Some random thoughts on this Sunday morning:
- Kauai Katie, coming off a dominating debut win on July 20th at Saratoga, is the 2/5 morning line favorite for today's G2-Adirondack at 6 1/2 furlongs. She earned a 100 Beyer for her debut.
- A pretty impressive victory by Wise Dan over a yielding turf course in yesterday's Fourstardave at Saratoga. Get Stormy set a fairly good pace considering the condition of the ground, but wore down at in the final quarter mile and finished 3rd behind Wise Dan and Corporate Jungle.
I thought before the race that running Wise Dan in the Fourstardave was a sign that the connections were aiming for the Breeders' Cup Mile at the end of the year. But the Daily Racing Form is reporting that trainer Charles Lopresti is considering running him in the G1-Woodward on September 1st.
Wise Dan has proved to be one of the most versatile horses in the country and has won graded stakes on dirt (G1-Clark Hcp.), turf (G2-Fourstardave; G2-Firecracker), and synthetic (G2-Fayette; G3-Ben Ali). - I'm heading to Emerald Downs today for an afternoon of racing, including the feature race on the card: the Emerald Downs Derby.
Yesterday at Emerald, a 39/1 shot, Heavenly Skyknight, won the opening race on the card and keyed a $717.60 $2 Early Daily Double and a $2,348.15 $0.50 Early Pick 4.
- If you were watching Calder yesterday you saw Chongo Verdi, a son of The Green Monkey, come within 3/4 of a length of winning the ninth race on the card, a 5 1/2 furlong Maiden Special Weight for two-year-olds.
The Green Monkey has 20+ named progeny over at PedigreeQuery.com; he is still looking for his first winner. - Over in France, Excelebration (IRE) gets away from Frankel (GB) and gets back into the winner's circle with a win in the Group 1 Jacques le Marois at Deauville. Excelebration has finished behind Frankel five times in his career by a combined 26 1/4 lengths. You don't find too many multiple Group 1 winning horses consistently beaten by those kind of margins.