Weekend Review

Weekend Overview: A feast of racing equal to the feasts that most of us will have enjoyed over the holiday weekend. I think the Triple Crown prep races were a bit disappointing but I think the other races more than made up for it. Oaklawn's festival of racing was a delight as always and Aqueduct's move to the main track brought some surprising results.

Performance of the Week: There is no sprinter in the world who is within 3 lengths of Smokey Stover right now. The guy is just in a zone, he is far better than Lost In The Fog ever was. The only hope for the rest of the division is to wait and see if he goes off form by the time the Breeders Cup goes around. I think a few trainers might be nervous that their horse is this good, this early. He made his Santa Anita stakes engagement look like a routine stroll around the track. He tracked a half a in :44 then simply left his competition lengths behind in an instant. It's pretty scary when a horse can cruise along in a half that quick and still accelerate. Simply awesome.

Race of the Week: Polytrack may be tough to handicap for some but it does yield some good finishes. Christmas Kid who figured to move up on the surface won the race with a Street Sense like rail skimming trip up the inside while Octave, like the Pletcher horses chasing the juvenile champ, took the overland route and was unable to make up the ground. The race should benefit both fillies but I think Octave looks the stronger for the Oaks. Still it was quite a spectacle.

Flop of the Weekend: Corinthian suffered his first loss as an older horse and his worst career finish. He broke in the air and was dead last by a furlong before the leaders had gone two. He tried to make a move on the backside but he flattened out badly in the homestretch. As good as he's been he showed that he still has some mental fragility. He doesn't look like the challenger for Invasor that many thought he could become.

TCR Mover’s and Shakers: It was for the sprinters as Smokey Stover and Silver Wagon rode their successes to 3rd and 4th overall rankings. They still only managed to be 2nd and 3rd in the Sprint division because of Kelly's Landing, but since he might be off for a few months these two have the chance to take the division for themselves. Ermine moves into the top spot for older fillies and Nobiz Like Showbiz jumps all of the way to 10th overall and 2nd in the 3yo division.

Tip O’the Cap: Icy Atlantic is in the form of his life and for a horse who once was a pacemaker for his more glamorous stablemate English Channel I thought he deserved a mention. It was just his 6th career win and if I'm not mistaken it was his first G-2 victory. For a horse that has enough speed to make the pace he certainly didn't get off to such a great start. He trailed in last nearly all the way around and passed every horse in the lane to get up at the wire. A fantastic race that flaunted his versatility. And it means that in 3 races this year the only horse that has bested him is Lava Man, his performances have been good enough to see him the 4th ranked horse in the TCR.

KC Handicapping: Again not a vintage week. I ought to have handicapped the Ashland where Octave and Christmas Kid were my top two. That would have made it a positive week. Unfortunately no big prices came in any of the races except in the SA derby where I was on the right track taking a longshot, I just took the wrong late running longshot. I was surprised by India's failure. She looked totally out of her element and was eased. Keyed Entry got burned in a torrid speed duel, I was rather surprised that Latent Heat went for the lead like he did.

Cumulative record of selected horses: 13(5)-2-1-3 (-$11.60 -50.43% ROI)
Overall record: 172(67)-35-28-25 (+$20.00 +5.81% ROI)