As many of you know, I’ve been an advocate of an idea I call ‘“Take Back Saturday” that involves telling a continuous story to as wide an audience as possible from the Triple Crown through the Breeder’s Cup – focusing on our marquee racing action every Saturday afternoon. The Road to the Roses races provide an excellent opportunity to illustrate how this is possible, as numerous horses competing for eligibility in the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May are knocking heads at tracks in New York, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, and soon will be adding Kentucky to that list as well. That’s why I’m focusing so heavily on these preps right now.
That being said, this Saturday is a bit of a sleeper. The only main action occurring is the Turf Paradise Derby, a race that does not feature any big name runners. As such, I’m not taking the usual vigilant “weekend warrior” stance here. I’m only going to play lightly and I”ll use this opportunity to catch up on other chores that will undoubtedly go unfinished while my ever decreasing attention span is focused on races like the Fountain of Youth and Sham Stakes next weekend.
If you’ve been following along with the series “Jockeys” on Animal Planet each weekend, you’ve no doubt become more familiar with the Santa Anita jockey colony (personally I’ve noticed that I find something strangely attractive about Kayla Stra, but that’s a story for another time). Today’s action at Santa Anita consists of a Pick 6 sequence with a $100,000 carryover. Not a bad betting opportunity as aspiring horseplayers try their luck at becoming the next “Jimmy the hat.”
Looking over that sequence, two races stand out to me. The most interesting race of the sequence in my opinion is the maiden special weight contest in race 8. Ten maidens are going 6 furlongs over the main track, and I think this could be a race to catch a sweet price. The worthy favorite is Zensational in post #4. Enunciating the name of this runner invokes images of Zenyatta, but “slow cheetah“ he is obviously not. This horse has every reason to improve off his debut effort and run this field out of it’s shoes, however, before eating chalk in this effort, cast your eyes down to #7 Off the Wall at very juicy morning line odds of 8/1.
Off the Wall has very impressive pedigree and should under no circumstances be dismissed here if he makes any kind of appearance in the post parade. I’ll be honest and admit that I’d consider making this horse an aggressive single in the Pick 6, if I weren’t so fond of choosing runners with a race under their belt over first time starters. As such, I think you cover Off the Wall and Zensational on the ticket. Don’t be fooled by the 0% stat with first time starters as trainer Bruce Headley knows how to get a horse cranked up for their debut. Also note that the Candy Ride offspring have been having a sensational year so far, and are definite horses to watch out west when they debut. If you happened to pick up a Saturday edition of the Daily Racing Form, you’ll be further encouraged by some of the “closer look” comments concerning Candy Ride and Off the Wall’s dam, Diablo’s Peace. Giddyup!
I’m not going to go through each race on the card in one of my marathon handicapping posts here, but I also want to spend a little time talking about the Valentine Dancer Handicap. Of particular interest is that a horse who played a role in last night’s episode of Jockeys, #8 Onebadkitty, is entered in today’s race. In the episode, Onebadkitty reared up in the gate, tossing Gryder to the ground just two days before he was to pilot Well Armed in a bid for a Breeders’ Cup entry. The two are paired up once again today.
This race is actually stacked with horses you have to give a fighting chance to. Tiz a Blend would probably be my top choice, if only for my affinity to horses with “Tiz” in their name (technically it’s more of a direct Tiznow affinity, but I’m also fond of anything sired by his daddy, Cee’s Tizzy). Chrsitiana’s Heat has had a bit of seconditis lately but figures to have a shot in here as well. Then you’ve got the recent darkened form of Bel Air Sizzle that might result in a slightly better value play at the windows. Don’t forget about Waveline, North Rodeo, and Swiss Diva. I still give Tiz a Blend a slight edge, but not by much. You might want to cover several options here if you can.
The other big race of the day at Santa Anita is the San Carlos Handicap. I thought Mike Watchmaker summed this one up perfectly in his selections for the day. I won’t steal any of his thunder, but suffice to say I think this one comes down to Georgie Boy and Past the Point. I’m quite fond of Georgie Boy, so I’ll take him for the win, but he is a bit vulnerable here if he doesn’t get anything to run at.
One other quick pick for the day, and it’s more of a local one for me. In the Maryland Media Handicap we appear to have a two horse race between All Smiles and Hello Poochi Pooh. I’m taking All Smiles by virtue of the better odds despite the fact that ‘Hello should be loose on the lead. I actually expected the odds to be reversed on these two, and bettors might make that a reality by post time, but if All Smiles is available at 5/2 he’ll be the play.
That’s all for this weekend. We’ll be back in full force next week to gear up for the Fountain of Youth and the Sham, two very important races in the Road to the Roses. Best of luck to all.
BOB BAFFERT, thoroughbred horse-trainer who has been suspended numerous times for administering ‘banned substances’ to horses in his care[besides steroids, growth-hormone deemed permissable by racing bodies]; has been nominated to RACING’S HALL of FAME!!! DOES IT MATTER ANYMORE THAT MOST OF THE ‘LEADING TRAINERS’ HAVE BEEN CAUGHT/SUSPENDED FOR ADMINISTERING DRUGS(BANNED SUBSTANCES) TO THEIR HORSES??? Should BAFFERT[or any other drug-cheater TRAINER?] now be inducted into the RACING HALL of SHAME??? DOES ANYONE CARE???
Posted by Jaimot’s Jargon at 7:53 AM
I hear ya, Zyskander. It is something to think about. Ultimately I think he’s being honored more for his work with horses like Point Given, who don’t seem to have been drugged, but certainly there are some troubling ethics involved. I think it “matters” to the mainstream public more than anyone within racing seems to understand – although there have been noteworthy gains in the past year to start moving the sport away from drugs.
In the 70′s through the 80′s – it was ‘common’ on the backstretch not to claim horses trained by BAFFERT – and we just marveled at horses either claimed or bought by BAFFERT AMAZINGLY did so well JUST STEPPIN INTO HIS BARN. IT IS NO ‘SECRET’ NOW THAT THEY WERE DRUGGED-ie treated with steroids/growth hormone or outright drugged with banned substances. GREAT TRAINING – FROM A NEEDLE.