Mar
12
Weekend Review
Filed Under Uncategorized
The cream rises to the top. Class tells. Cliches, yes, but also truisms this weekend in big races from around the country.
On Sunday, RAGS TO RICHES dominated her overmatched opponents in winning the Santa Anita Oaks for owners Smith/Tabor and trainer Todd Pletcher. After watching her win the Las Virgenes after an impossibly wide trip in only her third start, we all knew ‘RICHES had the look of something special. Yesterday she just toyed with the field, winning easily in a solid time of 1:42.4. Her connections intimated that she may get a shot at the boys before moving back to her own division in the Kentucky Oaks.
MAGNIFICIENCE lived up to her name when breaking her maiden in the first race of the day. Awesome, scintillating, superb. Pick any adjective that you’d like to describe her victory. After breaking very slowly and throwing her head around for the first 1/4-mile of the race, the daughter of Stormy Atlantic took off on the turn while making a huge wide run, then kept right on going to draw off in the lane. Owned (at least on paper–reportedly there were a host of Asian suits in the walking ring before the race) and trained by Bruce Headley, this 3-year-old filly has “star” written all over her. Some cynical press box wags suggested that maybe Headley could just hand the filly over to Jess Jackson in lieu of that $900,000 settlement check he has to write.
On the human front, again the cream rose. Trainer Doug O’Neill won three (including the co-feature Santana Mile with RAISE THE BLUFF, who dug in gamely to defeat C’MON TIGER ) and Garrett Gomez won four on the card. Perhaps even more significant than winning the feature aboard ‘RICHES, Gomez was able to get a win for trainer Laura de Seroux (WORLD ASUNDER in 10th race). De Seroux, whose husband is one of the people implicated in the Jackson lawsuit (for bloodstock improprieties, etc.), had been three-for-74 (4%) into the day. AZERI, upon further reflection and subsequent training success (or lack thereof) by her former conditioner, might have been the greatest filly to ever live.
SMOKEY STOVER outclassed his field up north and looks ready to tackle the real biggies of the sprint division.
On Saturday, BALANCE overcame a tough trip to win the Santa Margarita, her third Grade I victory (all at Santa Anita). She was hemmed in along the rail, had to wait while ERMINE made what looked like the winning move at the top of stretch, but angled out and ran down that one near the wire. Both fillies ran super but BALANCE is definitely back on top of her game for David Hofmans, who also took the Baldwin with DESERT CODE (2nd race). Two riding wins for David Flores, who teamed up with Bobby Frankel aboard IN THE WOODS and BRILLIANT CUT in back-to-back races. Frankel overtook the legendary Charlie Whittingham to become the all-time winningest trainer (870 victories) at Santa Anita when ‘WOODS impressively broke her maiden (3rd race).
As great as Frankel’s achievement is, let’s take a moment to look back at what Whittingham accomplished at Santa Anita during his illustrious career: From 1956-57 (when top-five trainer standings began being listed in the media guide), Whittingham finished in the top five 21 times (the last time in 1988-89), while being leading trainer four times. Through four decades of unparalleled excellence, Whittingham won the San Juan Capistrano 14 times (Frankel’s won it twice), took the Santa Anita Handicap nine times (Frankel twice) and won the SA Oaks four times (Frankel once). 204 total stakes wins for Whittingham, which still remains nearly double Frankel’s total. As we wrote earlier, Frankel is only 65 and still has many productive years ahead of him, but there will always be just one Charlie Whittingham.
From around the country: At Fair Grounds, CIRCULAR QUAY was impressive in his off-the-pace win in the Louisiana Derby. He’s legit, no knocks, other than his late-running style can be problematic in large fields. SoCal shipper LIQUIDITY disappointed when running fifth and seems like the weakest link in Paul Reddam’s sophomore trio. MASTER COMMAND easily won the New Orleans Handicap; EINSTEIN overcame a brutal trip to win the Mervin Muniz (he had to steady hard and go around injured KING’S DRAMA, who is not in a life-threatening situation); and MISTICAL PLAN (Reddam and O’Neill) went wire-to-wire to hold off OCTAVE in the Fair Grounds Oaks.
At Aqueduct, COWTOWN CAT (another Pletcher) took the Gotham in handy fashion while making his first start around two turns. He beat a modest field off a slow pace but might be a Derby sleeper horse. Up north, BWANA BULL won the El Camino Real Derby but he didn’t beat much and seems a cut below the serious Derby contenders.
To view Free Samples of Saturday and Sunday Premium Plays, click on the links below: Premium Plays for Mar. 10           Premium Plays for Mar. 11
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