Star horse, Code of Honor, wins the Fountain of Youth…
Hidden Scroll, complete over-bet and over-hyped, ran a terrific race in the F of Y, while finishing 4th, showing some talent and some salt. The early fractions were a little hot and he handled some serious competition in every segment, never getting a breather. This is typical of racing at this level, at this time of year, because every horse with any speed gets to test his mettle. Many can only stand the heat for a quarter or two, often making it harder on the more serious front speed contenders, than it will be down the road. It’s part of the problem of getting your talented 3-year olds ready for the Run for the Roses.
Vekoma, wasn’t as sharp as I thought he might be, but definitely got plenty of conditioning from this race, but his stride doesn’t speak to Derby Distance, at least not in my opinion – at this time. That leaves us with the perfect trip winner Code of Honor and the good trip Bourbon War for further discussion. Both will go on my Derby Board with Bourbon War getting the higher ranking, while coming in 2nd his stride was still expanding late in the game. Just a colt that looks like he will devour more distance. This is just a visual and not a bankable opinion… Code of Honor has room to improve after today’s fine effort, but he did have a perfect setup and a perfect ground saving trip. Typically, we don’t get too excited about these sorts of wins when forecast forward. But they can be very exciting at the moment the money goes in our pockets, when we cash!
Jaywalk was ticketed for loitering! Unbelievably poor effort… That’s why we NEVER, EVER, BRIDGE JUMP! And why we give every good or even great horse a 20% chance to run an X. An X is a terrible or totally losing race, which is why there is NO MAN ALIVE who be 1 to 5! Words of wisdom to be sure…
More great racing at Gulfstream Park… Santa Anita looks good and Aqueduct is definitely looking up today! Saturday’s track at Aqueduct was very difficult. There appeared a strong anti-speed bias early on, and the outside lines got better and better… but there was also an “affinity” aspect that is very hard to quantify, where certain horses really liked the footing and other seem to hate the footing… this made for some really squirrely results on Saturday. I am pretty sure on Sunday the track will return to it’s more normal self… Who knows, maybe that added a winter additive to make it less likely to freeze… just a guess! But I surely would not be afraid to play Aqueduct on Sunday… there are some really good looking price horses to back…
Saturday’s Menu…
Aqueduct — JJ Power Page Classic and JJ Power Page – PLUS
Gulfstream Park — JJ Power Page Classic (only)
Santa Anita JJ Power Page Classic and JJ Power Page – PLUS