Synthetic Newcomers Look to Crack “Addiction”

When SimThetic SurfacesÓ installed their newest blend of rubber, wax, scotch tape, and cheddar cheese flavored Goldfish crackers at Kentucky’s Keenelawn Racetrack, it signaled clearly that synthetic racetracks were the future in Kentucky. When Turfwaste Park overhauled their surface last year, installing SimThetic’s flagship product, many speculated that management merely wanted to slow the races even further than in year’s past. Staggering nearly to a crawl for the entire race, the surface is not only safer as horses appear to rarely eclipse a two-minute lick, but most importantly, it allows track announcer Mike Battaglia to occasionally keep up with the action and perhaps maybe even allude to something helpful pertaining to the race.

Saturday’s Grade II Astroturf Sprint, named for the most notorious of all artificial surfaces, could ironically, hinge on the influence of man-made footing.

Already owning a litany of credentials to make a strong case prognosticating victory, Chronic Addiction has an ace in the hole and four on the board. The five-year-old Gone West horse scored his career’s greatest triumph when notching his first graded stakes win with a lifetime best speed rating, taking the Grade III Pablo Cruz at seven furlongs, the distance of Saturday’s Astroturf. Aside from confirming his aptitude at the distance with solid stakes horses, and that he seems in career form, the Pablo Cruz notched a unique feather for his headstall – a win over a synthetic surface.

Run at Bronzed Bridge Fields in Northern California, the Pablo Cruz was contested over a different synthetic surface than the surface over which he will run on Saturday. Developed by eccentric former trainer Michael Cockiniece at his desolate training facility in Colorado City, Arizona along with investor, brother, nephew, cousin, and grandfather, Warren Geoffs, the Free Tipeta Footings surface’s mysterious ingredient list will never be divulged.

Trainer Pedro N. Forcer showed little concern about the difference in the surfaces, instead compelled by the similarities.

“One guy puts snack food in his blender, the other guy puts redundant male community members in his. In the end, it doesn’t look or feel like dirt, you don’t put truckloads of water all over it, or float truckloads of water out of it. Unless you go to Southern California.”

“I’ve got the best horse in almost every conceivable parameter of the race, the surface is just a big gob if icing on the cake.”

Beaten just a nose in his debut in September of his three-year-old season, the late starting Chronic Addiction quickly became a winner, stretching out to a mile and easily taking his second career start.

The waning months of his three-year-old season produced little success against winners and it wasn’t until his third start as a four-year-old that Pedro N. Forcer retreated from a two-turn route campaign and tried a seven furlong entry-level allowance race. Tracking from just off the pace, Chronic Addiction bettered ten rivals, winning by a narrow margin at a broad price.

Beginning with that win, from February to August, Forcer started his colt ten times, all sprints, winning five, twice second, once third, and twice fourth. The last of those five wins was a milestone victory, as the chestnut ran the fastest time of his career to that point, snaring his first stakes win in the March Sea Stakes on September 22, 2007.

Somewhat alarmingly, that crescendo in performance that culminated with the win in the March Sea quickly became a study in dynamics as the ’hot horse’ moped through back-to-back exercises in apathetic lethargy. He did catch a tough field that ran home in a blazing time in the first race and then subsequently was no factor at any point in his first, and understandably, only start over an off-track.

That bump in the road has proven to be the only slowdown as since, he has taken the Louisiana King Stakes, the Lottsa Parade Challenge, the aforementioned Pablo Cruz, along with a win in an allowance, a second in the Prince Club Cap, and a third in the Atlanta Twilight Challenge. He enters in the best form of his twenty-five race career, appearing quite capable of taking the next step in his career without a glitch.

Much like Chronic Addiction, four-year-old Hollow Halo has taken a very deliberate route to this graded stakes race. It appears as though, in both cases, the steady, systematic approach has yielded a solid, improving older horse. By Speightstown, Hollow Halo was a debut winner as a two-year-old and marched directly into stakes company, running a good fourth in just his second start.

Five weeks later, despite a maiden win and a strong fourth in a stakes on the main track, the son of the Beat Hollow mare What A Beat was tested on the grass course.

What A Beat’s sire, Beat Hollow, was indeed a superior turf runner, winning Grade I races at Arlington, Belmont, and Churchill and with a Group I win in Longchamp. What A Beat, on the other hand, won six races in her career from forty-one starts and never hit the board on grass, eking out just over $3,000 in earnings on grass through her career. She ran a few mediocre races as a maiden early in her two-year-old year on turf and then wasn’t seen on grass until a five-year-old, at which point she unleashed two forgettable efforts shortly prior to being retired.

