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Sunday, July 6, 2008

Grass Happenings

On Sunday, Teuflesberg’s full-sister Phi Beta Mom makes her 2008 debut going 6-furlongs on the Belmont inner turf in race 4. She showed nothing in her first outing for Todd Pletcher last August at Saratoga, but now she’s with Kiaran McLaughlin, and has posted some nice workouts in advance of this. I wouldn’t discount her. Her young sire Johannesburg has already produced some nice grass runners, including G3 Transylvania winner Marcavelly, French G1 (Prix d’Ispahan, over Darjina) winner Sageburg, and 3-year-old Australian Group 1-placed (Doomben 1000) colt Turffontein.

Speaking of turf, Steppenwolfer is back after more than a year break, running in the 6-furlong Inside the Beltway Stakes over Belmont’s inner turf on Wednesday. The race also features undefeated Ferocious Fires making his first turf start, and not one but two Godolphin runners, Emirates to Dubai and Rallying Cry. With close-up second (Salute the Count) and fourth (True to Tradition) place finishers from the G3 Jaipur also entered, this looks like a very nicely carded mid-week event.

Doubtlessly a result of slots money, the grassy $200,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Handicap at Philly Park on Monday is coming up very competitive. Nary a local horse in the race, which features IEAH’s Sharp Susan with Kent Desormeaux making a rare appearance at the Pha. Also entered: G3 Beaugay runner-up All is Vanity (Alan Garcia), G3 Eatontown winner Social Queen (Jose Lezcano), G3 Gallorette third-place runner Valbenny (Ramon Dominguez), last year’s race runner-up Royal Pleasure (Rosemarie Homeister), and Graham Motion’s first-time stakes starter Drop a Line (Kendrick Carmouche).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phi Beta Mom ran great! I thought she was gonna go wire to wire... very impressive!

She didn't wanna go in the gate, it took what looked like the whole crew to get her in there, lol.

Valerie Grash said...

She did look good, didn't she? Wow, I'm actually surprised since there were others in the field with better recent form. $9.40 place payout ain't bad either. It makes you wonder what kind of success Teuflesberg might have had if he had a different trainer than Jamie Sanders...

Wind Gatherer said...

What's wrong with Jamie Sanders? Besides her record. That is awful.
I don't know her...just asking.

Valerie Grash said...

As far as I know, nothing's wrong per se with Jamie Sanders, except she doesn't seem to place her horses well in races,--and her record thus reflects that.

Wind Gatherer said...

Thanks. I agree.