Weekend Notes

G2 Peter Pan

I still can’t figure out what Hello Broadway was doing Saturday in this race. They put blinkers on the colt for some reason, only to watch him run about as rank as possible, setting early fractions of 22, 44 and 1:08. His performance gets the early vote for the most ridiculous effort of the year. Charitable Man ended up winning, but considering how he simply needed to outlast the loose on the lead madman Hello Broadway; the result was never in question. In fact, the dreadfully slow closing fractions and subsequent 98 Beyer makes me highly skeptical of this race meaning anything.



G2 Mervyn Leroy

The question leading into this race was how many lengths would the undefeated Rail Trip defeat this field. There was some class entered here but nothing special. He tracked the pacesetter and eventual winner Ball Four throughout and failed to menace down the lane. I’ve never really been sold on Rail Tout and this race didn’t do anything to change that opinion. I’m not sure if he is the type that needs the lead to perform at his best (spare me the emails about him winning an allowance while stalking) or if he is just not as good as many anticipated. He hasn’t beaten much and lost the first time he got challenged. He may have needed a dogfight to figure out what his job is but I’m not all that convinced.



G3 Lone Star Derby

Mythical Power won this race convincingly, embellishing the Sunland Derby to almost "mythical" proportions. Steve Crist asked in his blog, “Is This The Keyest Key Race Ever?!” For those under a rock, the Sunland Derby has now produced the G1 Kentucky Derby winner (Mine That Bird), the G2 Lexington winner (Advice), the G3 Lone Star Derby (Mythical Power) and the Texas Stallions Stakes winner (Valid Stripes).

All eyes are now on Kelly Leak, the actual winner of the Sunland Derby over the above. He might be the greatest horse since the Bid.