It has to be Morning after all

Denmark’s feature this weekend, the Commander Project, was run in a record 2:01.2 over 10 furlongs, and in a record speed of 107.

Four horses, Malignant Worm, Tizona, Fast Fritz and Jenyan broke from the gate as a group, all bidding for the lead. It wasn’t until the quarter pole that Malignant Worm was able to take a slight lead, and holding it until the midway marker. At that point, Tizona was encouraged to make a move by jockey T. Haley and moved to the front. Malignant Worm made another late move, to very briefly stick his head back in front, but a simple whip, moved Tizona to the front.

While these two continued to battle to the 3/4 pole, Fast Fritz and Jenyan slid back. Triple A Player sat off the pace, stalking the leaders, and started to inch forward.
But from someplace behind all of these, Jockey M. Sheridan got after the 5-2 Morning, who came surging around the turn, driving past Triple A Player and the fading Malignant Worm, chasing down the leader Tizona. As the field turned for home, Morning was on top of the leader, easily passing by through the stretch, and winning by a decent 3 lengths.

This was Morning’s first stakes victory who also set the record time previously mentioned for the Commander Project. Morning was my top pick for this event.

Finishing second was Tizona who made his first start on the dirt track. Tiz put in a good effort, and was used pretty hard in the early front end battle.

Triple A Prayer finished third and never made any effort to challenge any leading horses (my second pick).

Malignant Worm showed some improvement off his last where he fell back drastically early on in the race. He put in a game effort and held on for the 4th place check.

Sisson’s Cause was pretty much outmatched in this event and finished 5th after running 7th most of the race.

Montejo took the 6th spot, and watched the race from the rear. He came off a career best speed of 107 which may have taken a little bitt of a toll on him coming in.

Jenyan (my third choice) disappointed me finishing 7th. I expected him to keep up on the front end, but he pretty much surrendered the race after passing the 5f marker.

Fast Fritz took the bottom spot. He was struggling coming into the race (on board once in last 7. This was his first career finish in last…and do I know how bad that feeling is!