Three Old Men And A Lady Meet In Utah

Three Old Men And A Lady Meet In Utah

Utah – A last minute assignment sent me off to Utah to cover The Boristeel Challenge, the card topper of the day here in Utah.  The Boristeel is named in honor of a 9 YO horse that won seven races from 54 starts.  He was graded placed, won over $700,000 and sired one colt, a winner.  The Boristeel will be run over a firm turf course at a mile and three quarters and carries a purse of $45,000.  Only four horses will answer the call to the post and whether it was because of the short field or the lack of anywhere else to run this week the field consists of a top 10 ranked horse and runs the gambit down to a $35,000 claimer.  However, while the result might seem obvious, all of these horses can handle the distance and they have a long way to make a mistake or take advantage of one that might be made.  Here is the field from the rail out.

Lill Verduten (8/1) the old guy in the race at seven and is a striking looking horse by Imperial Fling.  He is owned and trained by Chokito and has won four of his 34 starts.  He has some speed and seems to run best when he makes the lead.  Unfortunately he has not won in over a year and may need a big class drop before he sees the winner’s circle again.

Kearsarge (is that you Tb?)  will saddle Psychedelic Vision (3/1) a 4 YO filly by Rock Of Gibraltar.  She is lightly raced with only 14 starts and has won four of them.  She has won two of her last three and made a sparkling run from last to first last time out in a two mile allowance race.   She’s taking on the boys but they are a bunch of old men so that may not matter and looks like she could handle the class jump.  She has a good jock to help her along and has the daisy cutting action so desired in a turf horse.

Also by Rock of Gibraltar is Rockfly’s Dancer (3/1) conditioned by Chabe.  He gets the nod for having the most experience in the race with 56 starts, 18 wins, and is showing no sign of slowing down.  He has obviously learned to work through the pain as many tough old horses do and even though his last win was for a tag he seems to like his new owner and split the field in The Tripod Bob Stakes to finish third.  He also made the lead in The Huge Treasure but could not sustain it and faded to last.  He bounced back last time out with a rousing finish in a mile and a half allowance and closed well, only to lose by a head in a photo.

On the outside is WorldFly’s Wells (1/2) a 6 YO son of Spinning World.  Ranked # 10 in the Sim, he has won 17 of his 34 starts and has earned more than a million dollars.  Ably trained by Dawnrun, he has won five of his last eight, all stakes, including the last two in a row, The Black Pal and The Moon Earl.  This horse owns the distance and the speed figures for this bunch and he will try to take this group wire to wire. Barring some sort of disaster, he should do it. 

Unless Chokito has a master plan I think Lill Veduten will try and challenge Worldfly’s Well for the lead but the latter has too much class and should get his own way to the wire.  The filly, Psychedelic Vision, and Rockfly’s Dancer both have tactical speed which should serve them well in a fight for second.     I don’t bet and there is a reason – I can’t handicap – so take this prediction with a big grain of salt.  Good Luck to everyone!