Weekend review

Championships were decided this weekend. Or maybe I should say championship. Thor's Echo made himself the rightful Sprint Eclipse winner with a win in the DeFrancis Dash. Actually he would have taken top spot in the TCR Sprint division with even a 3rd place finish but I'm glad he did it the right way. It wasnt a performance that evoked superlatives but it didnt have to be. He just needed to confirm that his BC win wasnt a fluke.

Premium Tap vaulted himself into the spotlight with a superb victory in the Clark. That moves him to 4th in the older dirt horse rankings. He has really come of age this year. I' wary of his chances going forward but if he retains this form he will be very tough next year.

Performance of the weekend has to go to Discreet Cat. Sure the filed was short but it high class and horses simply dont run much faster than he did. His talent seems nearly limitless. He may well prove to be better than Bernardini. That win moved him to 4th in the 3yo rankings but just 0.74 behind Barbaro for third. If I chose to rank him as a sprinter in the standings he would be second behind Thor's Echo. However he hasnt really run a sprinters campaign. He has no stakes win at less than 8f so I dont count him as eligable for the Sprint category.

The race of the weekend has to be the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. An excellent spectacle, a titanic clash between two very promising and very fast colts. Tiz Wonderful looked the more experienced of the two as Any given Saturday drifted late on and it cost him. However both showed excellent tenacity, speed and suffcient stamina. In my mind they are the two leading Triple Crown contenders at this point. Nobiz Like Shobiz looked powerful in the Remsen but i prefer the two Kentucky colts. I think they gained more credit by facing each other than whopping a poor field.

I have to give a tip of the cap to a few other performances. Showing Up won like he should have...again. It would seem a travesty if he werent able to win an Eclipse next year. For this year the award will be between Aragorn and The Tin Man. Price Tag looked a very good prospect in the Matriarch. If she can put behind her inconsistency she'll be very tough next year. I also want to give some recognition to Pommes Frites. She is the 7th ranked Turf filly and she has accumulated her points the hard way. The Matriarch was her first G-1 effort. She has compiled a record of 8-5-2-1 this year. She started her campaign in February and has run on 5 different tracks. She was unlucky that the Matriarch had as much early speed as it did. I hope we see her next year.