Racetrack Lenny

The Bridge Jumpers!

In races where there is an absolute standout on paper, I will usually pass up the race or bet $2 on every horse in the race to show, hoping the heavy favorite runs out of the money. For those who followed the latter strategy in the mile and a sixteenth Tampa Bay Derby yesterday, you were rewarded with a profit of $115!

On paper, War Pass, (Cornelio Velasquez up) figured to toy with his competition. His Beyer speed ratings were well above any of his competitors. In fact, his competition would be coming to the head of the stretch while War Pass was crossing the finish line. Well, the fans at Tampa Bay Downs certainly bought into the concept. Sent off as the prohibitive choice at 1-20, that's right, folks, a nickel to the dollar, the bridge jumpers began jumping when War Pass proceeded to run out of gas at the far turn and finish a mind-numbing last in the field of 7. He was beaten better than 20 lenghts. Obviously, a lot of attention will be devoted to War Pass in the coming days as it is really puzzling why this horse stopped so badly. In the meantime, the Barclay Tagg trained Big Truck (Eibar Coa up) made the most of his opportunity to prevail by a neck at 7-1 over the tiring Atoned (John Velasquez up) at 9-1. The show prices were $25.20; $27.80 and $76.40-- a nice reward for show bets.

The Rebel Stakes, also at a mile and a sixteenth, at Oaklawn Park provided a similar result. The 3-5 odds on choice, Z Fortune, (Garrett Gomez up) showed nothing in the race running an even 5th most of the way to finish 5th. Instead, it was local horse Sierra Sunset (Chris Emigh up) who stalked Sacred Journey (Calvin Borel up) to prevail at 4-1. Longshots King's Silver Son & Isabull rounded out the $1,105 trifecta.

The San Felipe Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth at Santa Anita Park proved to be the formful race of the three. Georgie Boy (Michael Baze up) stalked the pace at 7-5 and swung out in the stretch to just get up in the final strides over 7-2 Gayego (Mike Smith up). Speedball Bob Black Jack (David Flores up) cut the fractions and was able to keep the fractions sensible. Despite that, he still was running out of gas at the end showing he may need a bit more maturity or he just cannot get the distance.

That's all for now. Looks like Pyro is the Derby favorite at this juncture. More races to come.

May the horse be with you,

Racetrack Lenny

racetrack lenny went to the post at @ 1:34 PM