Hollow Halo’s sire, Speightstown, was strictly a sprinter that never won on turf. However, Speightstown’s dam, Silken Cat, has a half-brother named Juyush, a winner of twelve races from age two to nine, including an array of wins over hurdles and on flats on grass as well as several group stakes placings on both the flat and over hurdles.

Was it this minute, but perhaps explosive infusion of turf influences from either side of Hollow Halo’s pedigree responsible for the move to turf for no apparent reason or did trainer Nik Svdbones just flip a coin?

Regardless of the explanation for trying the turf course, it is the outcome of the mysterious experiment that is important: He didn’t bother doing it again. When he returned to dirt after a dismal fifth of six at even money in that grass gaffe, Hollow Halo was a colt possessed. Second, then third, in allowance races, Hollow Halo then reeled off four wins in a row, punctuated by a win in his stakes debut, the Bobo’s Mistake Challenge.

He then took a brave next step, testing the graded stakes waters in the Grade III South Bronx Stakes and performed admirably, a rallying third at 11-1. That race was followed immediately by a win once returned to a minor stakes and a string of a dozen mostly strong efforts follow, including a good fifth in the Grade I Billy and Jimmy, and a victory in the race just prior to that one, the Grade III Toboggan Handicap.

The comparison to the aforementioned Chronic Addiction is fairly striking. Hollow Halo is not a study in superstar talent, but delete from the form his starts over turf and wet surfaces and he is remarkably consistent, showing up with a strong effort regardless of what brand of competition he is served. “Rod Roddy” Connor should be able to work out a perfect trip from just off the pace, giving Hollow Halo a distinct advantage over Saturday’s rivals.

Paul Cadigan rides Barton Dowg’s Twelfth Night, a five-year-old Forty Niner horse in the same mold as both Hollow Halo and Chronic Addiction, but with a twist of unpredictability. A thirty race veteran, Twelfth Night has taken a career path common to his rivals previously mentioned, deliberately conquering each class plateau before being promoted, a strategy that in the case of all three appears to have paid dividends securing a useful older horse that hasn’t rapidly fallen off the radar and plunged to the lower ranks of racing.

Twelfth Night, however, is probably a more talented runner than either Chronic Addiction or Hollow Halo. His very best races make a case for his chances against the best competition that you could find for him. Unfortunately, his seemingly inexplicable range of performances have left him incapable of stringing together enough quality performances as part of a campaign to rate him as high as many of his less talented, but more reliable peers.

A three-year-old debut winner, Twelfth Night was the benchmark for consistency and hope in the early months of his career. He negotiated his way through each of his allowance conditions, winning four of his first eight starts and improving from a ‘figures’ standpoint, culminating in his fourth win, a ‘non-four other than’ allowance win as a three-year-old, defeating older horses with a speed rating of 102.

After his fairly mechanical but encouraging progression through eight starts, he left the cozy confines of restricted allowance races on dirt to try the turf course in a wide-open allowance for older horses. He was absolutely demolished in that spot but returned three weeks later to undress a full field over a bad track, spotted this time back on the main track, against straight three-year-olds, and back in the ‘non-four other than’ condition which he had already won, but remained eligible for. His win was perhaps his finest performance to that point, prompting a speed rating of 107.

As he crossed the bridge into the new year and the world of good, older horses, Twelfth Night continued to show a willingness to not only prove capable with each new level of competition, but also to make an effort at proving superior at that level. His progress wasn’t measured with a stopwatch, but rather time-lapse photography. Still, as he evolved from a major factor in allowances, to a dominant force in allowances, to a major factor in stakes to and occasional dominant force in stakes, he appeared as though he had the makings of a ‘sure thing’ stakes horse that could even become a graded stakes star.

That prophecy seems to have been overly optimistic, or at least perhaps, a little slower and more humbling, as Twelfth Night has become accustomed to simply unleashing dismal ‘non-efforts’ without warning or explanation. These clunkers aren’t merely slight aberrations in form, but the type where you get beat twenty lengths by a horse that you just outran by fifteen in the previous start.

On the plus side, his allegiance of supporters claim to make a profit simply betting him to win every time he runs, as his odds routinely underestimate his raw talent, making his easy wins much more lucrative than the form might imply beforehand. Also, he enters this race after a huge effort in his most recent race, which was preceded by a string of borderline substandard performances. Typically, Twelfth Night will run off at least two big races in a row after a lull, a trend that bodes well for his chance for victory on Saturday.

