Monday, July 20, 2009

Weekend Wrap Up

G2 Virginia Derby

Pretty weak edition of what was an intriguing race going in. The race lost its star power with the late scratch of Nicanor. (Injury) Battle of Hastings got up late to nose Straight Story, who was perhaps moved a touch too soon against the no hope speedster Afirmitaf.

The final time and resulting Beyer (92) tell the story of this race.




G2 Delaware Handicap & G3 Barbaro Stakes


I regret to say there is no video for these races because ESPN has seen fit to disallow embedding of their videos on Youtube. I’ve never quite understood the rationale behind this, as it only serves to limit the amount of eyes that will view their content. I’ll 'effort' finding them elsewhere, but to be honest neither race was overly thrilling.

Both races ere won in front running fashion. The promising 3yo, Our Edge, broke sharp, collapsed to the rail and never looked back. He set honest fractions throughout and responded with a nice rally to win the G3 Barbaro by 8 lengths. One has to suspect Zito will have him in the starting gate for the Travers.

Swift Temper stole the Delaware Handicap in stunning fashion. Unbridled Belle broke a hair slow and was never urged to the lead or to press the pace, opening the door for Swift temper to inherit the lead and set absurdly slow fractions. It's of little surprise she had plenty left in the tank to fend off a mild challenge at the top of the lane.

Acoma put in a puzzling performance, fading bad after chasing extremely slow fractions.

FYI

2010 Breeders Cup Sprint winner Fatal Bullet made a successful return to the track Saturday, dominating the Bold Venture Stakes at Woodbine.

1 comment:

The_Knight_Sky said...

Thanks for the video. Just watched it again.

Take The Points bears watching out of the Va Derby. He was bottled up for way too long.

If he can draw into a field without the Grade 1 big guns, he could be worth every bit of 9/5 from an inside post.