Weekend Review

Weekend Overview: Although my handicapping was well wide of the mark I enjoyed many of the races immensely. I was especially chuffed to see Twilight Meteor and Jambalaya sweep the Gulfstream Stakes races for Canada. Being a Canadian myself I always have a soft spot for CAN-Breds against the Americans. It's been a while since we've had some good Canadians running well south of the border. I was also quite pleased with J'Ray. When she was a 2yo I was a huge fan. She had all the makings of the next Megahertz, but she lost her way as a 3yo. She looks to be back on track now and I'm quite happy about it.

Performance of the Week: I bet not many have heard of Relato Del Gato, until this weekend you would have had no reason to hear of him. He is a 6 year old sprinter who has been at Turf Paradise for most of his life. He's run in the odd listed stake but generally he's stuck to claiming races, but this weekend he simply freaked out. Some big out of towners were coming for the Phoenix Gold Cup. They were led by Sailors Sunset who beat Smokey Stover and Siren Lure recently. However Relato Del Gato defied his 11/1 odds and the old adage that you can go too fast early on. He reeled of fractions of :21.20 :42.78 and :54.66 to record a final time of 1:07.68. Sailors Sunset couldn't get near him and he earned a career high beyer of 105. Just to give you some context, his 4f split time was faster than the world record and he was on pace to break the world record until he slowed dramatically in the final furlong. This has all the hallmarks of a one off freak out performance but he certainly earned a day in the sun.

Race of the Week: The Gulfstream Park Breeders Cup Turf turned out to be as closely contested as it promised to be on paper. The solid Jambalaya getting up in the last jump after it looked as if Honey Ryder's scything move to the inside was a winning one. Einstein and Go Between also ran big races and were right in the mix.

Flop of the Weekend: Dreaming of Ann did not run badly. She barely lost to a very good turf filly in Audacious Chloe but clearly this signals an end to her perceived dominance of the 3yo filly division. She still may go on to be a top tier contender as it is not unusual to have good 2yo's lose their way as 3yo's but come back better as older horses. However her camp certainly has designs of domination this year and this race shows she is a mere mortal after all. Even on her preferred surface success will have to come the hard way.

TCR Mover’s and Shakers: Jambalaya takes the third spot overall with his G-1 victory. The lack of G-1's thus far has meant that anyone who does manage to capture one get ranked pretty highly. Obrigado won a G-2 at Santa Anita and moved into the top 10 along with One Off who ran third in that same race. Neither of them look like champions though. J'Ray also took over the lead in the FM Turf division with her win at the Fair Grounds.

Tip O’the Cap: I'm going to give this one to Todd Pletcher this week. Not only did he have a fantastic weekend results wise (discussed in detail below) with three stakes wins but he also placed Honey Ryder in an ambitious spot and he deserves kudos for that. We don't see horses crossing divisions nearly enough, Honey Ryder did and was really unlucky not to win. Right now the trend is moving towards increased segregation so its nice to see a female trying to beat the males. The Pletcher team wants to throw her into even deeper waters in the Dubai Sheema Classic. Regardless of where she finishes attempted exploits like this are great for the game and I hope to see more of them.

KC Handicapping: This is sort of a painful section to write this week. I was nearly completely off the ball. I was glad to see Jambalaya win and I was a bit disappointed that I didn't make him my primary pick but I was just way off in the other races. My initial instinct with Twilight Meteor was that he was the most likely winner but I talked myself out of it. I think gerry may have given out the best advice of the weekend when he said "for today it might be pletcher in the morning, pletcher in the evening, and pletcher at supper time". There were 16 Pletcher horses running this weekend and they compiled a record of 16-6-3-2. A flat $2 win bet on all of them would have returned an $10.70 profit (+33% ROI)

Cumulative record of selected horses 8-1-1-0 (+$0.20 +1.25% ROI)