The Rebel Stakes

[Tavasco]

Hypnus @ anything near his m/l 10/1 looks an overlay to me.

Of course Baffert trainees and the Rebel are traditional.

[Tavasco]

True to form Madaket the West Coast visitor trained by Bob Baffert took off like a sprinter running about a second faster the Magnitude in his surprise Riesen Star race last weekend. As Madaket and Magnitude hit the mile marker in about the same time 1:36+.

In today\'s race Baffert\'s trainee ran the other pace horses (Smoken Wicked, Innovator and Speed King off their feet and they finished three of the last four along with a Tomato Can.

Before mentioning the winner I think its fair to say with the strung out field and the early fractions Madaket probably ran a new top since he wasn\'t that fast going into the race. TGJB to publish in due time.

So I\'ll assume the Baffert improved at least a couple of points and maybe several then Geeze we have another jump up performance from the winner Coal Battle who was 4-5 wide on the second turn according to the chart I looked at.

One big difference Coal Battle was one of the faster horses in today\'s race. In retrospect he is loving the added distance and one I\'ll watch heading for the Derby.

My choice (Hypnus) needs some more experience he had traffic issues today yet finished with interest in my opinion.

As for Madaket well only one beat him but hard to be optimistic at longer distances. Tiztastic ran creditably so if he comes back in the Arkansas Derby I\'ll likely use him underneath.

I looked up the second place horse in yesterday\'s Saudi Derby he has to be the most accomplished horse I don\'t remember hearing about. Probably because most of his achievements were in Hong Kong.

[jbelfior]

Happy for the trainer of the winning horse. A terrific job.

I\'m interested in the Cox horse going forward.


Good Luck,
Joe B.

[ajkreider]

Would be surprised if it gets anything more than a just decent number. A bunch of turn turn races to compare. About a second slower than than Razorback. About the same as older allowance horses. A half a second better than the fillies and maidens.

Coal Battle was the widest and heaviest of the front runners, though.

Publisher and Sandman were the only ones really finishing - the former getting the last furlong in 12:33.  Both of those took an odd breather around the 6F mark.

[Fairmount1]

Baffert\'s horse set fractions of 22.47, 45.72, 1:10.95 and held on for second.  The next fastest 2f and 4f route fractions were 23.19 and 46.87 in the Honeybee. NOTE:  all six routes were the same 1 1/16 mile distance.  Somehow Baffert\'s horse was still game in the stretch and held off all but the winner. Amazing.

Figure makers I\'m guessing have a straight forward day and I\'d expect Beyer to be about 88 give or take.

[P-Dub]

Totally unrelated , but..............

3 tracks running this am and OP/Parx have post times right on top of each other

How fking stupid can these people be??

[prist]

CORNUCOPIAN ran a 101 BSF in R5.

[pip4126]

Where can I make a bet on Baffert running 1-2-3 in the Derby?

[Silver Charm]

Irad hit him once on the right pretty good and then once with the left down the stretch. As he was drawing sway when there was really no reason to hit him at all. There are BIG Immediate Plans for this horse.

[Molesap]

For reference, Justify broke his maiden in his debut on 2/18, then won an AOC race on 3/11 before winning the Santa Anita Derby on 4/7. While a week or so behind that one, it seems doable still if he is that talented.

[johnnym]

If CORNUCOPIAN goes into the derby off two preps and gets retired at 3 that is everything that is wrong with this sport in a nutshell.