Gotham Post Mortem

[richiebee]

Not a bad day to grab the binoculars and catch some live racing, eh?

Some fog shrouded observations:

1) Was Saratoga Russell one of the worst 8/5 favorites ever? SR had never been
past 6 furlongs in his 3 race career. He came from slightly off the pace in
breaking his maiden over the inner tube and then broke open a Florida state
bred heat winning by 10 lengths in 1:10. In his two victories he earned TG 2s,
making him arguably the fastest horse in the race (along with Giant Moon).
Irregardless (regardless for the purists out there) SR had never been 2 turns,
never competed against stakes horses and never should have gone off favored.
Add to the fact that his sire Trippi is not the type of stallion who instills
confidence stretching out. Assuming he returned sound, the Gotham may have been
a prep for the 7f Bay Shore which is run on Wood Memorial day.

2) My bet in the race was Texas Wildcatter, and I was counting my proverbial
chickens at the 1/16th pole with what looked like a 3-4 length lead. Easy to
look back and say that Arroyo moved to soon, but his decisive move on the turn
put away the entire field save one. TW was racing with blinkers for the first
time and as a son of Monarchos probably liked the going. Has spacing between
races which might point to soundness issues. His resume now sports a synthetic
win at AP, a win at Philly, and a good effort over the wet inner tube Saturday.
Not Derby material so far as I can see, and would probably need to continue to
improve to factor in the Wood unless he gets a wet strip again.

3) Visionaire closed very stoutly on a track which seemed relatively unbiased.
He was close up behind Pyro in the Risen Star and defeated Elysium Fields when
breaking his maiden at Laurel as a 2YO. Earned his way out for Barry Irwin and
the Team Valor gang who purchased him as a 2YO in training for $220K,
inflicting an $80K loss on the pinhookers who acquired him as a yearling. Wood/
Blue Grass/ Derby on the agenda, but TG sire profile confirms my belief that
this son of Grand Slam might not want added distance.