On the matter of raw talent, the one to watch in here is a colt that now as a freshly minted four-year-old has the look of a star in transition.

As a two-year-old, Five Skies was a hot topic before he ran. The sky, literally was the limit, as the son of One Sky by Giant’s Causeway was bred to be something special. Before he had made his first start, Five Skies’ dam had already produced four winners from four starters, including graded stakes placed Ophidian Sky, who herself has produced three winners from as many starters, two stakes winners, one stakes placed, all earning over $200,000 to this point.

One Sky started thirty-seven times in her long career, winning eleven, including the Grade I Hera’s Sojourney, Grade III Las Vegas Handicap, Grade III A Plus Mile, and a handful of minor stakes from Arizona to West Virginia to Denmark. She placed in the Grade I Orange Blossom, Grade I Flower Pot, Grade I Three Smokestacks, was third in the Group III Japanese Swan against colts, and accumulated seven other wins or placings in minor stakes. She earned nearly $1.2 million, the bulk on turf, but rather evenly split between sprints and routes.

Her fifth foal, Five Skies, looked like he had the credentials to be anointed the pick of the litter following a debut win, followed by a narrow defeat in an entry level allowance and then a resolute win in his third start, both his stakes debut and route debut. That win spawned a start in the Grade III Cryogenics in which he ran well to finish fifth, leading to a good second in an open allowance and then another strong second in the Que Manta Memorial Stakes, merely running out of racetrack in the closing yards. Through this sequence of races, Five Skies had matured and improved encouragingly, making him appear nearly invincible in the Solar Prospect Challenge. The mood changed drastically though, as Five Skies labored home last of thirteen, never involved, never threatening and in apparent distress.

More than two months later, still dreaming of the first Saturday in May, Five Skies was rushed back into action trying to secure a spot in the Derby. A start in the Fountain of Ute produced a twelve length defeat while finishing eighth. An ill-conceived attempt at the Wooden Indian Lock produced another twelve length defeat, this one good for eleventh place. A brief freshening followed in lieu of the Derby, but when a drop to a non-winner of three allowance yielded a mediocre fifth place finish, it was time to dabble in turf racing.

The switch to turf was of little benefit, though also of little harm, as he defeated straight three-year-olds in a logical allowance condition in his turf debut. His next two efforts on turf, however, were less encouraging as he tested older horses and multiple winners.

With his four-year-old season just around the corner, the connections, under whelmed by his turf prowess, tried something completely different, but already mastered by Five Skies. They left the turf racing scene and went back to the beginning, the very beginning, trying the colt in a sprint for the first time since his second career start. The move was an epiphany, as the colt bounced through three straight wins, including his first stakes win since career start number three, taking the More Bank Bonanza over older horses in his three-year-old finale.

His next effort resulted in a very strong second place finish in the Mojo Gojo Stakes, followed by a flashy ’tenth-to-first-in-a-furlong’ move in the Senior Storm Challenge that made it four wins from his last five starts and equated to a numeric representation of 112. With a hot horse setting a new standard for personal bests every time he ran, Five Skies was entered very optimistically in the Group I Sand Castle Golden Sprint on the Dubai Sim World Cup Day card. Hope springs eternal, but thankfully, realism grows like grass, unavoidable but occasionally underappreciated. He didn’t run poorly per se, but was merely overmatched on that day and perhaps unprepared for those horses at that point in his progress.

This is a tough spot on Saturday. This is a big test for Five Skies. He has the talent to be a winner from this field of thirteen prospective victors. How detrimental was the detour to Dubai? Will an abrupt skip from the tough but cozy minor stakes ranks to the cream of the crop in the entire global sprint division be a jarring speedbump that stifles his recent maturity and progress? Five Skies has questions to answer and his response has a strong likelihood of disrupting the dreams of his competition on Saturday.

Perhaps the most bettable entrant is four-year-old Best SJ Yet, the standard for reliability when spotted within his confines of his success. Another which has apparently transitioned to facing older horses very smoothly, the son of Smarty Jones was up the track in his most recent, a departure to the turf course, but had previously won two, ran second three times and once third in six starts. Those six starts were all in minor stakes and were preceded immediately by a decent fifth place finish in a graded stake, the Grade III Conan the Barbarian.

He won the race right before the Conan the Barbarian, a minor stakes in Kentucky, the Curious Yodel Bonanza. The race before that? He was well-beaten, sixth in the Grade III Oyster Pub Sprint. Prior to the Oyster Pub? You guessed, he won a minor stakes race, the Little Boxes Memorial in Rhode Island, and before that, the Jeremy for Launch Stakes. There is a trend here. Though he did win the Group III Midsoil Stakes as a two-year-old, his three and four-year-old campaign are unmistakably littered with aberrantly poor finishes in graded stakes races sandwiched by strong victories in minor stakes.

It isn’t fair to insinuate that Best SJ Yet is a toss-out in a race like this, a strong graded stakes race, and a cinch back in the minor stakes ranks. Several of his defeats while facing graded stakes fields are probably more impressive than a few of his wins against weaker rivals. And should you decide that historical trends like the one outlined above make the best case against Best SJ Yet, then you must also consider that once before the colt made a turf-to-dirt move like the one he makes today.

As a two-year-old, he was beaten at a very short price on turf in a minor stakes event. The next race, he returned to dirt, jumped to a graded stakes race, shortening one-half furlong from his previous race on turf. Best SJ Yet won the six furlong Grade III Midsoil Stakes on dirt at 12-1with a career best speed rating five weeks after a weak third place finish at 4-5 in the six and a half furlong The Your Group Special on turf. On Saturday, he tries the seven furlong Grade III Astroturf, on dirt, exactly five weeks after being defeated at 2-1in the seven and a half furlong turf feature, the Dandy’s Hams Stakes.

Speedy Park Prospector was available for $15,000 to anyone less than one year ago when breaking his maiden in gate to wire fashion in France while contesting a claiming race for winners. He went on to win three of his next six starts, with two seconds and a third, including his successful stakes debut, a win in the Stupid Pie Stakes against older foes. Sensing Park Prospector’s affinity for the early lead, the connections tried a ten furlong allowance after his win in the one-mile Stupid Pie. At 6-5, he led for seven-eighths and then collapsed be finish fourth, beaten more than sixteen lengths.

He shortened back to seven and a half furlongs for obvious reasons, finishing a decent fourth in the Junior Monty Handicap before trying the seven furlong Ystrad Mynach Challenge in his most recent start. After a smart start and a clear, early lead, Park Prospector opened up mid-stretch and cruised to an easy win with a strong speed rating of 112, a career best. His speed seems to be his greatest asset and his position clearly in front is a must.

His dam, Delightfully Order, ran her best races on the lead and his half-brother Casa De Oro, by A. P. Indy, won his first two starts on the lead, including the four and a half furlong, Grade III Arizona Shoot Out. Park Prospector will most likely be the pacemaker in this race, which alone makes him dangerous. Substantial and meddling deficiencies can be overcome with blazing speed. Being the fastest can make you better than the best on any given day. This colt has won his last two starts at seven furlongs, seemingly the easiest distance for him to ask for a clear early lead and actually get it. Untested against this quality, he won’t be the one to challenge his rivals, they’ll need to prove that they can get by him when Park Prospector has things his way from the start.

The big gray, Ghostowski, is an intriguing member of the cast, either a hopeless one-hit wonder or a star in the making. The son of Ghostzapper debuted at seven furlongs, finishing fourth, but won in his second start, this time going a mile. That prompted a string of route races against winners, all forgettable, before turning back to seven furlongs in his seventh start, prompting a big race to be second. He turned back even further and registered his second win in an allowance at six and a half furlongs, notching a career best speed figure.

Peculiarly, over the next few months, trainer Elgie Bostate persevered with a desire to win route races with the colt and each time the trainer was rewarded with a dreary result. With a last place finish at a mile and three-sixteenths and a seventh, beaten double digits at a flat mile, the strong thirds, fourths, and eventually a win at seven and a half intertwined with the bad races looked awfully good. Appropriately, trainer Bostate gave up on the route career, keying on the good efforts in elongated sprints and was rewarded this time with back to back, huge second place finishes against good horses, notably Saturday‘s rival Twelfth Night who held off his late run by a narrow margin in the Watson‘s Bungholes in his most recent.

It took a while to find the right distance and surface for Ghostowski. There is no disputing that the connections have it figured out now. This colt ran huge in his last race, aberrantly so, wanting to run by a better horse in Twelfth Night. Is he that good now? If he can run by Twelfth Night, or even look like he can, then he has a chance in this race. Of course, is it not possible that Ghostowski may never replicate a race like his effort in the Watson’s Bungholes?