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HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS FEBRUARY 19, 2010 by Dick Powell It's probably too late for any maidens to have an affect on this year's classic races but Monday's 3RD race at Gulfstream may have displayed some future talent for stakes races further down the road. Run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, it attracted three, well-bred, well-connected sophomore colts. The narrow favorite at 6-5 was DESERT LORD (Elusive Quality) from the William and Suzanne Warren Stable of Saint Liam fame and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. Next in the betting at 13-10 was the Todd Pletcher trainee City Wolf (Giant's Causeway) from the Stronach Stable who is a half-brother to 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) as well as Grade 1 victor and good sire City Zip (Carson City). Ignored in the betting was Kerouac (Rock Hard Ten) from the Zayat Stables trained by Nick Zito after running unplaced in two career starts on the turf and in the slop. Javier Castellano decided to try to rate City Wolf at the start and yielded an expected pace advantage to Remittance (Unforgettable Max), who led through a first half in :48.31. City Wolf stalked on the outside and Jose Lezcano aboard Kerouac went up the rail down the backstretch to reach contention. Unfortunately, with the slow pace, none of the horses on the front were tiring yet and Lezcano had to hit the brakes and drop back about two lengths heading into the far turn. As the pace picked up around the far turn, City Wolf was right there but couldn't mount a real challenge. Kerouac swung to the outside and took a short lead in the stretch but as soon as he did Alan Garcia appeared on the scene with Desert Lord, who surged to take the lead and win by a half-length. Kerouac was second and another 1 1/2 lengths back saw City Wolf in third. Desert Lord was making his two-turn debut after two prior starts a winning one both quantitatively and qualitatively. His final time of 1:50.37 was very solid, as he had to race wide for much of the race on a day where the inside was the place to be, and he showed determination in the stretch. He earned a career-best BRIS Speed rating of 91 and showed longer races are within his reach with BRIS Pace figures of 71 (E1), 77 (E2) and 102 (Late Pace). Kerouac could have won had Lezcano found room when he needed it but he still made a strong move turning for home and youngsters that are capable of making multiple moves in a race are worth watching. With his pedigree he should get better with maturity, and Zito has always been unafraid to race horses into fitness and not worry about his winning percentage. City Wolf didn't run bad but has looked one-paced in his dirt starts. His sire, Giant's Causeway, is one of the world's top sires so it might pay for Pletcher to try him on the turf. ***** Gulfstream abandoned the use of two turf courses for two weeks when the temporary rail was set at 48 feet last week and 60 feet the week before and all the races were run on one turf course. On February 17, they went back to two courses with the temporary rail set at 0 feet and 72 feet. Since past performance information does not designate where the temporary rail(s) are located, the following shows where it was for each turf race from opening day through Wednesday of this week. If you are like me and factor in the rail placement and what course a race is being contested over in your handicapping, consider the following a gift from BRIS:
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