Horse Racing Random

[dryrunguy]

Bold Article won her sixth career race today out of 21 starts. She has now surpassed $100K in career earnings. She produced her best career Equibase speed figure--88--and this was her first allowance win. (All of her previous wins came in maiden claiming or claiming before the new connections bumped her up in class three starts ago.) So this was the biggest win of her career to date.

Best of all, she won this race in a slightly different way than she usually does and showed a different dimension. The #2 horse shot to the lead and got about 2 lengths in front. Behind her, was the second flight of horses, which is where Bold Article was stalking. Evin Roman rode her brilliantly, knowing full well that the #2 wouldn't be able to sustain that pace, so instead of stalking the leader, she was stalking the second flight of horses. Bold Article started passing horses on the second turn and won by 1 1/4 lengths.

I may not own a share of her anymore, but it is wonderful to see her thriving. She has now won three of her last five start (which included a stupid attempt by her connections on turf) and four of her last six starts on the synthetic. I am super proud of her.

::

As for the horses for which I still own shares, I told you about how Imperiously tried to run her race in parking lot. The next day, Courageous Copper showed zero discipline in the post parade, constantly trying to nibble on the mane of his lead pony. He finished last in his race. He was gelded a few days later. Unified Dreams (different partnership) finished a respectable sixth at Keeneland in a 6.5-furlong race. He'll run again in a few weeks. We'll look for a longer race for him. The jockey strongly felt Unified Dreams dreams wants more ground.

Since Imperiously and Courageous Copper were so awful in their debuts, the heads of that partnership opted to not race Doc Ballard as originally planned. They are completely recalibrating the training plan. I would expect all of them to go back to training and not run again for a few months.

I think that's it. Thanks for indulging me.

[dryrunguy]

Meanwhile, the 3-year-old filly trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Secret Oath, won the Kentucky Oaks today. She was originally being pointed to the Kentucky Derby, which runs tomorrow. After today's performance, it looks like she is being pointed to the Preakness. Today, she put up a speed figure of 105. That should be good enough to put her in the conversation as she faces the boys for a second time.

[JazzNU]

I was watching horse racing on some random day a couple of months ago. I don't know what level race it was, big enough to be on TV, but not big enough to be like Santa Anita or Florida Derby or anything. Names were great, each and every one wasn't a homerun, but put several together in the same race and it was fantastic. Instead of watching just one race, I must have watched 5 just to see what names came up in the next race.

These Derby and Oaks names are some kind of unimaginative. But shout out to Turnerloose doing the heavy lifting for the entire group really.

[dryrunguy]

They're showing the early part of the Derby Day card on USA. At some point, it will switch over to NBC. Just in case you want to watch more races.

[JazzNU]

The replacement of a scratched horse is new, right? Like maybe as recently as this year or last? Because I can recall in years past the unusually large field of 20 would become 18 or 16 thru scratches, not stay at 20. Seems like an odd choice.

[dryrunguy]

The replacement of a scratched horse is new, right? Like maybe as recently as this year or last? Because I can recall in years past the unusually large field of 20 would become 18 or 16 thru scratches, not stay at 20. Seems like an odd choice.

The practice of it is not new, but the timing of it may be new. As in, it is possible that also-eligibles got into the race in the days leading up to the Derby. But maybe it is new that Rich Strike got in as late as he did. Honestly, I'm not sure.

[JazzNU]

Love it!

ETA: 80-1 Odds! Neither the trainer nor the jockey even have a Wiki page! AMAZING!!!

[dryrunguy]

Love it!

ETA: 80-1 Odds! Neither the trainer nor the jockey even have a Wiki page! AMAZING!!!

What an incredible ride from Sonny Leon, originally from Venezuela. (Hey, ponchi!!!!) It was pure perfection. The pace on the front end was just far too torrid, and Sonny capitalized on it. Except he wasn't on the horse that was supposed to capitalize on a fast pace.

It is a wonderful story. Sonny Leon does most of his riding at Mahoning Valley while dabbling in some rides at Belterra, Mountaineer, and Turfway Park. Not exactly tracks you all have heard of. In the past hour, his number of Twitter followers has gone through the roof. It was his first Derby ride, and he notched his first Derby win.

As I was handicapping, I never considered Rich Strike. His only win came in a $30K CLAIMING race.

Until today.

That's why we hope.

[dryrunguy]

For those who missed it. Here's the race. #21 on the outside ultimately wins.

[ponchi101]

We used to have a thriving horse-racing industry. One of the things that our ruling psychopaths took away from us.

[New England Nitemare]

An amazing race, NO ONE had Rich Strike on their radar. Heck, he just came into the race. He ran the perfect race, and from the #21 spot no less. The Superfecta payed out $321,500.10!!! Wowza!!!

[JazzNU]

The pace was insane. Messier was the last horse that really stood in the way of Rich Strike getting through the final straightaway cleanly, and was one of the leaders the entire race finished in either the bottom 5 or 6. One of the other leaders for most of the race, Summer is Tomorrow, finished dead last. They just had nothing left in the final part of the race after that pace. There's a point when Rich Strike passes Messier and starts making a move to overtake the lead where you can still see Messier in the frame because he was that close to the final pack, and then you see him just lose almost all his pace, like a car running out of gas on the highway and everyone just passing him by.

[dryrunguy]

This is wonderful drone footage of the race. It just kind of adds to the astoundingness of it all.

[ti-amie]

And this is Rich Strike entering the club to celebrate his win.

[dryrunguy]

And this is Rich Strike entering the club to celebrate his win.

That outrider has been getting all sorts of grief on horse racing Twitter, and I don't object to that. As it happened, Dolphins kept saying, "Just let the horse break away."