Meeting at the Claim Box

[richiebee]

Anyone think that representatives for Mike Repole and David Jacobson will be
involved in a \"shake\" for Groomedforvictory, who is entered in race 5 at
Belmont tomorrow?

Repole might be considering claiming GFV in the interest of retiring him, much
the way he did with Be Bullish last month. GFV has made 58 lifetime starts with
what the baseball folks would call a \"slash\" line of 15/10/10. The 10 year old
NY bred son of Belmont winner/Turkish stallion Victory Gallop has earned
$723,000 in purses, including $214,000 last year as a nine year old when he won
5 of 14 starts.

There should be cause for concern, however, in that GFV has stopped badly in
all four of his 2015 starts and is now dropped in for a $16,000 tag.

Jacobson might be tempted to reclaim the old fellow, who he lost twice via
claims in 2014, for 20K in July and for 40K in November. Some of Jacobson\'s
best work with GFV came after claiming back GFV from Michelle Nevin. After
giving GFV a month off, the old boy caught two wet tracks and won  those two
starts (a week apart) rather handily, earning a TG 1 in the second win, not bad
for a 9YO about to turn 10YO coming back on a week\'s rest.

TG sheet reveals that GFV has resided in the barns of the following trainers:
Dutrow, Ward, Nevin, Jacobson. I\'ll be diplomatic and say that this guy has
likely been given all chances to be all that he can be.

Hope this story has a happy ending...