Finally, a race card worthy of the Spa, especially races 9-13. NY Governors
have traditionally presented Travers trophy, will be interested to see if Don
Cuomoleone will be in attendance.
R9 Ballston Spa -- no beef with the 3 logical favorites here, but will be
hoping that Ruthenia continues to improve as a 4YO. This one had 2 decent
tries at the Spa last summer when ridden by Alan Garcia, who was in a terrible
funk. Gets Lezcano here, who has clicked with Clement at a 30% rate. Full
sister to the very fast Rutherienne. Potential to lose ground here, but maybe
my best longshot in the sequence.
R10 Test -- Will be using Contested but trying to beat her at short odds.
Second fave Book Review could move forward off the pair, and has gotten as
close as any filly has been to Questing recently 2 races back. Book Review is
sired by Giants Causeway, who according to most excellent TG sire stats has
sired 139 stakes winners, only 9 of which have won at less than 1 mile. For
chaos will be tossing in Beautiful But Blue, who has dominated NYBs recently
but could bounce to the Moon off her last. For ultimate chaos will be using Md
shipper Jazzy Idea, who has been much faster on turf but could be running late
here.
R11 Kings Bishop -- Highweights/favorites Trinniberg and Currency Swap are
quite good now. CS is 3/3 at the Spa and worked very sharply at Mth last
Saturday. CS and Trinni have already beaten most in this field.
R12 Travers -- Have California colts dominated 3YO racing thus far in 2012?
Does the Pope wear a funny hat? As such, ROTW selection Liaison is oh so
logical here, but I think he will be closer to 4/1 than his 8/1 ML. The other
Cali based colt, Nonios, has some karma going as Hollendorfer was able to land
Johnny V, not a bad catch driver. My longshot is Stealcase, who is slower than
these, but is sired by Lawyer Ron, who ran a very fast Whitney at the Spa a
couple of years back; this one\'s dam sire is BC Classic winner Cat Thief.
Tough to bet a colt eligible for NW3 LT in this spot, but he should love the
distance.
Fitty Cent P4 -- 2,4,6,7/3,5,6,8,10/3,9/4,8,9,10 = $80
R13 -- Mott\'s Night Site has a huge TG edge over these, is the proverbial gift
horse at ML odds of 3/1. Honorable Mention: Reflecting goes out for Shug, gets
rider change from C. Montalvo to Johnny V.
Best of luck to all.
Richie,
You missed and awesome day yesterday which had TGAB asking for a special Silver Charm edition. Silver (Dale) made his first Spa visit in about 20 years and we had a ball as stories were abound. Great to meet another sickie whom I\'ve chatted with for the past 2 years fairly regularly. Maybe a special Sunday addition as the puzzles in the early races today have occupied my time. Let\'s hope it was well spent! I also let him know that Jimbo is not nearly as grumpy as he seems.
Only 1 major flaw in your pick sequence IMHO; I can\'t see Nonios duplicating his first dirt top. I love Jazzy Idea and will press that pick ticket for sure.
Mott has a huge # power advantage in the last and is 3/4 to at least duplicate his top. Co-2nd fastest runners are all inside and moving in the correct direction so 1,2,4 & 6 must be used in the verticals.
FD\'s play of the day:
Animal Spirits in the 8th is inside, get\'s weight from the 4 yr. olds, has a huge jockey swith to Lezcano from Joel (wider than wide Mike) Roasrio. A horror trip in last into a slow pace. Rosario has had a much better meet than I thought he would and is an awesome front end rider; however his rides on inner have been leaky roof circuit caliber if he\'s not up front!
Animal Spirts to WIN and use back and forth with 2,3,6, &7.
Good luck,
Frank D.
richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Finally, a race card worthy of the Spa, especially
> races 9-13. NY Governors
> have traditionally presented Travers trophy, will
> be interested to see if Don
> Cuomoleone will be in attendance.
