(Above, TURRALURE gobbles up ground in his workout at Keeneland. He is a son of Canadian champ WANDO, and the WOODBINE MILE winner)
OKAY, THE PRE-ENTRIES ARE OUT, NOW WHAT?
The scrambling for past performances has begun and soon, the blogs, websites and trade papers will be full of an opinion from just about anyone – heck some even get their dog to make picks!
Where do we start now that the pre-entries have been released?
The first thing to remember is that, jockey assignments, scratches, post positions, track conditions are all variables that will mean something. They won’t be known for several days yet – final entries are Monday.
The job for now is to do a light go-over of each race, familiarize yourself with who is in what race – mark down the 1st preference horses for each race (the cross entering is nothing but totally confusing).
Until Monday, read up the reports from Curchill, on the website for the Louisville Courier-Journal and DAILY RACING FORM, read as much as you can as far as factual reporting, but remember, only 70% of this stuff is perhaps what should be absorbed, trainers/owners/riders are not always forthcoming with the press.
WORKOUTS – an interesting topic and an irresistible approach as we get close to Cup days. If you like workouts, watch them yourselves (hopefully one of these sites will put footage of the preps on) – no one wants to read about some one else’s opinion of a workout, this is a subjective issue.
Look for horses on their toes, looking happy, finishing well. Don’t get lured into the quote “It was just what we wanted” – gadzooks!!
REPLAYS – Watch replays of the big races leading up the Cup – they are available almost anywhere. Get a feel for the horses you like by watching their races.
The real handicapping work starts Monday/Tuesday so just get acquainted with the races for now.
Overhandicapping? Leave that to the guys (there are not many gals who get to write for the main publications these days) at the big publications.
GET STORMY’S WORKOUT AT KEENELAND:
(Breeders’ Cup Mile starter)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwZ6d3Zf0jM
WHO DO YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR?
Rate the Canadians chances…leading trainer MARK CASSE has 4 entered, Roger Attfield, Mark Frostad, Ian Black and Gail Cox are others represented. There is also a Canadian bred, American based runner in Rocket Twentyone.
The latter is 15 to 1 according to DRF early odds, that is the lowest available on our Canadians.
Who do you think will run the best for our team? Does Casse get his first ‘Cup’ win?
Send your comments to THOROUGHBLOG!
Mike Burns photo – HARD NOT TO LIKE and Patrick Husbands, a daughter of Hard Spun, entered in Juv. Fillies Turf
3:37 P.M. – WATCH RAPID REDUX TODAY – GOING FOR ALL-TIME RECORD OF CONSECUTIVE WINS OF 19
Robert Cole’s hero racehorse goes for the record today – get his lifetime pp’s from DRF (okay, there is yet another video analysis on there, but the link is for watching the live, race video later today)
http://www.drf.com/events/rapid-redux-laurel-laurel-park
WAIT FOR ME!
An otherwise non-descript Wednesday night of racing at Woodbine still had something for the highlight reel – a race started without one of the horses in the gate! It has happened before, at other tracks, it’s one of those things. It was a misty, cold, rainy night, so what can you do?
Race 5- (see below) went off with SLEW THE MAESTRO having yet to be loaded…
The only thought from THOROUGHBLOG is that the entire race should have been declared no contest – a horse left out of the gate could mean the shape of the race changes. If all the horses are not in – no contest, yes? The fact that other horses did not look like they were ready for the start (number 1 looked totally unprepared) means it was a false start.
There were some pretty neat race finishes on the night – the first time starter CHARMING THUNDER showed great bravery to win her debut up the rail in a tight squeeze in the first leg of the Pick 4. The Paul Attard trainee, a full sister to a winner and a gal who worked fast for a 2yo sale in April, blew by the favourites to win at a nice 8 to 1 for owner Paul Mouttet.
Race 7 was wild as half a dozen maidens hit the wire together. The favourite, PARK PLACE tried to lead all the way in the $25,00 claimer but he was used up early and swarmed late. The winner was Elizabeth and Gordon Lickrish’s WILD JESTER, who was racing for just the 2nd time (8th in his debut) and getting a rider change from Luis Contreras to Quincy Welch. The Mr. Jester homebred is trained by Kevin Attard, who was winning his 14th race of the meeting.
GROUP HUG won for the 2nd consecutive time for Equilease racing and Allan Schaffer – race 6 for $10,000. The Vindication filly is 9-3-2-2 in a good campaign this year and her rider is Emma Wilson, trainer is John Charalambous.
Also winning for the 2nd straight time – and 4th time this year, was BRALORNE, a Grand Slam gelding who has won for $12,500 and $8,000 for Mike Pino since he was claimed for $16,000.
