Can anyone on track tell me if they did anything different to the track between the 1st and 2nd and then again the 3rd and 4th races yesterday? Watching the workout cam this morning, they are clearly zipping over the surface again today! The rail seemed to be superior yesterday, too. I guess Baffert got what he wanted. The brilliance is back, huh? Not sure he wanted his prized maiden going 1:06 and change! But make no mistake that horse ran very fast; the horse he beat is a really good horse, and he trounced him soundly. Even if you add about 2 seconds to the time, that\'s still under 1:09, blazing in any equation. Now the big question is what will those races do to the horses who ran lights out yesterday? In the old days on wet tracks there, the main would play like cement, and after horses ran over it, they were ruined for a long time if not permanently, so we\'ll have to see what happens to the horses yesterday. If you\'re running 106 and 119 for 7 furlongs, how forgiving can the surface really be? Although I will say most of those lights out times yesterday were run by very good horses; it\'s not like cheap horses were running those times, you know? I always thought Twirling Candy was one of the best 3 year olds, talent wise anyway, though he needs much rest between starts, and they finally figured that much out by now. So will they slow things down today??? I guess we\'ll find out, right. This dirt will take some tweaking for sure, but I\'m not complaining. Can you imagine, the best horse pretty much wins the race in California again -- I\'ll have to wrap my brain around that very strange concept. I was pleased with Malibu Pier\'s race too -- she was so far back on a track impossible for closers, and she really finished great -- no one was beating Switch. I also thought Arresting Officer ran great too -- with a typically jackass ride, 4 wide all the way around, he was still trying. I guess trying to get Joe Talamo to think would be impossible. All he needs to do is grab the horse for the first quarter mile - by the time he figured that out it was too late. Be really interesting to see what Jerry and company do with yesterday\'s numbers. My guess and it\'s just a guess is that the times weren\'t that skewed, fast for sure, but not as fast as you might think, meaning those races were mostly legit - as I said they were very good horses running fast times, that I can live with any day of the week!
Dana,
Beyer/Hopkins not impressed (a maiden 2 yr claimer went 6f in 9 and change). Figs for yesterdays winners just ok:
Switch (Beyer 100)
TC (Beyer 108)
SC (Beyer 104)
Thirtyfirst(Beyer 77)
Preliminary variant at plus 210(equals +12 lengths raw).Surface \"wet fake fast\" and drying out from 1st to 9th race.
Mike
How did The Factor measure up compared to those winners you list?
So Cal,
Figs for non stakes not yet available. Given the ridiculous speed of yesterdays surface, I would be very cautious in drawing any firm conclusions about yesterdays winners/figs. The visually impressive Factor included.
Mike
The Factor: Beyer 102.
OK, thanks. I do want to see T-G\'s numbers too.