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CALDER NOTEBOOK JULY 9, 2010 Summit Week at Calder It's July in steamy South Florida, but the recorded high temperatures all week have generally been 10 degrees cooler than the triple-digit heat wave prevailing in New York, Philadelphia and other major cities in the Northeast! On Saturday, prominent Northeast-based trainers Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Kiaran McLaughlin, Richard Dutrow and Michael Trombetta, as well as Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, will have horses at Calder Race Course & Casino for the Summit of Speed program. Top incoming jockeys include Edgar Prado, Robby Albarado, Julien Leparoux, Kent Desormeaux and Victor Espinoza. Calder's decade-old, one-day Summit of Speed is a real treat on the summer schedule, with seven stakes races worth a total of $1.35 million. Money still "makes the mare go." Soggy July 4th Weekend Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday's races at Calder (July 1-3) were conducted over a fast main track and firm turf course, but after the early daily double Sunday, conditions went downhill quickly with heavy, steady rain moving in for the rest of the day turning the track "sloppy" and continuing over into Monday's special holiday card. While natural early speed continues to be a horse's most valuable asset in most of the main track races, particularly sprints, the domination of a few riders also needs to be taken into consideration as Luis Saez, Manoel Cruz and Angel Moreno have separated themselves from their closest competitors in the room. Jockey Luis Saez, 18, lost his apprentice allowance going into last week's action, but who noticed as the emerging Panamanian talent rode four winners on Friday's card, two for owner trainer Steve Dwoskin, who had a good day himself saddling three winners. Saez holds a comfortable lead in the Calder standings over 40-year-old veteran Cruz at 71-55 after 2 1/2 months of the session, with 21-year-old Panamanian Angel Moreno still riding with his apprentice allowance in third at 36 wins. Edgar Perez and Luis Jurado are tied for fourth at 21 apiece. The competition among trainers never has been more competitive than this summer with a dozen horsemen separated by only three wins. Bill White, an 11-time Calder meet titlist, shares the lead with Steve DiMauro and Chris Gatis with 12 wins each. Dwoskin, Eddie Plesa Jr. and Fred Warren are only one behind at 11 apiece, and Bill Kaplan and Tim Ritvo tied for ninth, only two off the lead, with 10 tallies. HORSES TO WATCH Saturday (6/26) 7TH -- DELIGHTFUL DAWN (Act of Duty) was accidentally omitted from last week's Notebook, but she deserves a mention. The juvenile filly did not appear to be interested in the 5 1/2-furlong event as she sat well off the pace in seventh in the upper stretch, but flew through the final furlong to just miss by a head in a remarkable debut performance. Thursday (7/1) 7TH -- BLACK SCORPION (Scorpion) appeared very uncomfortable up close to a slow pace as the favorite, but held well for third as old class horse Magic Mecke (Mecke) was back to top form to score. Black Scorpion wants to rate behind a faster pace for his best. Saturday (7/3) 3RD -- SWIFT WARRIOR (First Samurai) keeps moving ahead with each start and finished strongly for third with "blinkers on" to be beaten only 1 1/2 lengths by the wire-to-wire winner. The son of freshman sire First Samurai will appreciate a bit more distance. Monday (7/5) 5TH -- TOO GOOD (Dixieland Band) made a good rally from seventh early in the race for the place behind an old class horse went wire-to-wire with no challenge at any point.
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