Weekend Review

G1 Hollywood Gold Cup

Rail Trip finally lived up to the hype. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Mr. Trip as he started his career strong with a handful of freakish performances, only to put two less than stellar starts back to back once he moved up in company.

Nice final time and Beyer. (111) This type of effort puts him firmly in the picture for the Breeders Cup Classic this October. Lets see if they can keep him together.



G1 Man O War

Gio Ponti has firmly stamped himself the leader of the turf division. This was another tour de force effort, which was his third consecutive G1 win, from distances ranging from one mile to a mile and three eighths.

Long shot Musketier impressed hanging on for second after setting the early pace.



G1 Princess Rooney

On again, off again Game Face ran a career best race in the Princess Rooney, getting the ideal pace and trip scenario.



Long Branch Stakes

There were other graded stakes of note this weekend, especially from the Summit of Speed at Calder, but I felt inclined to post about the Long Branch considering it featured the return of Papa Clem, in a race that is generally a prep for the G1 Haskell.

This was a decidedly poor race, with Atomic Rain winning a rather lousy race. Slow early, slow late, the race garnered an average 96 Beyer.

Papa Clem never ran a lick and hopefully this was the case of needing a race, otherwise this type of effort doesn’t bode well for him the remainder of the year.

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