Toilet Scrubbers Anonymous Handicap – G2

PP

ID

Horse

Owner

Jockey

Odds

Preview

1

33609

REACH FOR THE GOLD

1nagstable

A Hein

19/1

Exactly what the STC trainers are looking for J  As a 3yo the scratch bred by Formal Gold was running in the lowest of claimers.  Trainer was fortunate no one claimed him as the horse awoke in his 4yo campaign.  A late bloomer for sure and the kind a lot of simmers agonized over, after losing to someone else in a claim.  Popped a career high 111SP in his last listed stakes win.  Now trying to jump up in class after that victory.  Tough task, no doubt.  I wouldn’t put it past this guy to show up well here, although a win seems unlikely.

2

79347

YOGI

cylla2222

S Walker

21/1

I’ve written about this horse in the BTB before.  Here’s an exert from 12/1 Royal Cad: “Out of a “G” rated mare, this 4yo is going into his 42^nd race and has provided his owner with a nice bankroll.  Mostly allowance wins with a stakes thrown in.  Colt will be turning five shortly and creeping up on the W&T, so now’s the time.  However, as Yogi once said, “99% of the birdie putts that come up short, usually don’t go in”. J “  Have no reason to change opinion at this time.

3

74201

TWIST OF LEMON

theaxell

R Calino

11/1

Scratch bred 6yo that took down the G1 Movieland Shiny Cup two summers ago and won the G2 Windy City Gold Cup this past October.  Still has fire in those old bones as he enters his 48^th start.  Although unlikely to be a repeat top class winner in his 6^th season, he can’t be discounted to step up to the plate at times.  He does his best against high odds.

4

89710

WRISKY CAT(KY)

tcrowell

B Haffner

13/1

This youngster out of a “G” rated mare by Storm Cat has taken the bull by the horns lately.  He’s swept through conditions since being switched to dirt, and probably thinks he’s “king of the hill” right now!  Who are we to argue with him?  He’s got only two ways to go here.  Continue to progress his spectacular ride or bounce like a rubber ball.  If he wins or places here, he may just well be the next “King of the Hill”..

5

625

PASSING STONE(KY)

jimcougar

B F Abman

7/1

Now that Solar Song is out of the picture, the “Stone” is feeling pretty good about himself.  He appears to be in top form and should press the pace in this.  With only 14 starts in his brief career, he has amassed over 2 million in earnings.  What he needs to do in this is, finish the job!  Early in his 2-3yo season he had no problem doing that.  Winning his 1^st five starts and missing the Bluegrass Derby by a neck was some fantastic way to start a career.  He avenged that narrow miss against Ataun in the Travelers Stakes.  Now they meet again.  He also owes “E P” one for the win in the World Cup where he looked like he had that one sewed up till the 1/8^th pole.  Unless one of these presses him too hard, he has an excellent shot at running away with this.  

6

109734

INTERGALACTIC

eddie72

L Kraft

8/1

Took the G1 “Gotta Fix the Sprinklers Classic”  in July of ’07 and last race out placed in the G2 “Black Label Mile”.  He now once again faces his nemesis who seems to thrash his butt every time they meet.  E Peg usually has his number when they meet on the track.  Will it be any different this time?  For one thing, EP is a little off form at present, but “Galactic” has been off for two months.  Taking longer breaks between races seems to be his schedule right now.  After closing well in his last at shorter; he just may be ready to break the spell.

7

128148

SPECIMEN X

peeps4

X Golic

10/1

Nice looking 5yo horse from the GR simsters rez that is lightly raced.  Winner of his last listed stakes race, he again ventures into the realm of graded.  This will be his third try at this level and hopes to improve.  Scratch bred by “FuPeg”, he has the credentials to be competitive here, but has yet to prove it.  Trainer has a way of getting the best from his stock and we’ll be watching.

