THIS WEEK IN MINNESOTA—2860
7 HORSES GO 9 FURLONGS ON THE GRASS IN MINNY FEATURE
This weeks feature at Minnesota Downs is THE S DANCE HANDICAP STAKES for 4YO+ going 9 furlongs on the main turf course. 7 have entered and will be vying for the winner’s share of the $50,000 purse. The race honors S DANCE, a 2 time stake winner who retired in 2001 with 15 wins in 54 lifetime starts predominately running in turf routes. He had lifetime earning of $555,130 and all on track patrons can see S DANCE on Saturday in the VIP paddock on the lower grandstand concourse.
Let’s take a look at today’s field,
1) SKYWAY(IRE)—7/2—kaif011 sends out this 4 year old colt sired by HIGH CHAPPAREL, who is a 75%-25% turf over dirt sire who has an 18% stake winners from the 2004 breeding season. This colt is the first foal from the dam HIGH HOPES TOO who was a multi race winner albeit a non stake winner. This colt has 1 stake win to his credit from his 3 year old campaign and has posted back to back triple digit speed ratings in his last 2 races which make him a very serious threat to win here today. He is a closer who should have no problem with the extra ground here today. The one negative is the use of low percentage and lightly used jockey A Annika who will only be making his 28 start of the season.
2) DEUX BLOON(IRE)—4/1—mofofarms sends out this 4 year old colt sired by DOUBLE TRIGGER(IRE), who is 78%-22% turf over dirt sire who has a 3.4% stake winners from the 2004 breeding season. This colt is the leading offspring of the sire. He has a record of 10 wins in 24 lifetime starts including 7 stakes wins with earnings of more than 500k. This colt is currently ranked 44th in the division. After a rough start to this years campaign by being outrun in the equinics sprint and a so so dirt allowance start, he has rebounded with 3 nice efforts capped off by an allowance win in his last start posting a 102 speed rating over 8 furlongs on the turf. This front running speed horse has yet to win at today’s distance and may prefer the mile races but with the circuits top jockey K Bowen aboard may be rated well enough to preservere here today.
3) REQUIEM’S BLADE—6/1—lionart sends out this 4YO colt out of BRAHMS who has 12.9% stake winners from his 2004 crop although the trend leans toward dirt sprinters rather than turf routers. This colts dam is the very talented DANCING BLADE who was a multi graded stake winner with over 2.5 million in earnings for today’s trainer. This colt is being switched to the turf after having a very listless 2006 season so far failing to even cash a cheque in 4 races. It should be noted that this colt started his career with 4 turf races, winning and placing one of each so he does have some success on the surfae. The steady O Stinson gets the call aboard today.
4) FOAL BARROW—7/1—goldeneye2 claimed this 6YO horse in his 3 YO campaign for 40k which says that this trainer has a golden eye for spotting good horse buys. This son of BARROW has 2 stakes victories in his 10 lifetime wins from 45 starts. This horse uses a closing style of racing so P Green will need to have him in a clear lane at the top of the stretch so he can run down the front runners. One concern with this horse is that his speed ratings have started to decrease with his 6 year old campaign and the horse may be showing signs of wearing out with the busy seasons earlier in his career.
5) FRIENDOFTHEFAMILY—8/5—pedroza sends out the leading offspring of RAHY from the 2003 crop in today’s race. This 5 year old is out of graded winner dam TRIANGULAR INN, and is the most succesfull foal from that one as the others have only accumulated claiming wins to date. This horse is ranked #41 in the division with 13 wins in 38 career starts with over $1 million earned. He has 5 career stakes wins including his last race where he posted a 105 speed rating over 8.5 furlongs. This closer has top jock K Friar aboard, is the morning line favorite and has already won at today’s distance before. A lot to like about this one.
6) HERBAGER’S FINEST(IRE)—8/1—sigone has his 5 YO horse making his stakes debut today after winning his last, an allowance race posting a 98 speed rating over 8 furlongs on the turf. This horse is a multi allowance race winner in his career but did run in a 2500 claimer at 2 years old. This horse was a speed horse at ages 2 and 3 and reverted to being a closer last year but seems to have found some of his old speedy habits in his last few starts this year. One problem may be that this horse has never won at a distance over 8.5 furlongs. The grizzled minnesota jockey veteran S Upertoy is aboard and his numbers have been improving as of late after a slow start to this season.
7) FATHER DRILL(GB)—11/1—dasha sends out this 7 year old horse who did not make it to the races until his 5 year old campaign. While posting 3 wins in that debut season the horse has only 1 win in his last 16 races. He is stakes placed but has no stakes victories to date. If he should upset here today he would provide his sire DASHING BLADE with his first stakes winning offspring today. This is his first start at a route in over 1 year, and it should be noted that he has never won a route race in his career to date. This horse is multi faceted in that he can both stalk the front running pace and close. He enters this race off of a 3rd place finish in an allowance with a 98 speed rating over 7 furlongs. Low percentage jockey N Ohara is aboard.
Well I am going to take a shot that #2 DEUX BLOON(IRE) will be alone and loose on the lead and will be able to hold off the closers in the stretch today. K Bowen is a great jockey and hopefully he will be able to rate his horse here today.
MINNESOTA RECAP—2853
Well in last week’s feature the 1st time starter DIXIELAND BEAT(GB) closed gamely to win the race with a 74 speed rating. My selection ended up running an evenly run 4th in the race.
In the co-feature Dundey’s colt MOUNT CHRIS went wire to wire in the Minnesota sire series finishing ahead of track general manager Theo’s THEO’S MULLIGAN at the wire.
The race favorite and series leader CATHOUSE never fired in the stretch and finished an evenly run 5th in the race. That one’s trainer DESPERADO was very upset with the race but was relieved the horse was not injured or lame. He stated that one possibility was the virtual inactivity in racing over the last 6 weeks in skipping one grass race and only running a workout on the second since that surface was not to his liking. All in all the results to the race just closed up the ranks and will make a great finish to the series in the final 6 races. The next race in the series will be 5 furlongs on the dirt in week 2874.
Minnesota veteran Randy won the NO MERCY handicapping contest last week taking home the 600 credit prize and right away has sponsored a resident MSW 2 YO race with his winnings.
Chuckrock made it to the top of the MT EVEREST mountain climb in that contest earning the 1000 credit prize and joined the 3 others who have already made it to the top so far.
OTHER HAPPENINGS AT MINNESOTA THIS WEEK
This is the last week for the Mountains of Money contest with Dundey in command with a $100 lead in the standings and barring some miracle should take home the 500 credit prize.
Desperado is making an attempt this week at the final hurdle of the climb to the top of Mt Everest and the 1000 credit prize. Good Luck Desp.
Chuckrock is currently leading the Minny Stallion contest which is for horses bred with Stallions standing in Minnesota.
Silverny99 is currently leading the Minny Homebred Championship for resident homebreds hilited by her talented 3YO colt SILVER CHRISTMAS.
Week #19 in the Minnesota Cup contest goes this week with Cothill still leading the Minneapolis division and Dundey & Desperado tied in the St Paul division.
The pick 4 pool for this week is 950 credits.
If you would like to join us at Minnesota Downs Residence and get in on all these contests and special races just send me an e-mail and I will sign you right up.
My e-mail address is teddysherr@hotmail.com
GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING