THREE MORE!
Yes, three more of my handicapping selections ran across the wire first today! WHOOOO HOOOOO! Wait a tic, that's an odd way to express it......well, read on my friend. For this special Monday, President's Day of racing I had six selections on the card. Unlike the other days where I'd watched the races live, today Kim came home early from her girls' weekend and we spent the day together - took a long morning walk, went to the movies, and then went out for a late lunch. So around 6 pm I sat down and logged onto my twinspires.com account to watch the replays. In the third, it was a maiden claiming sprint for sophomores. When I handicapped the race it looked fairly simple to me - all but two of these fillies had been beaten at this bottom level previously and the other two were class droppers. OK, which of those two? The program favorite Bushnell was dropping out of a better race ($40K), but in her previous start she'd been an early speed and fade AT THIS LEVEL. The other, Pretty Girl Anna had showed good speed against $25K runners and dropped to a new low today. She seemed the more likely to steal it, and as the second choice at 4/1 offered better value. Well, no one was more surprised than me when I opened up the replays and the final odds showing for 'Anna were a HUGE 8/1! Right to the front and she was quickly clear by four lengths. I've documented before that when you pick a front-runner, most especially at a big price, there are three keys to the race: (1) the most obvious is that the front runner must break in front; (2) as they hit the final turn the leader must maintain their margin through the turn; and finally (3) when heads turn for home a spurt to open up some more ground because you KNOW the closers will be coming late. Just as described - Pretty Girl Anna was clear by four into the turn and I was encouraged; as they moved through the turn and NO ONE made up any ground - in fact the 6/5 favorite LOST ground - I knew I had a very good chance. And as she turned for home she extended the lead to almost six lengths before in the final furlong late runners began to cut into the lead.....too little, too late.
The $19.80 payoff generated nearly $50 in winnings and I'm in the black for the final day of the week! In the 4th Strategikon was wide into the first turn but was quickly up and on the pace. He was poised to make his move as they hit the far turn, then stopped - 6th. I passed on the fifth race, but in the sixth it was a non-winners of three lifetime turf sprint. Off The Page had come off a more than year layoff to wire a similar 2L field last time out. I normally would normally look past that kind to take down their very next start - first, claiming runners are remarkably inconsistent for the most part and it's rare indeed to win right back; and second, the step up from 2L to 3L not insignificant. But in this case Off The Page had been given over a month to recover from that effort AND had two sharp works since. He appeared razor sharp and might even improve today for trainer Wesley Ward, who is winning at a 27% clip for the meet. I also really liked the fact that Off The Page was a bit of a "Horse-for-the-Course" with a 3/2-1-0 local record. He went right to the front and was loose on the lead. But as they turned for home he was challenged and a stretch duel was on from the 1/8th pole to the wire........but he prevailed courageously!
He was the 4/5 favorite, but I'd doubled the investment so I was cashing for nearly $20! The 7th was my "best" of the day. Lismore had never been out of the exacta on the turf and she'd won her second start by daylight at Aqueduct. Her first start against winners came in her So Fla debut at Gulfstream Park West where trainer George Weaver had put her into the Wait A While Stakes. She ran shrply and was a good second. The winner of that race was winning for the second consecutive time for Chad Brown and then exited that race to win the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant! Lismore looked much the best to me. She stalked the leaders through the far turn and made her move. A longshot came to her at the furlong pole, and much like my win in the 6th a stretch duel was on, and just like the 6th Lismore prevailed courageously! THREE WINS! I watched my last two selections - Barrel of Love rallied to be a good 2nd at 3/1 and King Thief showed little to be 6th. Then, as I typically do when I'm watching online I changed screens from the "Program View" to the "Results" view to get the payoffs......$19.80 on Pretty Girl Anna, $3.80 on Off the Page, and .....hey, what the!!!!!! Lismore is listed as the second place finisher. I know she won the photo. I went back and watched the post-race video, uh oh - OBJECTION. And yes, Lismore caused problems through the stretch run: 
She drifted out badly, and not only force the runner-up to change lanes, but actually bumped into her knocking her off stride. Can't do that :( Sigh.....demoted to second. But still, I was 2-for-6 on the day and had a clear profit thanks to the longshot winner in the third. Check out the week's highlights......
Week 11 Highlight Video
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