The Traver’s card was…
well somewhat ruined by the sad rail situation. Any horse, unlucky enough to be placed on the rail or draw the #1 post position was doomed. Interestingly, J.R. Velazquez was bright enough, when riding eventual Travers Winner CODE OF HONOR to get off the rail as soon as possible. Then his wide rally was the perfect place to move and his finish we sufficient to dispatch this group. The bone-head rider award would have to go to Jose L. Oritz who broke alertly, and could choose any path because of his early move today… but for some reason, he decided to go down near the rail, maybe to the 2-path, which might have taken a little bit out of his finish. Ultimately, he did move further away from the rail on the far turn, but by then had just asked his horse to do a little too much. Tacitus is the horse we are talking about and this beautiful horse is collecting excuses instead of wins. Quite a shame in my opinion.
Congrats to J.R and SHUG, too classy guys who know how to get success…
Bias alerts for Saturday…
Just when we thought the rail at Saratoga was a good place to be, it turned as sour as 5-day old milk after it was left out. The rail simply engulfed and devoured any runner unlucky enough to be stuck on it. It seemed on Thursday and Friday the rail was behaving well, but for some reason, Saturday’s stakes event was conducted on a seriously biased race track…. too bad.
Del Mar has hit it’s stride as a racing surface… but they need to do better with their gate crews.
Sunday’s Menu
Saratoga – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS
Del Mar – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS