Talk About Tennis 2.0

It's not too early to start thinking about the Kentucky Derby, which is only about 4 months away. You may know that, regardless of the actual date of birth, all horses age a year on January 1 each year, so in spite of being born on March 3, 2020, a horse named Victory Formation raced today as a 3-year-old at Oaklawn Park in the Smarty Jones Stakes. This gate-to-wire win earned him 10 points toward getting into the Kentucky Derby.

The bigger points will be available as the winter/spring unfolds. But I thought this was pretty impressive.

BTW, Flavien Pratt flew from California to Arkansas overnight to ride only this horse on today's Oaklawn card. Victory Formation is trained by Brad Cox and has improved in each of his three starts. This was the first time he tried a mile, but the pedigree suggested a mile, or even longer, shouldn't be a problem. Victory Formation has raced three times and remains undefeated to date. One of those wins came at Churchill.

The race starts at 1:50.

Why is there a Smarty Jones Stakes in Arkansas? There's a Smarty Jones Stakes in PA at Parx as there should be.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:41 pm Why is there a Smarty Jones Stakes in Arkansas? There's a Smarty Jones Stakes in PA at Parx as there should be.

Yeah, it's a little odd. Smarty Jones was born in PA. But he used Oaklawn Park as his path to winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness before finishing second in the Belmont, falling just short of the U.S. Triple Crown. Before running in the Derby, he had three wins at Oaklawn via the Southwest Stakes, the Rebel Stakes, and the Arkansas Derby.

I didn't realize this before, but it turns out the Belmont was Smarty Jones' only loss of his career in 9 starts before heading to stud (due to injury).

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:10 pm

JazzNU wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:41 pm Why is there a Smarty Jones Stakes in Arkansas? There's a Smarty Jones Stakes in PA at Parx as there should be.

Yeah, it's a little odd. Smarty Jones was born in PA. But he used Oaklawn Park as his path to winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness before finishing second in the Belmont, falling just short of the U.S. Triple Crown. Before running in the Derby, he had three wins at Oaklawn via the Southwest Stakes, the Rebel Stakes, and the Arkansas Derby.

I didn't realize this before, but it turns out the Belmont was Smarty Jones' only loss of his career in 9 starts before heading to stud (due to injury).

I still don't like it, but at least that makes more sense.

And yes, I knew that about Smarty Jones. Him and Barbaro are rarified air in these parts.

Imperiously will race at Tampa Bay Downs on 1/18. On grass, 1 mile, $20K claiming. Alonzo Quinonez will ride.

I can't decide if I like her in this spot or not. She's dropping in class compared to her last race in September and a little more in class compared to her win at Colonial in August. She's never gone longer than 6 furlongs (3/4 mile on dirt, first race against other winners), but when she won at Colonial on grass two starts back, I thought she looked like she wanted more ground. A mile just seems like it may be too much. But she clearly likes the grass.

We'll see!

We've had a helluva time getting her races to take. She got about a month off after her last race on dirt. Then she resumed training. Then we started entering her races. We entered 8 races. None of them filled or were not used. So she has not raced in 4 months. But she has been training steadily. I just have some questions about a mile.

Imperiously finished a respectable third in her race at Tampa today. She stalked for much of the race and had a brief lead on the second turn before getting passed by two horses with a little more kick in the stretch.

She was not claimed, so we get to keep her for at least another race. Check will pay $2250 minus 10% for the trainer and 10% for the jockey. Here's the race. It starts at about the 0:15 mark. She's the grey #6 horse.

Courageous Copper returns to the races on Friday. He'll run at Gulfstream, Maiden Claiming, claiming price is $16K. It's 5 furlongs on the synthetic. Edgard Zayas will ride.

We're not expecting much. He'll need a race seeing as he hasn't raced since his debut in April. Plus, he'll break from the inside post, so he'll have to work out a trip. But he's been training well.

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 10:41 pm Courageous Copper returns to the races on Friday. He'll run at Gulfstream, Maiden Claiming, claiming price is $16K. It's 5 furlongs on the synthetic. Edgard Zayas will ride.

We're not expecting much. He'll need a race seeing as he hasn't raced since his debut in April. Plus, he'll break from the inside post, so he'll have to work out a trip. But he's been training well.

Here's how it went today for Courageous Copper. He's the 1 horse on the inside. He was not claimed so we get to keep him.

It looked like Frosted Bird had him at the top of the stretch but your horse won going away. Nice run.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 11:58 pm It looked like Frosted Bird had him at the top of the stretch but your horse won going away. Nice run.

You couldn't see it in the race, but Frostedbird was too chunky. He was carrying A LOT of extra condition, and not even Irad Ortiz could fix that. I was watching the Gulfstream feed while the horses were walking around in the paddock, and the ladies doing the commentary were joking about the 8 being "stocky".

Bottom line, Copper just needed time, and he loved the synthetic. Many of the Chitu babies love the synthetic.

But I never expected THAT.

Equibase's preliminary speed figure for Copper in that race is a 76. He earned a 0 on debut back in April.

He was so much better behaved, too. He didn't try to eat the lead pony in the post parade like he did back in April. He was totally professional. The wonders of castrating males. Maybe we should do more of that. Across species.

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:30 pm
Here's how it went today for Courageous Copper. He's the 1 horse on the inside. He was not claimed so we get to keep him.

He ran a fantastic race. Congrats!

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:34 am

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:30 pm
Here's how it went today for Courageous Copper. He's the 1 horse on the inside. He was not claimed so we get to keep him.

He ran a fantastic race. Congrats!

Indeed! Not bad for a horse that lost his debut by 37 lengths!

"Carrying a lot of extra condition" is absolutely something I am going to say as an excuse when my winter league starts next week

Oaklawn Park ran the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes today. It's a prep race for the Kentucky Derby that awards 20 points to the winner toward getting into the Kentucky Derby. The track was sloppy. A Baffert horse won in only his second start. Last I saw, 16 Baffert trainees are nominated for the KY Derby. Of course, those who actually make it into the Derby will have to find different trainers at some point between now and then. I don't remember the date by which they have to do that. (Baffert is still banned from Churchill.)

Here's the race. It was 1 1/16 miles.

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:30 pm

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 10:41 pm Courageous Copper returns to the races on Friday. He'll run at Gulfstream, Maiden Claiming, claiming price is $16K. It's 5 furlongs on the synthetic. Edgard Zayas will ride.

We're not expecting much. He'll need a race seeing as he hasn't raced since his debut in April. Plus, he'll break from the inside post, so he'll have to work out a trip. But he's been training well.

Here's how it went today for Courageous Copper. He's the 1 horse on the inside. He was not claimed so we get to keep him.

A really nice pic of Courageous Copper nearing the finish line.