Weekend Review

Overview: The weekend review will be somewhat abbreviated this week because of some personal time constraints. Besides as soon as this day is over most of us will be done with looking back. The news for the coming weekend will be what catches our eye. The Zen masters "yatta" and "sational" continued to do what they do best. Win races. Zenyatta left it oh so late and it was tough to tell if she had gotten there. I know Smith blames himself for this but it only illustrates the problem with closers. It's hard to win races from the back of the pack all the time. Zensational has no such worries. He is easily the best sprinter in California and aside from Fatal Bullet it's hard to find another horse that could really challenge him. Fabulous Strike may be a monster but he's a dirt monster, we already saw how he does on synthetic. It's a shame for Fabulous Strike because the sprint championship really seems to be coming down to him and Zensational. Having the championship race on less than ideal footing puts him at a disadvantage. Gio Ponti was crowned as my official favorite horse late last year and he's given me much to celebrate this year. He just seems to get better and better. He has been winning his races with a late swoop but at Arlington he showed some real stamina after blasting to the front very early. He was completely exposed through the straight to those who had chosen to ride more patiently but he had the stamina to hold off all comers. It was a new dimension and an exciting one for his fans. Take the Points win in the Secretariat had to have the connections of Battle of Hastings thinking twice about their decision to skip. Bullsbay will go down as one of the more forgettable Whitney winners of modern times. He's not a terrible horse but he's typically been a G-3 level runner and the race really lost something with the scratch of Asiatic Boy and the complete no show from Smooth Air.

KC Handicapping: My plays this week focused on using the results of my 20-20 profiles for the Whitney and Arlington Million. The Whitney was flat out embarrassing, it was a totally upside down result according to the profile and it just goes to show you that horse racing is about more than just numbers. Not everything can be quantified and packaged into something simple. Luckily the Arlington Million worked out and spared some blushes. Gio Ponti even paid for the loss on Smooth Air. The $72.20 exacta with Just as Well was a nice touch too. So far a win bet on all 20-20 perfect qualifiers this year has returned +29.72%. It's well below the overall average but at least it's positive.

Weekly Record: 2(2)-1-0-0 ($1.00 +25.00% ROI)
Overall Record: 795(448)-138-124-101 (-$156.50 -9.84% ROI)