Jan
16
Time to Exhale
Filed Under Uncategorized
Wow. That was my reaction as second-time starter EXHALE rolled through the lane against eight overmatched maidens in Monday’s third race. He had run a huge second in his debut behind Notional at Oak Tree but missed some time and only showed three recorded works since Nov. 26. However, the $800,000 son of Millennium Wind dominated here while stopping the clock in 1:15.4 for C R K Stable and trainer John Sadler. He beat nothing but you had to like the way he did it. Plans are to put this one on the Derby Trail, so Corey Nakatani might have some difficult decisions to make along the way (he is Paul Reddam’s main man and Reddam owns a three-headed monster in Notional, Liquidity and Great Hunter). C R K Stable (Lee and Susan Searing of Arcadia) also got the money in the Santa Ynez as JUMP ON IN ($410,000 purchase) was an easy winner at 4/5 odds for the same trainer-jockey combination.
No jock is riding better than David Flores, who racked up four winners on the card, moving him up to third in the rider standings. He is riding with complete confidence, making all the right decisions, and looks great finishing. He leads all jockeys with six stakes win (one more than Garrett Gomez) so far at the meet.
Update: Martin Garcia, who was thrown hard to the ground in Sunday’s 6th race (see details in yesterday’s Worth The Wait post), was kept in the hospital for overnight observations. He accepted no mounts on Thursday’s card.
Favorites are doing a bit better, now hitting at 31% after 16 days of racing.
I have to take a moment here to pat myself on the back for picking 9th race winner BEYOND LOADED ($21.80) and nailing the trifecta for $1,169 on my Premium Play selections (see Free Sample at bottom of page). The Sise-trained gelding was coming off a very impressive maiden win but was trying winners and turf for the first time. He came away nicely despite racing 4-wide under Alex Bisono, who was winning his first race of the meet.
Exhale, we get two days off after six straight days of racing…first post at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday.
To view a Free Sample of today’s Premium Plays, click on the link below: Premium Plays for Jan. 15
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