>
> R9 Ballston Spa -- no beef with the 3 logical
> favorites here, but will be
> hoping that Ruthenia continues to improve as a
> 4YO. This one had 2 decent
> tries at the Spa last summer when ridden by Alan
> Garcia, who was in a terrible
> funk. Gets Lezcano here, who has clicked with
> Clement at a 30% rate. Full
> sister to the very fast Rutherienne. Potential to
> lose ground here, but maybe
> my best longshot in the sequence.
>
> R10 Test -- Will be using Contested but trying to
> beat her at short odds.
> Second fave Book Review could move forward off the
> pair, and has gotten as
> close as any filly has been to Questing recently 2
> races back. Book Review is
> sired by Giants Causeway, who according to most
> excellent TG sire stats has
> sired 139 stakes winners, only 9 of which have won
> at less than 1 mile. For
> chaos will be tossing in Beautiful But Blue, who
> has dominated NYBs recently
> but could bounce to the Moon off her last. For
> ultimate chaos will be using Md
> shipper Jazzy Idea, who has been much faster on
> turf but could be running late
> here.
>
> R11 Kings Bishop -- Highweights/favorites
> Trinniberg and Currency Swap are
> quite good now. CS is 3/3 at the Spa and worked
> very sharply at Mth last
> Saturday. CS and Trinni have already beaten most
> in this field.
>
> R12 Travers -- Have California colts dominated 3YO
> racing thus far in 2012?
> Does the Pope wear a funny hat? As such, ROTW
> selection Liaison is oh so
> logical here, but I think he will be closer to 4/1
> than his 8/1 ML. The other
> Cali based colt, Nonios, has some karma going as
> Hollendorfer was able to land
> Johnny V, not a bad catch driver. My longshot is
> Stealcase, who is slower than
> these, but is sired by Lawyer Ron, who ran a very
> fast Whitney at the Spa a
> couple of years back; this one\'s dam sire is BC
> Classic winner Cat Thief.
> Tough to bet a colt eligible for NW3 LT in this
> spot, but he should love the
> distance.
>
> Fitty Cent P4 -- 2,4,6,7/3,5,6,8,10/3,9/4,8,9,10 =
> $80
>
> R13 -- Mott\'s Night Site has a huge TG edge over
> these, is the proverbial gift
> horse at ML odds of 3/1. Honorable Mention:
> Reflecting goes out for Shug, gets
> rider change from C. Montalvo to Johnny V.
>
> Best of luck to all.
Expect Liaison will get bet. Those with European access can lock up 8s. It\'s most unlikely to emerge any better, stateside.
No idea what to do with the returning Summer Soiree or her impact on that race.
Using 1,2,4,5,6,7 in the Ballaston Spa.None of the logicals are reliable and maybe one of the slower ones on paper can improve.
Giving into Contested in the Test at a short price.
Hoping for a pace meltdown in the King\'s Bishop -probably buying the race.Blinkered Baffert from the inside,Trinni,and Pletcher on the outside should be plenty of gas.
Thinking Neck N Neck fires here-will be very tough.
Good luck
The $64 Travers question: Are you (and your wallet) a Liaison believer on God\'s own brown dirt, or no?
Frank,
Like Animal Spirits as well, broke thru w/ small new top in last gets rail & weight. Very competitive race. I\'m keeping 9 & 12 in exotics. Keneally dirt to turf w/ battle hardened should be tough. post hurts though.
George
Big,
Summer Soiree ran as fast as a 3 year old as these are running as 4 year olds. Motion has her ready to wire the field-faster than Tapitsfly on the engine.
justwin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frank,
>
> Like Animal Spirits as well, broke thru w/ small
> new top in last gets rail & weight. Very
> competitive race. I\'m keeping 9 & 12 in exotics.
> Keneally dirt to turf w/ battle hardened should be
> tough. post hurts though.
>
> George
Chad Brown broke my heart when AS was live as crackers in career debut, last year. Damn.
Battle Hardened a vet scratch, within the last 45 min . . .