I spent most of this weekend priming and painting one of our upstairs bedrooms (and it was just as fun as it sounds), so I only caught the Gulfstream races on Saturday and not much else this weekend. Thankfully, track replay shows are around to help me catch-up.
Some thoughts on this weekend's action:
-One of Babaro's brothers, Nicanor, ran in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream, a race won by the front running Little Mike.
The unpredictability of the breeding game is illustrated once more with Barbaro and this full brothers; Dynaformer and La Villa Rouge have produced three colts - Barbaro, Nicanor and Lentenor - and the latter two haven't come close to the level of the first.
-Early speed did very well on at Gulfstream on the main track Saturday with three wire-to-wire winners and three winners coming from a length to a length and a half off the lead at the four furlong mark. However, I don't think you could call the track "biased" since those wire-to-wire winners were all favorites that figured based on past performance.
-Soldat earned a 96 Beyer for his Fountain of Youth win, while Gourmet Dinner got a 93, and To Honor and Serve picked up an 85. R Heat Lightning received a 98 for her Davona Dale winer, besting the boys by 2 points.
-While early speed fared well, the come home times on the main track Saturday were anything but spectacular. Below are the final fraction times for Saturday's main track winners at Gulfstream:
Race 1 (50k MCl - 7f): 13.38
Race 3 (N1X - 9f): 13.19
Race 6 (MSW - 8f): 26.29
Race 8 (G2 - 8f): 25.28
Race 9 (G2 - 7f): 13.19
Race 10: (G2 - 9f): 13.04
Looking at the above splits it certainly seems consistent that the Davona Dale was the best race on the card and R Heat Lightning the top performance. Every main track winner on Saturday, whether sprinter or router, came home in 13+ or 26+ except for R Heat Lightning.
If you're wondering about that N1X race with the solid (comparatively) 13.19 come-home time, that race was won by Arch Traveler, a three-year-old son of Sky Mesa out of a Silver Deputy mare, Mettle. Arch Traveler is trained by James Jerkens.
-I don't know if any of you watched the Turf Paradise Derby on Saturday, but if you did, you saw an absolute bomb roll home in the form of Beer Meister. The 40/1 shot winner combined with the 9/2 place horse to key a $273.20 Exacta for $2 and a $310.00 Daily Double. Not a bad bit of change.
At the extreme opposite of the Turf Paradise Derby was the Fountain of Youth; the chalky finish of Soldat, Gourmet Dinner, and To Honor and Serve produced a $13.80 Exacta ($2) and an $18.80 Trifecta ($1). That's not going to accelerate retirement.
-I'm working on a post requested by one of our readers (Swale) summarizing the raw times of three-year-old winners this winter/spring. I'll have that post up on the site early tomorrow morning.