Starting in November of 11 and prior to yesterday these are this mares numbers for her last 4 races.(The mare won the G3 Las Flores yesterday.)10 1/2, 6 1/2, 3 3/4, 1 1/4, yesterday ?.At age five what do you attest this large/rapid improvement to?
Jeff Bonde is also the trainer of Frumious. Check out his sheets and internal pace numbers and recent improvement.
I gave this one a lot of thought because of the abrupt change. At one point in her career I would have called her cheap speed, because she generally gave it up under pressure. Her age is a definite questionmark. However, she was lightly raced, suggesting there was one or more physical problems. I don\'t know whether or not Bonde is suspect, but a good trainer is one who keeps trying to find the solution and it\'s not always an illegal one. I have raced a Peace Rules foal who got better with age because we found the problem after more than a year of trying different things. What we did did not involve drugs or anything near illegal. It was a mechanical issue that responded to treatment. He was a bleeder who needed a chiropractor. He does not bleed anymore, following adjustments. Bleeding will stop a horse. Stop the bleeding and they go on.
Izzy tries the boys in the Count Fleet (G3) at Oaklawn Saturday. She is the 8/5
favorite, but based on her TGs, is by no means dominant. Am not familiar enough
with jockey Maldonado to know whether he can tack 113.
Second favorite Apriority has been a top notch sprinter, yet is surprisingly (to
me) only 1/7 at the six furlong distance.
Third favorite Hamazing Destiny, going out for D Wayne, who looks to become Derby
relevant again when he sends out Optimizer in the Arkansas Derby later in the
afternoon, is 0/7 over the last 2 years.
Arguably as fast as any of these is Outta Tune, who is 5/1 ML coming off three
straight OP wins for Maggi Moss and trainer Chris (26%) Richard. Outta Tune was
claimed for 4K and 5K last year at Prairie, has put up impressive TGs in his last
2 races. Also interesting at 20/1 is Silver Magnus, who was second in this race
last year at 31/1.
All in all Oaklawn presents a very good day of old fashioned dirt racing, which
will become a rare commodity as tracks such as Belmont will smother us with turf
racing in an effort to present full fields.