Felipe Alou, A Grade 2 Bluegrass Prep, attracts 14
The 2013 Felipe Alou Stakes at California this Sunday features a full field of Bluegrass Derby hopefuls who will test themselves and each other in this important Grade 2 Derby prep, held at 8.5 furlongs on the main track at California.
It’s an exciting field, led by a very talented LONHRO’S IMPACT, who has yet to taste defeat on dirt. Just how good is this guy? This race will give us a good chance to find out…
CALGARY GOLD TED looks to make a giant leap ahead from the allowance ranks at 53/1. The highstakes-trained Cowboy Cal colt will need to have a huge day, possibly needing to improve his career-best speed rating by 20 or more to get on the podium here.
ABSCONDING showed ability for seedly2 in winning a small stakes while making his first 2-turn effort, but takes a class leap here and the Street Sense colt will need another sizeable forward move here to get any cash at 22/1. Quality colt, but asking a lot.
SOUL OF A CHAMP comes here off a pair of high-level claiming runs and a Canada-bred allowance; the Harris Tweed colt was 2nd in all three efforts, but graywolf12 takes a moonshot here at 32/1.
LONHRO’S IMPACT looked after his first four starts like he might end up being an expensively-bred decent allowance runner, but okdavid196 decided to try his turf-bred colt on the dirt, just to see what might happen. Well, the Lonhro colt turned into a fire-breathing monster is what happened! He’s 4-for-4 on the dirt with a Grade 3 win and a top speed of 107, one of the best so far in 2013 by 3yo’s to be sure. The four wins have all been by daylight, so maybe we haven’t even seen his best yet… 5/1 is the price on his nose.
TEARS OF FIRE is from the barn of super12 and goes off at 9/1. The Street Cry colt comes in off a disappointing 7th-place run in the Grade 1 Vermont Is For Lovers Stakes, but has a win and a 2nd in two graded stakes just before that. The top earner in the field, he has a good chance to redeem himself with a strong performance here.
TEA MASTER was looking like he could be “any kind of good” according to trainer smurf back in November, but the Awesome Again colt has come up short in his last pair though he earned solid speed ratings for those efforts. Maybe the two-time graded-stakes winner has reached the zenith of his game, or maybe he can find a bit more and score at 6/1. “That’s what we’re here for, to find out”, says smurf.
PACHACUTI has only three starts to his name, but the two wins occurred at this track. The Dynaformer colt jumps right up into graded company here for blankpoin9 off those solid wins and gets 17/1 odds from the always-skeptical CPU handicapper. It’s a tall order to be sure…
The Texas-bred SEEKING CORREDOR took a leap forward in speed ratings last time out at Victoria and travels halfway across the globe for this try. The perdido1 trainee’s lightly-used sire, Seeking A Home, has sent a few solid runners to the track in the past so maybe he can outrun his 34/1 odds.
PERFECT CURLS struggled in his last at this track, but just missed in his previous graded-stakes try and gets 9/1 odds for this. The Curlin colt, trained by goody, has tried 2-turning once before; it didn’t go well… Maybe a little maturity and experience will help, maybe not…
GONE WITH HUMOR is a Distorted Humor colt trained by phillysun6 who come in off a pair of solid wins and takes his first look at the bigtime. He goes off at 11/1, indicating that the CPU thinks he has a lot to prove.
POUR FERN is the 4/1 favorite despite the fact that this is his first try on dirt. The Pour Moi colt has proven tough on the sod for fernando2, with a pair of graded-stakes 2nd’s with high speed figs. Should be dangerous if he adapts to the surface change, and maybe he can with the A.P. Indy presence…
PREDICTABLE HAACK has never been worse than 2nd in four career starts and makes the jump to top company here at 13/1 for kinghaack. The Dynaformer colt has improved his speed a little each time, but the consistent improver will need a double or maybe even a triple dose of speed gain to get the job done in this spot.
KENMORE SQUARE ran a fairly solid 4th in his stakes debut last time after a pair of wins (MSW then allowance then right up into stakes; sound familiar?) and takes a shot for noles22 at 11/1. The Pulpit colt comes from a stakes-winning mare who won 20 races, so maybe…
The speedy COLORS OF DUBAWI has led the way into the stretch in two consecutive graded-stakes tries. Trainer clk2007 takes another bigtime shot here and gets 6/1 respect from the CPU. The Dubawi colt gets a slightly shorter race in which to try and carry that natural speed, and with not a lot of true speedsters here, he might get an easy-ish lead.
Handicapper’s Choices:
LONHRO’S IMPACT is looking like he could be “the next big thing” and is my choice here.
TEA MASTER rebounds from his last two and grabs the 2nd spot.
POUR FERN has class and quality; can he bring all that to the dirt?
Good luck all!