2011 Keeneland Spring Meet Opening Day
by Matt Gardner on Apr 8, 2011 10:44 AM EDT
in Keeneland
Email
PrintBelow is a quick at the first day of the 2011 Keeneland Spring Meet, celebrating the Keeneland Association's 75th anniversary. The feature race on today's opening day card is the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes for three-year-olds on the turf course. First post is at 1:15 Eastern.
-Keeneland's spring meet kicks off with a traditional 4 ½ furlong baby race, a condition that is typically dominated by trainers Wesley Ward and Steve Asmussen. Ward has a coupled entry in the first race: 1-Gentlemans Code and 1a-Everyday Dave (Even).
Over the last five years, Wars is 11-for-36 (29%, $1,79 $2 ROI) with two-year-olds in Maiden Special Weights at Keeneland. Of those 11 winners, all but one was a first-time starter.
-The fourth race is a two-turn, mile and sixteenth Maiden Special Weight for horses four-year-old and up and features some of the lightest raced four-year-olds you have ever seen.
This is a two-turn race on the Poly, which is a race that the numbers indicate is won overwhelmingly by horses that have turf or synthetic experience. The 9/5 morning line favorite in this race, 2-Shotgun Shine, has tried dirt three times but has never touched a turf or a synthetic track. If you're looking to stand against a 9/5 favorite, this might be the spot to do it.
Once I tossed the favorite aside, I whittled this field down to a single contender that I really liked: 4-Annawon (6/1).
Annawon, a Bill Mott trainee, didn't show a whole lot of promise in her first four races but responded well when dropped down from Maiden Specials to $35k Maiden Claiming in her last start. Looking through this field, I'd say these horses resemble more of a high-level maiden claiming event so I'm not convinced this is a huge jump back up in class. Her last race was the best of the bunch and it's possible that she's finally putting it all together.
5-Tetelestai (3/1) and 8-Dr. Hudson (4/1) also make some sense in this race. Tetelestai's odds are a bit short for me given his question marks (very sporadic race spacing; Pletcher low hit rate over five years when going turf-to-synthetic in Maiden Special Weights), and Dr. Hudson put in a so-so performance when he debuted at Keeneland way back in the Fall 2009 meet. If the odds on either horses were to drift up a bit I could be enticed, especially on Tetelestai.
-In the fifth race the Ken McPeek trainee, 4-Henny's Hurricane (4/1), is taking a big class drop from open company $50k claimers to $30k N2Ls. It's not quite a 50% price cut, but McPeek generally does well with big cuts, sporting a 10-for-28 (36%, $2.49 ROI) over the last five years.
The other horse to keep an eye on in this spot is the Turfway shipper, 7-Quite Explosive (8/1), as she's coming off a nice race against a field of OC $30k/N1X-ers last time out. She's 5-1-2-0 lifetime over the synthetics, so handling the track shouldn't be any problem. She's also displayed tactical speed over synthetics in the past, an asset that should help her in this spot.
-In race six I like the looks of the 3-Lady Jadana (6/1), a Wayne Catalano filly that performed quite nicely in her first attempt against this class level down in Gulfstream in late February. She's never had a problem finishing races in a flurry but she'll get blinkers today in the hopes that she can stay focused a bit more during the race. She gets Julien Leparoux in the irons today and I'll always look to play a nice looking Leparoux horse at a price on the turf.
-Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Pluck will make his second start of 2011 in the feature race G3-Transylvania, in the hopes of putting up a performance that warrants a shot in either the Irish or French 2,000 Guineas this spring. His comeback effort against allowance horses at Tampa back on March 12th was extremely disappointing for a colt with such lofty aspirations. He didn't get a whole lot to run at that day, but he's not going to see furious fractions on the frontend in Europe and he needs to show some versatility if he wants to be a serious contender overseas.
I like the tactical speed that 9-Lil Bit O'Fun (5/1) displayed when defeating Pluck in their last race and this race appears to set-up well for a horse to sit right off the early speed of 3-Powhatan Country and 7-Great Mills. Tampa shippers have done well at Keeneland the last couple of meets and I'm hoping Lil Bit O'Fun can continue that trend and score another upset over Pluck.
