CHANGE

Off the races for a super card at Woodbine and lots of stuff to watch south of the border.

Picks for the big races are on today’s news along with a wrap of yesterday’s events. Rain in the Woodbine area for 2 days has made things soggy…

BELMONT STAKES/NASSAU/ECLIPSE

$1 million Belmont Stakes

Post     Horse     Jockey     Odds

1     Dave in Dixie     Calvin Borel     20-1

2     Spangled Star     Garrett Gomez     30-1

3     Uptowncharlybrown     Rajiv Maragh     10-1

4     Make Music for Me     Joel Rosario     10-1

5     Fly Down     John Velazquez     9-2

6     Ice Box     Jose Lezcano     3-1

7     Drosselmeyer     Mike Smith     12-1

8     Game On Dude     Martin Garcia     10-1

9     Stately Victor     Alan Garcia     15-1

10     Stay Put     Jamie Theriot     20-1

11     First Dude     Ramon Dominguez     7-2

12     Interactif     Javier Castellano     12-1

BELMONT ANALYSIS

ICE BOX – a troubled, fast closing 2nd in the Kentucky Derby and then freshend and pointed for this. Trainer knows how to win this event too and his a pair of bullets for the Belmont.

FLY DOWN – Another Nick Zito trainee and a winner of 3 of 5 including a 6 length romp in the Dwyer at Belmont. $80,000 Minshaft chestnut is the up and comer.

The longshot play fo the race is STATELY VICTOR, who is also fresh after he wallowd in Derby mud. He’s a Frank Stronach-bred who can bounce back.

NASSAU STAKES

It’s race 6 on a good Woodbine card and the grass course is likely to be yielding at best so let’s look for gals who will like the slight squishy-ness.

RAINBOW VIEW is perhaps in the best form of her career  for George Strabridge and off the 100 Beyer in the Grade 3 Gallorette, she’s going to be tough to beat – especially since she ran so well on this course last year in the E P Taylor.

MISS KELLER is a good one for Roger Attfield, she was delayed in traffic last time and she should love the long stretch and CARIBEAN SUNSET should go forward off an even debut outing for Christophe Clement.

ECLIPSE – What will happen with FATAL BULLET in his first 2 turn test on the main track in his career? The Horse of the Year of 2008 is as good as ever and he’s experimenting here – GERRY OLGUIN gets a shot at the star runner as Eurico Rsoa da Silva has been replaced. The horse to beat in the event is probably ICE BEAR, who got too wound up for his season debut – that bizarre prep for this race that went so slow early and had all kinds of horses running out of their prferred style. PALLADIO had a bad incident at the gate and was mad and POOL PLAY was too close to the slow pace.

But how about going with the upstart SOUTHDALE in his first big test since the long layoff from last spring? The beautiful Street Cry fellow has all kinds of ability and we’ll see what he’s got.

ICE, ICE BABY – ICE BEAR leads Eclipse field today…

Dave Landry photo

FRIDAY WRAP

BROCK N ROCK made a wowee debut in race 1 for 2yos for $40,000 claiming. The Florida bred by Gibson County keyed an exactor for that sire. A $5,000 yearling, this colt is yet another success story for the stunningly successful year for the Sam DiPasquale barn, which trains this 2yo for Murray Stroud.

Faves ruled the next few races including BWANA Z.who won for the 3rd time at th meeting in race 4 for Heiligbrodt Stable and trainer Steve Asmussen. The Bwana Charlie filly is 3 for 3 at the meeting and she won the $32,000 claiming event from off the pace after the first 2 furlongs for the 5 furlong race went in 21 2/5.

Despite being a half sister to Grade 1 winner HOOH WHY, D’WILD BEACH was a fat 9 to 1 for her career debut yesterday and she won on the pace, putting away other speed and then battling back after Variable Rate (Eddington) took a short lead in early stretch. The chestnut was a $50,000 2yo buy and she isowned by  Janice and Veronica Attard and trained by Sid Attard. She is a Florida bred by D’wildcat out of Magic Merger.

1:10 3/5 for the 6 furlongs. The bomb in the race was ZAFRINA, with fast workouts and a strong pedigree for Donver Stables. Trainer Attard was 32% winning with 1st time starters heading into that race (last 2 years).

Another Attard was in the winner’c circle in race 7 as SEALED BID won off the claim for Paul Attard for her 3rd win of the meeting and 6th win in 10 Woodbine starts. The tough Langfuhr mare is owned by Let It Ride Stable now, which took her from Kirk Robson and Steve Asmussen for $20K last time.

The race was a thrilling one as 3 gals hit the wire almost in a line and after a long photo, Sealed Bid had beaten Galloping d’Amour by a nose, the 3rd straight time she had beaten that one by less than a length.

The finale was won by DO YOU BELIEVE IT, 5 to 2 in the morning line but a predictable 2 to 5 at post time. The  Where’s the Ring gelding, a $56K yearling purchase by 3 Sons Racing, had won his debut byt 4 1/2 lengths on the pace but had wiped out some runners at the start and he was disqualified. he was hard ridden all the way yesteray but won the race anyway to make it official. He’s out of the good producing mare Juicey, bred by Gardiner Farms.