If not us, then who?

By ITCH

I like this field.

Let me tell you why.

What kind of field do you think we’d have for this race if it were not for the West Virginia Stakes Competition?

Not much of one, I’ll tell you that.

No fewer than eight of the nine entries in this marathon, 13-furlong test for older horses, the $40,000 GULCH WALAKI STAKES, are contest horses. If not for the contest, what would we have? A four-horse race with a computer drone entry or two?

As it is, there are nine horses, led by Ts1442’s ROYAL FORTY INDY, who has become quite the local favorite here at the Mountain Oval after racking up eight stakes contest points in his last two races. In those two previous races, the Fat Free Denny in 2797 and the Cad for Cards last out in 2839, Royal Forty Indy raced at shorter distances. We were thinking before that those distances might be too short for him, but they were not. He ran first and second, with big triple-digit speed figs. Now, Tom asks the big horse to stretch back out to 13 furlongs. He’s run well farther than that in the past in big-time Grade I company, but he didn’t run so good last time stretched out that far here at the Appalachian Spa. He’s primed for the effort, though, in razor sharp form and the class of this field. Quickly becoming the greatest horse in the short history of the WV Stakes Competition.

Current contest leader Stretch brings his very successful distance mare DESERT DISH(IRE) here for her first-ever race in West Virginia. It’s been a wonderful career so far for this 7yo daughter of Desert King, rising all the way to the Top 25 in the long division for fillies and mares. Draw a line through that last race as she hated the slop. Can her speed at 16f translate to a front-running score against the men here? She didn’t have much luck last time she faced Royal Forty Indy, in the Grade I Kelso Cup on DelPenn Champions Day, when she was a well-beaten seventh, 20-plus lengths back of the big guy. Still, she’s a tremendous racehorse and we’re proud to have her here at the Mountain Oval.

Hijacked Ted is looking to re-establish some stakes form with LIVE BY THE SWORD, who has had a rough time of it in stakes competition here in West Virginia. As noted in this column before, this son of War Chant was bred by Masterab to be another Allied Assault-type turf monster, but it hasn’t worked out that way. After Larry gave up on him, he changed barns a couple times before Hijacked Ted got ahold of him and turned him into a successful dirt distance horse. He never did win a stake, though, and has struggled at this level of competition lately. That nice restricted allowance score last out is encouraging, though.

Next we have the spoiler, Lgbost8’s CONBARRO, the only non-contest horse in the field. Maybe it says something about Jocko Maloney’s riding, ahem, acumen, that all of the contest trainers knew to pass him by and leave him for Lgbost. Guess what, though? The old Irish prizefighter looks to have a live mount here in the 4yo son of FuPeg. Whatever happens here Saturday, what a great claim and shrewd Sim training by Lgbost with this horse. The original owner never knew what he had, failing to break the horse’s maiden in 17 starts. It is just hard to believe that a horse this good was 0-17 at one point. Most trainers wouldn’t give a horse like that a second look, but Lgbost put in the claim slip for 20 grand, and stretched the horse out. Bingo! He broke his maiden at 13 furlongs and hasn’t looked back since. The score last out in the Missouri stake got this horse his black type, and Lgbost is to be congratulated on this one.

Next we have DEPUTY ALYDAM BG out of the Bob123g barn, and darnit, we don’t have as many contest horses as I thought. This is not one of the three barns Bob nominated for the contest, so it looks like he’s playing the role of spoiler again. By way of comparison, this mare is ranked No. 50 in her long division, compared to No. 25 for Desert Dish, so she is a notch below that one. This daughter of Deputy Minister has been a model of consistency for Bob, hitting the board in 23 of her 30 career races, and hitting the board in six of seven career stakes tries, winning two. She’s been third against the men in a stake before, so that sets a little bit of a precedent there. I wish Bob could score points with this one, and I bet he does, too.

TOM’S SHINING STAR is next for Ts1442, and unfortunately, this one is struggling. You know what mama said about not saying anything if you don’t have anything nice to say.

WASSIE’S RAINBOW G also has hit a bit of a rough spot here lately, but this is a class old horse that could wake up anytime. After all, he’s won 12 stake races in his brilliant career. Count em up folks, 12 stake wins. That is massive in any book. Maybe we have a little bit of karma with a jock named Rainbow in the irons. These two could be meant for each other. It sure would be fun to see the Rainbow come rolling down the lane one more time, wouldn’t it, Wassie?

INDISPENSABLE is next, the second part of a three-headed entry for contest leader Stretch. It’s hard to fathom a horse being in bad form when he’s broken the triple-digit speed fig barrier twice this year and never run slower than a 95 in six starts, but he’s only managed one third despite all that fast running. It’s like he’s good enough to be there, but not good enough to get by lately. Quite a head scratcher. He’s been off the board in six straight stakes here at the Mountain Oval, so he ain’t exactly a horse for the course.

Finally, we have STORMY, the third horse entered here for contest leader Stretch. Entering three horses, hmmm, I think Stretch wants to win this contest, don’t you? That’s very cool. Stormy is a fine old veteran campaigner, making his 63rd start here. At age 7, he has not been up to stakes competition lately, but that does little to diminish his career, having won $706,000 and two stakes. His career highlight was back-to-back placings in two Grade I races.

In conclusion, we’d like to send out a special thanks to Buzzfarm for his very generous sponsoring of an upcoming INDIANA SPECIAL in week 2867, a 9.5-furlong test for older horses. Might we see some of these horses that day? Could be.

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!!!!!!