Big Matchup in Far Lap Stakes

If you’re going to have a virtual match race between champions of different types, it might as well be a race that is sorta named after the great Australian superhorse, Phar Lap. That champion won races as short as 6 furlongs and as far as 2 miles during a great life that was shortened under circumstances mysterious enough that the cause of his death is still being argued over 80 years later…

For those of you who don’t know much about Phar Lap, more can be read about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar_Lap

The entire 1983 Australian movie about Phar Lap is available on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJG3ho_z2zM

Anyway, back to the main subject of this article: The Grade 3 Far Lap carries a $150,000 purse, but the participants are much more important than the money involved. At 7.5 furlongs on the grassy Victoria, Australia course, the distance is right in-between the apparent strengths of the two giants of the Sim’s 3yo turf world whose names have been placed in the entry box.

The way the entry box was filled in this race over the last week is the reason why I’ll eschew my usual method of discussing the horses in post-position order. Early in the week when I first chose this race to cover, the top two choices already had their names in the box, with only one other entered. It practically looked like the two trainers had entered an agreement a good while back to have this showdown, then gone ahead and allowed other to join the party if they dared.

First, the two stars of the show:

GUINNESS ROAD is the one that makes the road trip this time… The #1 3yo turf route colt is the champ of the same Breeder’s Bowl Turf that the “other” star of this race had so much trouble with, and shortens up slightly in distance to take on the sprint champ while taking his turn at hoppin’ on a flyer to run in this race. Trainer fiend has guided this Galileo colt to five wins and almost a million Sim bucks in just seven starts. He will be slightly favored at 8/5.

UTBC LIGHT WELL is the #1 3yo turf sprinter in the Sim, and takes a “home-course advantage” into the fray. Trainer wilkes has done a marvelous job campaigning this North Light colt to seven wins in eleven starts, and the flashy brown colt has grabbed over $2 million in the process. The main question regarding this one’s performance here will be one of distance, since the race is just barely short of 2-turn distance. He failed badly in his only 2-turn try but it was, after all, the Breeder’s Bowl Juvenile Turf against the best around after a trip halfway around the globe to enter the race. Perhaps because of this bad race, he’s the 2nd choice at 9/5 here.

Let’s review: “Light” is probably at a disadvantage with the distance, but has the “home track” in his favor, while “Guinness” is the one flying halfway around the world this time… Great questions to be asked of both parties… Which one will win?

Just a minute, this isn’t really a match race… There are a couple others that can sneak in and maybe pull the upset or at least get a big chunk of the purse, especially if either of the top two has a bad day:

ALACRITOUS is certainly no slouch, as his solid graded-stakes runs would attest. While the King Kamehameha colt hasn’t been able to find the winner’s circle in his five graded-stakes tries, he has never failed to cash in any of them. Trained by ziklag2, he should be around to pick up some more cash, maybe even a lot of it if things fall right. Goes off at 3/1.

LITTLE LOUIES is a son of lightly-used Kentucky sire Harlington who moved up nicely when switched to the sod a few starts back; two allowance wins and a strong 2nd in a small stake. Now, though, the deepesr18 trainee tries on a different level for size while stretching to 2-turn racing. Not without a shot and the CPU likes him enough to give 5/1 odds; he can earn a nice check with a top effort.

Then we have the longshots shooting for the moon, or at least hoping to have a little fun at the party…

DARCI MAN has done very nicely in allowances, but his one graded-stakes try wasn’t pretty. By obscure West Virginia sire Charitable Man, the wyndaway29 trainee takes a second look at route racing, this time at a much less-daunting distance than the 14 furlongs he tried back in January. At 25/1, he will need his very best to do have much success in this group.

WARM WOMAN improved nicely to break his maiden when stretched out last time, and gets a look at some real tough ones here. The Mountain High colt trained by tygerrockets will get a real test here at 40/1.

BLEAK SHAKE gets thrown in with the sharks after being claimed by oakviewfarms from his last start; going off at 143/1, the Street Hero colt will be sorely tested. He is 2 for 3 on the turf, but this is a different game.

BRAVE ENDEAVOUR broke his maiden last time out in his 5th try and gets a 21/1 price. The son of South African sire Brave Tin Soldier, he has shown some promise but will need to run huge for deeprock51 to compete with this bunch.

POLLARD’S SLEW finished an uninspiring 3rd in his turf debut and will need much better here. The Pollard’s Vision colt goes off at 25/1 for littlerocks1.

Okay, it’s time for me to toss the tea leaves to the four winds and “handicap” this deal…

When sprinters and routers meet at the top level like this, my shaky memory tells me that the router shortening up usually has an advantage. So, I’m going to pick GUINNESS ROAD to snag this one.

UTBC LIGHT WELL closes very well late in sprints, so I think he’ll be able to deal with the extra furlong or so and grab 2nd.

LITTLE LOUIES may find himself alone on the front end, where some horses “grow” a bunch of extra courage; The top two are too good, but he has a great shot at 3rd.

Good luck all!