Days 72 - 73

March 20 - 21

The last two days of the week saw me get inconsistent results. On Thursday I had two of four horses outrun early taking them out of any real chance of scoring, and two horses set the pace under what looked like comfortable fractions, only to give way late. The lone winner on the day was a remarkable score in the 6th. Ulanbator was away slowly in a one turn mile Maiden Special for sophomores. As he tried to come up the inside under "I always find trouble" Julian Leparoux where he was too close to the front runners, clipped heels and nearly went down. Not to be denied, he regained his footing and came up in between horses when in tight. Finally got free on the outside and seemed to have the 4/5 favorite measured, but could not get by until the final head bob (below left).

On Friday I scored twice in back-to-back races when my horses were TONS the best....but were no secret as either to the crowd as they both went off at 3/5. In the third Palatine Hill had set a absurdly fast pace the last time going 8 1/2 furlongs when fresh off a layoff. I thought Javier Castellano would sit just off Sir Edgar today and blow by on the turn.....the race went EXACTLY as I had envisioned it. The only surprise was when my pick came to the front runner he looked like a gargantuan monster - Palatine HIll is a HUGE horse! Romped home as TONS the best (middle) as my "Best" of the day.

Right back in the fourth when Take Time To Pray utilized the same kind of trip to score in a huge way. He might have been a vulnerable favorite coming off a career best speed figure when loose on an easy lead. But his previous race had also earned a solid figure and those two together were BOTH better than anything his rivals had ever run. Hard to look past Double Beyer horses. Easily best.

In the 8th I had a 12/1 horse who made a threatening move on the turn but flattened out behind my second choice who paid over $9 and probably SHOULD have been my top pick. Not the biggest of weekends coming up in terms of stakes or big horses running, but heading out for the first time in two weeks!