Firstly, when is Santa Anita gonna dump that annoying announcer? He really makes listening to races like listening to nails being scrapped down a blackboard. American racing doesn't need any association with English or Australian racing. We are the standard. Let them try to pull Tom Durkin. I think the caller is Trevor Demond. He's not even good at it, completely loses contact with the horses and seems to take twice the time to let go of a syllable.

Now the San Rafael, It appears Lion Heart's stock as Kentucky Derby Favorite (He was in some circles) dropped a bit. The horse that won came from way back, though they ran on together post wire. Quintan's Gold Rush wasn't impressive and St. Averil wasn't flattered. Final time for the race 1:36:11 I don't know what that means yet, tuned in late to Santa Anita, which in my opinion is a "back up" track unless its a big day like today.

I suppose that evaluating the filly’s chances depends at least in part upon how you weight her last three races. I rate them well, By my reckoning (non T-Graph) shes got the fastest number in the race. She’s been running on in the last three and they are all Grade I’s. She seems to want to go longer and you know she’s fast at 7 marks. Where it became a wager for me was in comparing the Malibu to the La Brea. Theres an 11 pound weight shift in Island Fashions favor. Even before the weight shift she ran faster early and came home quicker. Granted the races were run on different days and there are sex allowances to consider, but I can’t ignore those performance differences especially when one horse is even money and the other 7-1. With P.P. out I made Southern Image the favorite and if you like him, you can’t help but like the filly. I’m really not overly confident in this bet, because I am projecting quite a bit. But in this race, you have to project no matter who you go with. The filly is coming home nicely, In my opinion, she’s not a Winning Colors or Serena’s Song, but she may not have to be. That said I believe she may be right on the pace. This is a very strange Big Cap. It’s a lot of money at stake for horses that have never really proven they want 10 marks in top company.

For me it’s an Island – Star Cross perfecta, with Island keyed in other exotics over most everything else

CtC



Post Edited (03-06-04 19:47)