Rain Showers Will Make for Spongy Going

Rain Showers Will Make for Spongy Going

Ostend – As my last assignment before our summer vacation, I was pleased to find a ticket to Belgium on y desk.  I grabbed my passport, called Alex to tell him I was coming, booked a room at The Hotel Navarra in Brugge and changed my flight to one that left a day earlier.  Brugge is one of, if not my most favorite, places to visit in Europe.  After a long uneventful flight I was soon enjoying a cold beer with my friend Alex in the bar at the hotel while outside an early summer storm pummeled the Hotel.  He is quite knowledgeable about the local racetrack right down the road in Ostend so he provided me with some insight on the horses running come Saturday.  Unfortunately, the race I am to cover is the Grade III  Norfellow Stakes, a five furlong dash for 2 YO’s over what will surely be rated as a “good” turf course by Saturday, so we didn’t have much to discuss but vowed to do our best off the forms alone.  Here is the field from the hedge out.

Breaking from post one will be Alkaholic (9/2), a well-made dark brown son of Alkaased.  One of the favorites in this race, he is out of the stake’s placed, Mt Livermore mare Robbie’s Champ.  A winner of eight of her 47 starts, Robbie’s Champ is the dam of two foals to race, Alkaholic is the only winner.  The Ups trainee broke his maiden first time out, racing mid-pack for most of the five furlong race before grabbing the lead in the stretch for the win.  He, like many others in this race was entered back in the Grade III Belgian Tike and closed well to finish third the best of all the horses in this race that tried The Belgian Tike.  He has a top speed figure of 67 and one of Ostend‘s best will be in the irons.

In post two is the second of three colts who’s names begin with an ‘a’, Arvandor (2/1), a 2 YO plain brown colt by Grand Slam.  Out of a Danehill mare, Belsup trains Arvandor the morning line favorite.  Belsup first sent the compact colt out in a MSW over the main track but the colt didn’t fire causing the trainer to rethink his strategy.  The colt was shipped to Ostend and switched to the grass where he easily won his second start, a restricted allowance, over this track and at Saturday’s distance.  He too will have one of Ostend‘s best in the saddle and if everything else should remain constant, will only need to run back to his best speed figure of 79 as it is the top in the race.  Unfortunately, one can’t count on anything in a horserace and these colts are improving everyday..

Limehigh (10/1) is a copper chestnut colt by Limehouse out of High In Da City, a High Yield mare.  She was plagued by soundness problems and only won one of 14 starts before being retired.  This is her only foal to race.  Limehigh will be trying the grass for the first time in this race but is trained by the wily Jdawg11 and he usually knows what he is doing.  In his first start, Limehigh led for the first part of the race before giving up the lead and finishing second.  When entered back, he rewarded his connections with a wire to wire victory and that race granted him the opportunity to try The Natural Stallions Cap at six furlongs.  He never made the lead and while that could have been the reason for his dismal finish, Jdawg11 believes it was the distance and dropped him back to five furlongs.  He won’t get much help from his rider and his top speed figure is only a 69 so he will need to show some improvement.

Siriusflit will send out the dark bay colt Rainbow Reaction (5/2).  By Rainbow Quest and out of the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Primevil Predator, this colt went wire to wire in his debut and then backed it up with another gate to wire win in his second start.  While both those races were at five furlongs, trainer Siriusflit then stretched him out to six furlongs and the colt responded gamely only giving up the race at the wire and lost by a very short nose in The City Wrapping Handicap.  His mama won four races, all on the grass and this colt, her first, looks like he is going to surpass that in his very first year.  He’s got a top jock, a high speed figure of 78 and although there is a lot of speed in the race, I think he’s the one to beat.

Post five will be taken up by Second In Charge (5/1) a light chestnut colt by French Deputy out of the two time winning mare Jenna’a Choice by Redoute’s Choice.  Jenna is a better producer than she was a race mare as both of her two foals to race are winners.  Dowelly2 sent this nice colt out twice before he broke his maiden but he just needed to figure everything out and was drawing away from the field in his second race.  He was then sent postward in The Turfy tots going 5 1/2 furlongs but he faded to third.  Wanting to see if the colt could cut it with the big dogs, Dowelly2 next entered him into the Grade III Belgian Tike but he ran like a shin sore horse and only beat one.  He’s supposed to be better now and should do well on Saturday as he’s got a rider that knows his way around the course and brings with him a top speed figure of 70.

Galvanized Anchor )5/1) seems like an odd name for a racehorse but this dark grey colt broke his maiden at first asking and over a yielding turf course.  By Charge Forward and out of the three time winning mare Ray Of Sky (Cozzene), this soft track lover took the field wire to wire in his only race.  Trainer Jeffdrew is asking for a big step upwards from his speedy colt moving from a MSW to a Grade III, and he’s not going to get a lot of help from his rider who is looking for only his sixth win of the year   This is the third foal out of this mare and the second to break his maiden.   He should improve on his 64 speed figure and could be tough as he’s never been headed and it’s quite possible he won’t be on Saturday.

On the outside will be Misery’s Ally Again (8/1) who is out of the Machiavellian mare, Machitrical.  She never won a race both of her babies have and one is a stakes winner.   The bright bay colt by Almushtarak  is another in this race that won at first asking, leading almost all the way.   He too, then made an appearance in the Grade III Belgian Tike, finishing fourth.  Both of his starts were at a distance of 4 1/2 furlongs and he was stopping fast but trainer Misery has been spending some time on this colt and may try some different tactics.  Ally Again comes into this race with a top speed figure of 65 but drew a 7% rider looking for only his fifth win of the year.

Two year old races are always a learning experience and it will be fun to see if any of these seven will kick loose and start to show signs of greatness.  There is a ton of speed in the race but it is a sprint so they will need it.  Only one of the seven has handled an off track before and that may give him a slight advantage, but then some of the others may take to it like ducks also.  Good Luck to all.