What a day of racing, eh?
I don\'t think the ride on the Odysseus was bad. Jock did what he could with the horse. He was asking him on the turn and the horse wasn\'t moving. He then switched leads and found another gear but wouldn\'t go through the hole that was sort of opening and closing on the outside. When he dove down and got room on the inside he managed to just get there, and I mean just get there. To be honest, I thought the ride on my pick was more questionable. Horse seemed a little rank going into the first turn and went wider than he had to go. Then in my opinion the Jock asked him to run too soon, being forced to swoop up very wide all the way around the 2nd turn, but what a turn a foot he showed when asked. After that I thought he gutted it out pretty well down the stretch. Thank god for daddy daughter day or I would still be ruing that photo. That\'s as tough a loss as a person could possibly take. My overall impression of this race is that it was very, very strong.
Can\'t say the same for the Rebel. Time wasn\'t especially quick, although I concede there was a lot of ground lost. But Noble\'s promise got an almost perfect trip. Lucky got a wide run on the second turn, and he showed nice athleticism on the backstretch when he more or less hurdled the kick out from Noble\'s Promise. Looked to me like he lost at least a length, but I think most horses would have lost more and taken longer to regain their momentum. Dublin got his usual, wide trip and I\'m not sure how much to blame on the jock. But if I owned that horse I would be shopping for a new jock anyway. Why take a chance... Overall impression of this race is that Lucky is more athletic than I thought, showed good heart to win the photo, but he doesn\'t look fast enough to be a derby winner to me yet.
San Felipe was very weak. Very, very soft early fractions. I don\'t think the closers had much of a chance. American Lion got an almost perfect trip and just didn\'t fire. Interactif ran very well for second. We may see him the Bluegrass. Probably best if he gets a little time off and goes back to the grass though. I give Caracortado a complete pass on this one. It just didn\'t set up for him. There was no way he was going run down the winner after those soft early splits on the shortest path around. Off the top of my head I would probably lean towards downgrading Sidney\'s Candy\'s performance and would be looking to play against him when he runs back.
And Rachel... Damn. Had there been just one horse I could have taken seriously in that race I think I would still by counting my money. I don\'t see how anyone could have played too hard against her with anyone in that field with utmost confidence. If there just could have been one horse that looked like they could throw a 2 or better... and I was ready to go all in against her. Man... Still, I would contend that her race was probably better than it looked. She went pretty quick early for the day and had every right to tire afterwards in the stretch.
Z ran her typical race in good final time and looked very good doing it. What else can you say...
Time for Asmussen to tighten the screws on Rachel. Will have to see how she trains and how the field shapes up for the Apple Blossom. This could be setting up as Z at Even Money or so, Rachel at 9/5, and everyone else 10-1 or more. If Rachel seems to move forward and begins training lights out, things could be very interesting. If not, the race is still on dirt, which could make things even more interesting.
Looking forward to the FL Derby.
