It's Wood Day, unfortunately tax season has prevented me from attending the big day at the Big A. But that doesn't mean we don't have opinions and such. We took a quick stab at the Guaranteed $500K Pick Four last night and came up with the following:
G3 Comely: 3-Her Smile (3-1) is my top choice with David Cohen up for trainer Leigh Delacour. Looking for her to continue to improve third off the layoff after two races at Tampa (one on the turf). Beaten last out by Wyomia, who goes later today in the Ashford at Keeneland. Also using the NY-bred Hushion horse 5-Ava K. who tries graded company for the first time and the Pletcher horse 2-R Holiday Mood, winner of two straight.
G3 BayShore: 3-JJ's Lucky Train has done little wrong during his 3-year old campaign, has been at Aqueduct before and the place horse in his last outing won the non-graded $75K Private Terms at Laurel. We'll also include the Vindication colt 7-Vengeful Wildcat and 8-Royal Currier looking for a price. I'm throwing out Royal Currier's Hutcheson based on his horrible start and looking at past races at Aqueduct he was only beaten by a good colt, Fort Hughes in the Jimmy Winkfield.
G1 Carter: Best race on the card. What's not to like about 7-Apriority? Comes out of an optional race at Gulfstream for trainer David Fawkes and owner Donald Dizney. Going a little deeper in here with two more horses, the Pletcher/Dominguez 1-Calibrachoa, who shows a win over the main track and two Grade 3 victories to his credit. He'll be looking for his fifth straight for Repole Stables. We'll throw in 10-Morning Line, Zito's classy horse, still looking for his first Grade 1 victory. Still debating on 3-Laysh Laysh Laysh and 4-Kensei, but most likely will use neither. [UPDATE: Calibrachoa has been scratched due to soreness in his feet...so thinking LLL]
G1 Wood: Free square. Uncle Mo. You can see my analysis on this race at my Sports, Ink blog at The Buffalo News here.
Well, you know Triple Crown season has arrived when the following occur: (1) Claims of a weak 3-year old crop; (2) Defections due to injury (see To Honor and Serve and Premier Pegasus) and (3) no major TV coverage of a huge prep weekend. Three big preps today and I'll have to go to TVG for the Wood and Illinois Derby and HRTV or TwinSpiresTV for the Santa Anita Derby. Ugh.
On a positive television note, the Black-Eyed Susan, one of my favorite days will be televised for the first time by the NBC-owned Versus channel. This is an excellent development, several years ago I put up a poll on the site as to who would do a great job covering horse racing, and Versus was at or near the top. It will be interesting to see how they do with racing coverage, if it's anything like how they cover the NHL, it should be decent.
Speaking of the NHL...here's a look at that Gerbe goal (and about five replays!)....Enjoy the weekend!
1 Comment:
Good cappin, Geno. Hope you profited on the winners.
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