Three-year-olds clash in Grade 2 Jerome
October 5, 2008 by Jarrod Horak
Filed under Handicapping, Horses, Jockeys, Miscellaneous, Racetracks, Stakes Races, Trainers
Sunday’s Grade 2 Jerome Handicap from Belmont Park features a small but select field of seven, including the Nick Zito entry of Da’ Tara and Cool Coal Man, but Todd Pletcher may have the one to beat with 2-1 favorite Harlem Rocker.
The Stronach Stables colt won the first three starts of his career, all around one-turn, including a razor sharp Withers (G3) tally at this distance with a 106 BSF.
The Ontario-bred was immediately prepared for the Queen’s Plate, but he failed to handle synthetic ground in his Woodbine prep, so those plans were scrapped. He ended up winning …read more
Breeders Cup Classic prep: Meadowlands Cup Handicap
October 2, 2008 by Jarrod Horak
Filed under Handicapping, Horses, Jockeys, Miscellaneous, Racetracks, Stakes Races, Trainers
Friday night’s Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup Handicap is a $350k race for three-year-olds and up traveling nine furlongs on the main track, and it serves as one of the final prep races for the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic. The 8-horse field is lead by Past the Point.
Past the Point (Indian Charlie-AP Indy) is a vastly improved Darley Stable 4yo, and his trainer Eoin Harty is already loaded for bear in the BC Classic with Goodwood winner Well Armed and Travers hero Colonel John, both owned by WinStar Farm.
Past the Point showed promise as a three-year-old with a solid show finish …read more
Triple Crown series recap: Big Brown seemingly fine
June 8, 2008 by Jarrod Horak
Filed under Horses, Stakes Races, Triple Crown
The 2008 Triple Crown series is in the books, and even though I was never on the Big Brown bandwagon, I never could have predicted his fate in the Belmont Stakes. He was completely done after a mile, and Kent D wisely wrapped up on him.
After a thorough examination on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, nothing was found to indicate Big Brown’s poor Belmont Stakes showing.
I am sure further tests will be done before moving forward with the son of Boundary, and if all goes well, we may see him in the Travers this summer and a …read more
Da’ Tara and Nick Zito extend Triple Crown drought; Big Brown last
June 7, 2008 by Jarrod Horak
Filed under Handicapping, Horses, Jockeys, Miscellaneous, Stakes Races, Trainers, Triple Crown
Da’ Tara, under a heady ride by Alan Garcia, seized control from the outset and proceeded to pull off a surprising 5-1/4 length wire job in the 140th Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
The win gave Nick Zito his 2nd Belmont Stakes victory, and both times he foiled Triple Crown bids. The other was Birdstone over Smarty Jones in 2004.
The reasonable splits were 23.82, 48.30, 1:12.90, 1:37.96, 2:03.21, and 2:29.65. The longshot winner earned $600,000 and paid $79.
As for overbet favorite Big Brown, I did not expect him to complete his task given the historical trends, but coming …read more
