You have to figure the crowd is going to favor Midas Eyes on the big one turn numbers, so at a glance the key to the race appears to whether he can be beaten. In my opinion Midas has not improved gradually at distance a la Peace Rules and he hasn\'t shown solid mile ability like Badge of Silver, but hes stretching out very similarly to the latter and Ghostzapper. The extra push at distance these horses are finding is the \"Frankel Phenomena\". This is performance that Frankel wasn\'t able to coax out of his horses even five years ago, but performance that is now commonplace with him.
Adding to the uncertainty with the Frankel Phenomena is the fact that it does not appear there will be milkshake testing on this race. According to the reports I\'ve read they are only testing for Milkshakes in graded stakes at Hallandale this meet. This is a non graded stakes, however Frankel has already proven he can get more out of a horse at Gulfstream than the horse has had in the past regardless of graded stakes race status and milkshake testing. But then again, there are a few Kalifornia invaders.
Dance all night, run all day
Don\'t let nothin get in your way
Dance all night, keep the beat
Don\'t you worry \'bout two left feet
Just shake it up...woo ewwwww hooooo
Shake it up...ooooh yeah
Dance all night, get real loose
You won\'t need a race excuse
Dance all night with anyone
Automatic horse, is always fun
Just shake it up...woo ewwwww hoooo
Shake it up...oh yeah
Dance all night, go, go, go
Dance all night, you\'re never slow
Go all night, get real hot
Shake it up, he\'s gonna pop
Dance all night, whirl your hair
Make other trainers stop and stare
Dance all night, it ain\'t work
Do the move with the quirky jerk
Just shake it up
Shake it up...oooooh yeah
CtC
Post Edited (01-28-05 13:15)
I don\'t favor Midas Eyes, but he does have a decent route in his past performances. I think he\'s best going 6F to a mile, but he doesn\'t deteriorate so badly as they stretch out that he can\'t do reasonably well here. There are no killers here unless one of the more lightly raced types steps forward.
I\'m going to take a closer look tonight.
I jumped the gun a little. They are random testing up to three races per card. Additionally per the below story the Hals Hope doesnt rule out Frankel and shaking. It was a Grade III
http://www.drf.com/news/article/62296.html
Substance momentum back to Frankel.
I\'m still factoring pace and position, but at first glance I\'m not enamored with Frankel\'s post and the Strub was a relatively weak race in my opinion.
Post Edited (01-28-05 13:48)
I agree that the Strub was not a particularly strong field, but neither is this one unless someone moves forward.
The Strub wasn\'t such a pathetic performance that Midas becomes an automatic throwout on distance here. It\'s more of mild negative against horses of similar ability.
IMO the key issue is how several horses that could move forward actually run. A few look like they were prepped specifically for this and they have records that indicate a potential big move forward.
Don\'t get me wrong, there\'s almost no chance that I will wind up betting Midas here, I just don\'t think the distance will weigh heavily in that decision. It\'s a minor negative.