Confederate Stk
Confederate Stk
Grade II
A mile and one eighth
Yielding Turf
$250,000
All horses, 3 years old and up
1 29284 SOME CAT acarigua5 M Bang 17/1
2 22885 AMERICAN QUEST bagpuss M Byrne 8/1
3 86818 NEW STORM coolerk R Wilhite 5/2
4 33702 JUDSON ROCKET jerry78130 T Teising 20/1
5 7976 SLEW CAN gsrprize D Doughty 7/2
6 89482 PLEASANT FLIGHT cbrady S Fairchild 22/1
7 112 GET MORE MINUTES ldstable D Howard 32/1
8 88126 SKY CANDY redwood M Claus 17/1
9 97757 REUNION SLEW(IRE) triplcrown W Wong 25/1
10 22821 LONESOME RIVER oxymoron3 H O’Connell 5/1
11 91427 JACKY HOLLANDIA tote F Foster 3/1
Todays feature is the Grade II Confederate Stakes over 9f on the turf. One thing to not is that the going is now Yielding following some steady rain over the past three days. A decent field of eleven, and the moring line suggests only a few can win but what effect will that going have?
NEW STORM (STORM CAT x NUREYEV x DAMASCUS)
The favourite, having won a Grade I, a Grade III and a stakes in his last four starts. Perhaps more significantly he has won five of his nine wins on soft or yieding ground. The only doubt is over the trip as he has been best at 9.5f-10f but i for one don’t think that will be enough to stop him. The likely winner.
JACKY HOLLANDIA (SAKHEE x DIXIELAND BAND x TARLAC)
Another Grade I winner who also has form on softer ground, and another who’s only real doubt is the trip. His best runs have all been at a mile, but he should be able to cope with the extra furlong. Nailed on for a top three finish.
SLEW CAN (DANZIG x SEATTLE SLEW x MR. PROSPECTOR)
Another multiple recent Graded winner, he has three questions marks against him today. Firstly he’s only run once on bad ground and didn’t place. Secondly, although a Grade I winner his best runs have been at Grade III level and lastly those same runs have also been over a mile or even less. Today i thinkd the ground and the extra distance will prove too much and he may struggle to get a top three spot.
LONESOME RIVER (DEHERE x FORTY NINER x SUPERLATIVE(IRE))
Interesting. Yet to win a graded race, he has run well in some and has some form on bad ground. Another with a question mark about the distance though. He will go from the front and try and lead all the way but he has been getting caught in the last quarter over 8.5f, so i don’t think the exyra distance on yielding is going to help. Not today.
AMERICAN QUEST (CORONADO’S QUEST x DISTORTED HUMOR x QUIET AMERICAN)
He has been running in stakes but only has one recent win, over 8.5f. He has a win on bad ground but is crying out for more distance, at least 10f. However with most of these struggling to get the trip in the ground, he has a good chance of a top three spot today.
Of the rest SOME CAT has form on the ground but has been mostly running in allowances. He also looks like he may want further and would be a danger in an ordinary stakes race but this looks too tough. JUDSON ROCKET has some nice allowance form but has yet to try a stakes let alone win one and is out of his depth, PLEASANT FLIGHT has won an allowance recently but struggled badly in stakes and graded races and is outclassed as is SKY CANDY who has won a stakes recently but with a very low sp for that class of race,. GET MORE MINUTES is the least exposed and clearly has talen but this is surely to steep a learning curve today and REUNION SLEW(IRE) is of more interest. This is his firs try on turf, having won two stakes on dirt latest. His manner of victory in his last suggests he’ll get the trip an dbeing by Indian Ridge he should handle turf. Outside chance of a top five place.
Overall it has to be between NEW STORM and JACKY HOLLANDIA with prefernce being just for the fomer. AMERICAN QUEST and REUNION SLEW(IRE) will be battling for the third spot.