Not sure if Jim will see this in time, and not trying to hold you to any comments, but was just curious if the attempt here over the Hutcheson was simply out of a need to see if he is a true route horse or not, or if there is something you have seen in the mornings that leads you to believe he is going to do really well. The pedigree for me is a bit confusing, is seems hard to tell on paper which one he will be better at.
That said, if Mott\'s horse takes to the quirky Tampa surface, that would be my lean, but will certainly be throwing Falling Sky on some tix as well. Good luck to all.
Looks like he might get an outside stalking trip close to the leader, which could help the stamina issue if they slow it down up front..I kind of like him but it is a tough looking race...
Hey guys,
Good luck to everyone this weekend.
In terms of Falling Sky, we bought him thinking he was a route horse and he trains like he won\'t have a problem staying but obviously, you never know until they do it.
It\'s puzzling to us that none of the siblings ever routed based on his physical and the way he trains in the mornings (big gallop outs after his breezes, etc) but again, I have had others before that have fooled me that way so it\'s tough for me to feel overly confident about the two turns before he shows it to us.
We also obviously have a question about the surface so there are too many variables for me to feel overly confident going into this.
That said, he looks and is training extremely well and everyone can see his sheet from the ROTW and he fits very very well figures wise in the Sam Davis on the sheets so if he can route, we think he has a very good shot.
Good luck to everyone. Really nice day of racing all around.
Thx for the comments and good luck!
Solid job by the racing office sandwiching a MCL race in between 2 stakes *sigh*
Scratch?
Gratz on the win Jim! He handled the surface great! Not sure what happened on the turn there, i was wondering why Jose even left a gap there he could run into, but luckily the camera angles of the replay were horrible LOL
Stay!!!!!!!
Congrats to Jim, great win, its exciting to have a good 3yo at
this time of year. Small update on our horse pure fun. She
has really sprouted on her rest and weighed 1170 lbs when
we shipped her south. Pointing to the honey bee at oaklawn
for a prep race. Her first work will be around 2/13.
Great win. Great buy. Congrats all around!!
guys, thanks so much for all of the terrific comments, really appreciate them.
what a huge thrill.
thanks alot to Jerry who worked with me to get the figures to me very quickly after the post draws so I could figure out which spot we wanted to be in
The thorograph sheets made it a pretty easy decision in terms of which direction to go.
I can\'t believe we won graded stakes on back to back weekends, I feel like I am going to wake up from a dream any minute now.
now, I will know I am dreaming if Citrus Kid makes some noise next weekend in the Donn.
Thanks again to everyone. Have a great rest of the weekend.
Jim
Jim: Congrats on the wins and the great performance last week on the 2nd day of the contest. I looked around for you on a couple of occassions then got sidetracked. Hope we can meet soon. Great to see a horseplayer have some success on the track as well as off of it. Michael
Congrats
Does Jose get the ride back for the Donn or are you committed to Rocco who rode Citrus Kid in December?
Hard to get away from Jose given the last two weekends right?
Rocco has the mount for the Donn. Jose has been on fire for us as you say but we like to be loyal to riders who rode us when others weren\'t interested and Rocco jumped at the chance to ride CK in his comeback race and he rode him perfectly that day so he keeps the mount for next weekend.
Should be a very competitive race.
I\'d like to add my congratulations and I\'ll say I think it\'s impossible to be person who spends any time reading or posting on this board and not be a fan of James Covello and his horses. I\'d be honored to meet you some day, Jim.
thanks so much for the incredibly nice thoughts and I would love to meet you as well but as anyone on the board who has met me will tell you, you are very likely to be disappointed by the real life version. I think I come off better on paper than I do in real life :)
Michael, thank you as well for the awesome message. Sorry we didn\'t meet up at the NHC event, hopefully next year :) Thank you for representing the game so well as last year\'s NHC champion, you are a testament to all that is good about racing with the speech you gave and with what you did by ensuring the horse that won you the tourney found a great home. Awesome stuff.
In the spirit of turning the page on the wonderful messages, can I make a prediction now about the Derby that might anger some people?
Can I predict that Revolutionary is going to become the hot horse on the Derby trail based on what was certainly a very difficult trip that he overcame
that said, horses often make their own trips based on their running style, athleticism and turn of foot (i.e. I\'ll Have Another never had a \"bad trip\").
I predict that this guy will get alot of action in his final Derby prep and/or on Derby Day only to disappoint his backers who will lament how much trouble this horse runs into in a 20 horse field. It shouldn\'t come as a big surprise if/when this guy gets into trouble in a 20 horse field when he seems to make impossible trips for hismelf in fields half the size.
Nice win Jim, congrats. With a Beyer of 92, Falling Sky in the TG 3 range(if JB agrees) being wide off both turns(were you aware of Tampa\'s \"dead inside\" most of time or did you not want to drop on to the fence because he gets grabby down there?)
Revolutionary, as you said a gawky type, but has an engine and unless he matures he\'s a tough sell in traffic. His weak Beyer 86(TG 5.75 if JB agrees)is clouded by his inability to have a clear run at any time.Don\'t believe Revolutionary regressed but was a victim of race dynamics,interesting going forward.
Mike
This was the worry about Union Rags, and it bit bettors last year (including me). It\'s convenient to blame the jockey, but both had top guys in the irons.
Is it just me or does this year\'s crop seem quite a bit faster? Lots of 90+ Beyers, and several with triple digit numbers - with two months of preps to go.
Beyers?
Covello\'s right people, if you met him in person you would hate him.
lol, good one JB!
we should get a look at how the TG figs for all of the top group compare to last year when the futures pool special comes out on Thursday.
should be interesting!
They really just wanna meet his wife.
If he wins the Donn on Saturday I doubt I\'d even need to meet him in person.
the wife and I are heading down to GP Friday morning from NY/Hot Springs....let me know if any or all or around, love to catch up.
Hope you don\'t mind the outside too much. Good luck from post ten!