foal...
Should we sponsor a TBA Handicap? I remember Iron Goddess and Sabellina from last summer too!
I'm looking forward to Iron Goddess's El Corredor foal, as I loved her on the track last year.
Could be interesting to see how foals whose mothers raced while pregnant do... I may need to add another set of horses to follow to my list! (although the waiting will be hard)
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