Short Field Will Earn Some Coveted Black Type

Short Field Will Earn Some Coveted Black Type

South Korea – Topping the Saturday card here in South Korea this week, will be the Swift Knife Bonanza.  The $60,000 race will be run at a mile and a half over the turf and drew a field of five older horses.  The race was named after Swift Knife, a solid claim/low allowance horse that won eight of 44 races.  He has one foal to race, a winner.

Breaking from the inside will be Dummy Proof (2/1), a 4 YO son of Smart Strike.  He has started 32 times and has won only four – BUT – he has been stretching out slowly and this big bay is a solid allowance colt that just keeps on closing.  He placed midfield in a 12 furlong Grade I and came back to win an allowance before f inishing a closing second last time out.  I know he can handle the distance and trainer Kwswps may have picked just the right race to earn this colt some black type.

Expected to show the way on Saturday is Lt. Skin (7/5), a lovely dark bay colt by Lake Superior, who will break from post two.  Owned and trained by Phillyfarm, this 4 YO has finished in the money 15 times from 20 starts.  He has won seven of them but this will be his first time at Saturday’s distance and hopefully he will have gained some fitness from his last start, The Enough Affect where he finished second after making the lead.

Rocky Bell (9/1) will start from the middle gate and the 6 YO, bright bay is by Devil’s bag and trained by Pekayz.  This former $5,000 claimer seems to have come to life recently and has won three of his last five races although they were against weaker competition than he will face here.  Distance is not a question with this guy and he comes in with a lot of confidence.

Post four will hold Hair Trigger (9/5), a 5YO horse by Double Trigger.  He has nine wins from 38 starts and is ably trained by Kingfish who has had him all his life.  He has run for high claims but he is a super consistent horse with speed figures that average in the low 90s.  This is another that will handle the distance just fine.

Alpine Reel (12/1) will start from the outside in post five and is a 4 YO son of Pilsudski (is that like Soduku?), trained by Chelseydek.  With only eight starts under his belt, this dark brown colt is still learning and must be confused, or maybe the trainer is confused, as he has tried (in his eight starts) both turf and dirt and has run from 4 1/2 furlongs to 2 miles.  The colt doesn’t like to rate and goes as fast as he can from gate to wire and sometimes he lasts and sometimes he doesn’t.  He won The Trekker’s Festival at 16 furlongs and also won last time out in a 16 furlong allowance by eight lengths, but on the main track.  He is switching back to the grass for Saturday and looks far better to me than his odds.

Good Luck to everyone.