10 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Not sure if anyone
Drinks or collects Makers Mark stuff but they made a really cool bottle that is only on sale in KY for the Keeneland meet. I ‘ll put a link at the bottom of this post if you want to check it out. The last few years the Keeneland bottle has been UK basketball and football themed. I totally forgot about it this morning and all the liquor stores are out!!!!!! So If I want one, it’s going to be expensive! I think it’s a really cool looking bottle though.
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/62154/keeneland-honored-with-makers-mark-bottle
I saw that...
and that is really cool.
I love the Woodford Reserve special Derby bottles but my bar needs a Makers Keeneland bottle. Too bad they aren’t going to sell them in Wa. state.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Apr 8, 2011 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions
I think it's only available in KY
Because they only made 5,000 of the bottles. Last year they Keeneland bottle was blue and had a silver drawing of John Calipari on it. I was able to get 2 of them. Before they got on the UK kick, they had 3 years where they did A Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed bottle. Those are really really cool. When they do these bottles they always have a signing. I know for Affirmed Steve Cauthen was there. I think, not certain, Penny Chennery was there to sign the Secretariat Bottle. Ron Turcotte was there to sign it as well. If you get a chance you should check out ebay and look at those bottles, they are really cool.
They are on eBay
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Apr 8, 2011 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, retail
They we about 50 bucks I think , Ebay they are going to be a lot more. They do a pretty cool promotion called Thoroughbreds and Redheads weekend. I think Saturday or Friday can’t remember they have Makers Mark Day, then at night at the Distillery they have a big party for Makers Mark Ambassadors. This is the last year for that party though because the President and CEO is retiring. They may bring it back down the road, but probably not.
Maker’s Mark does a lot of really cool stuff like that though. They used to make a collector’s bottle for the Lane’s End Stakes too. It usually involved the Cincinnati Reds or Bengals, since Turfway is about 15 miles from Cincinnati.
I don’t drink a ton of bourbon, but I signed up online to be an ambassador. It’s a pretty cool marketing strategy they came up with. You sign up, and you get news on new products, expanded gift shop, and differen’t parties and events are open for Ambassadors only. They also put your name on a plaque on a barrel. Back in February I got something in the mail, it was a birth certificate with their wax stamp for my barrell. They also gave me Ambassador business cards. Around Christmas they send a gift too. It used to be gift tissue paper with makers mark bottles, this year it was something to make bourbon balls.
Nice. I think I need to sign up for that.
I’m not a huge bourbon drinker but I love how Makers and Woodwork commemorate horse racing events.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Apr 8, 2011 2:32 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I really don't drink
a lot of bourbon either, but it is pretty cool. It’s free and only takes a few minutes to do. Makers is pretty cool about sponsoring or commemorating a lot of different events too. I have in the last year or so started collecting their bottles. I know they have UK and U of L final four bottles, they did a rock the vote bottle for the 2008 election , they came out with one only in Wisconsin this year to comemorate the Packers winning the Superbowl. It’s dipped in green and yellow. I know they have a VIP bottle dipped in Pink for it’s a girl. My sister just had a baby this week and I’m going to get one of those for my brother-in-law. I sound like I should be working for them lol, but I just really like the promotions they go out of their way to put on for their customers. Not many companies do that stuff anymore.
I know they do a green wax bottle for the derby that says mint julep on there too. That one may be nationwide, not sure about that. It’s out every year around derby time.
A bit of an FYI
The fourth race today, which had that 9/5 “dirt only” horse trying two-turns on the Poly, turned out just as it tends to for horses with zero turf or synthetic form on the main track – Shotgun Shine was a very distant 3rd to Tetelestai and Dr. Hudson. My pick, Annawon, faded to 4th in the stretch. Why Shotgun Shine went to post at 9/5 is a mystery. Dirt form means almost zilch routing at Keeneland.
If you’re playing a pick 3, etc. at Keeneland this spring, and a dirt only horse is in a route race, you can almost toss him on sight…with maybe the only exception being a race that appears to have zero quality up and down the field or the trainer personally tells you the horse is going to run big.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
What did Tetelestial go off at?
I know you said if you could get some odds you would take him possibly.
2/1 on Tetelestai....
So not much to play. I did get 5/1 on Henny’s Hurricane in the 5th which helps get the meet off to a good start.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Apr 8, 2011 3:43 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on And Down The Stretch They Come
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