8

69859

KING OF THE WIND

topicount4

S Wilkinson

7/1

Laura would love to take this one.  Her 6yo is on the verge of breaking the million $ mark but has to go through his arch rivals to do it.  He’s already topped “EP” and Solar Song this past summer in the CA Classic after finishing a length behind “EP” in the previous G1 Movieland Shiny Cup a race back.  So there’s no intimidation here.  In this he has to deal again with Passing Stone who he raced with to the turn for home and then flattened out in the Topicount Special last out.  He ran close to the pace in last as he sometimes does, but jock lost the whip on the stretch run.  If that didn’t cause his lack of effort, maybe the 113SP before that race did.  No matter, he looks raring to go in this.

9

112381

ALINA DANCER

jakematt

O Young

9/1

This 5yo from the DelPenn rez started out on turf as a 3yo.  After three lackluster tries he was switched to the dirt and the floodgates opened.  Immediately broke his maiden at 10 panels and took a NW2L at 10 before his encore G1 Eddie Haskell Stakes win!  He was also entered in the 2007 version of this race where he finished a dismal 5^th, 10 lengths back losing to “EP”.  Running his last race after a two month break in a nineteen horse field; he should be ready to run well here.  This may be a bit short for him as he likes it better at 10-12f.  Probably will run out of track here.

10

108142

ERMINGTON PEGUSUS

pigeon3

A Schluckebier

9/2

So what’s there to add to that hasn’t been written about this bad boy again and again?  Nominated for 2007 Eclipse award, he’s a champion classic horse, ranked #1 in the division, and has average race earnings of $413,874.  Not bad for being sired by Sky Mesa, who BTW sires a decent number of listed stakes winners (9.7%).  E P’s mare however has heavy influence with Mr. P and the huge heart of Secretariat.  She has three other progeny that are average at best.  “E P” hasn’t had a sub par 100 SP for fifteen straights starts, although his last two outs are his worst in many moons.  I suppose we could speculate many scenario’s as to why.  Could be the 118SP at the world Cup took more out of him than expected.  He’s gone down hill from there.  At least he won’t be going against most of the horses that throttled him the last two times.  With only 24 starts and a slight drop in class, one would expect a lot out of him here.  That’s what’s expected when you’re the top dog…they’re all gunning for you.

11

96347

ATAUN(KY)

palmisland

Fr Johnson

12/1

Approaching $3 million in earnings says a lot about the Bluegrass Derby winner.  He also placed in the next two Triple Crown events.  What I like about this colt is his trainer saw the effects of the hard campaign and rested him for three months.  As anyone who has had a G1 winner knows; that is a hard thing to do.  However, in most instances it has it’s rewards.  In this particular case it proved to be the right thing to do.  After two dull efforts in the Travelers and the World Cup, Ataun came back in a restricted listed race with a decent field, and easily won.  Now primed for another run at the Graded level he’s looking for the speed to fold for his customary late move.

12

128651

SUMMER WINE(KY)

kingman

T Way

23/1

Forestry colt just really getting his feet wet with only ten starts.  Hard to evaluate what he will do here except to say he’s in with a tough crowd.  100SP’s in a couple of races give him nice label for further observation.

13

143328

MY SECRET DELTA(KY)

jefahl

M Mueller

14/1

Another well bred lightly raced colt that seems to be biting off a little bit too much.  He’s been racking up some nice SP’s but has only one listed stakes win to his resume’.  We’ll wish him the best here.

14

32949

HERE FOR THE PARTY

babyfarm

T Race

10/1

Graded placed and listed stakes winner at today’s distance; this 6yo by Hansel has done well for his trainer.  He has played footsy with Twist of Lemon a few times, but hasn’t been around some of the big guns in this.  Honest horse with some nice wins at lower…will have to have a very good day here.

Honestly don’t know who’s in their best form here.  CPU has “EP” as the favorite, but he’ll need to get out of his funk. Passing Stone, Intergalactic, and King of the Wind are other ones to consider.