|
|
HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS MAY 28, 2010 by Dick Powell Monmouth Park's brave new world began last Saturday before a big crowd that bet a lot of money. The next day, more people showed up than last year and they bet more money. It remains to be seen if this continues and if it is enough to make up for dropping two days of racing. Now that we have that out of the way, Saturday's card saw more horses that rallied from far back to win on Monmouth's main track than any other that I have ever seen. Last year, there were 357 races run at six furlongs and the BRIS Speed Bias was 68 percent with 27 percent of those races won gate to wire. Going a mile on the main track, there were 107 races run at that distance and the BRIS Speed Rating was 67 percent with 24 percent won gate to wire. So it was safe to assume that speed would hold up pretty good on opening day but only MYAKKA CITY (City Place) was able to win gate to wire when she captured Saturday's 12TH race. I thought the track might have been changing late in the day and becoming tighter as the sun began to set but in race 13, NEXT MAY (Grand Reward) was able to rally from dead last and pass 11 rivals to win the finale going away. On Sunday, we didn't see as many horses win from as far back as Saturday but the only gate-to-wire winner was UNTOPABLE (Untuttable), who won the opener going two turns. The claim box was the place to be as 11 horses were claimed on Saturday and 19 more changed hands on Sunday. Horses that are claimed shall not race elsewhere until after the close of the meet unless it has been entered in a stakes race, so all 30 claimed horses can be expected to be seen again at Monmouth. There has been a lot of chatter about the New York Racing Association making efforts to keep horses stabled on their grounds from going across the river to New Jersey but after seeing at least two races won by NYRA trustees it is going to be hard to enforce. With so much attention on Monmouth Park, a trio of budding stars raced at Belmont over the weekend. AFLEET EXPRESS (Afleet Alex) was an impressive debut winner on December 5 at Aqueduct overcoming a rough start to win going away on a muddy track. His starting problems continued at Gulfstream when he was the beaten favorite twice in first-level allowance sprints. Off for 86 days, Afleet Express showed up at Belmont on Saturday in a seven-furlong allowance event on the main track. With new rider Javier Castellano in the irons, Afleet Express broke alertly and stalked early leader Storm on the Moon (Stormy Atlantic) through a first quarter in :22.70 and a half in :45.59. Without any visible encouragement from Castellano, Afleet Express began to pull away around the far turn and opened a clear lead at the eighth-pole when he threw in a :23.99 third quarter. From there it was a procession to the wire where he won by 7 3/4 lengths and stopped the teletimer in 1:21.72. Considering how slow the early fractions were, this was a huge effort on his behalf. After the race, trainer Jimmy Jerkens indicated that they would look for a two-turn race and he could show up at Monmouth for the Pegasus Stakes on June 19 at 1 1/16 miles. On Sunday, well-bred first time starter FLAWLESS (Mr. Greeley) made her career debut going seven furlongs and all she did was win by 13 1/4 lengths. Considering that Bill Mott only wins with 7 percent of his first-time starters, her debut win had to be an abundance of natural running talent. Listed at 7-2 on the morning line, there must have been a lot of chatter about how well she was training since she went off the 11-10 favorite. Later on the Sunday card at Belmont, SAFETY CHECK (Empire Maker) made his second career start going seven furlongs. Beaten at Philly Park in his career debut at Philly Park, the Alan Goldberg trainee showed the speed of his dam, sprint champion Safely Kept (Horatius), as he went to the front and never looked back; winning by seven lengths in 1:22.99. One of the dangers in not breeding like to like is that you could get the worst of all worlds. With a speedy dam and a sire that won the Belmont S. (G1), you run the risk of getting a sprinter who is not fast enough or a distance horse that has too much speed and not enough stamina. Based on Sunday's results, it looks like Safety Check got it just right.
 Send this article to a friend
|
|
