Uptown Weezy Challenge Has But One Woman

Missouri’s tenth race at six and one half furlongs on fast dirt for three years old mares finds five runners attempting to be the next uptown girl.  Remember ‘Uptown Girls’ living in their white bread (or is it bred in this case) world?  Mr. Billy Joel may not have been thinking horses with that song (breeding possibly, but not horses), but in yet another scribe by the man, one can gather a rather quick preview on the race favorite’s planned treatment of the competition.  ‘She’s frequently kind and she’s suddenly cruel, she can do as she pleases, she’s nobody’s fool.’  The woman of the race, SARACEN will look to do whatever she pleases en route to a presumed victory (per both the odds makers and this writer).  But, as this writer should have learned with last week’s bold Buckeye Derby prediction, what looks good on paper, and what actually happens can be two very different things.

(And you thought we’d have a Jeffersons introduction didn’t you?)

PP #1      SARACEN (KY)                  dixiedotco             F. Mac                   3/5

A member of the Dixiedotco Racing family of stables, SARACEN is the class of this race.  The brown mare is a winner in multiple graded stakes, the G1 Hello Momma Special and G3 Flurry Stakes, winner of three of her last five starts (the other two were second place finishes), and the only winner of a stake rated race in the field.  SARACEN will break to the front for the pack out of the gate and not let up until she is under the wire.  This constant speed finds the mare with very large leads that most closer horses cannot make up in the sprints.  The success of this technique, most assuredly to be implemented by rider F. Mac, has the dixiedotco trained mare rated #6 in dirt sprints heading into the race.

PP#2       BELONGS TO HELL (KY)            derbyking9           S. Schreiber           7/2

So trainer derbyking9 is running a horse out of the home stables of Jef’s Thoroughbred Club, but the mare apparently BELONGS TO HELL.  So who gets the winning monies?  Or is ‘Jef’ actually a code name for ‘Beelzebub’?  With six times in the money over seven lifetime starts, the brown mare may be accused of selling its soul.  And just when you thought all the dark and evil references where finished, BELONGS’ last two wins (both AWL sprints) had jockeys O. Osboune and T. Lee (think Motley Crue drummer) in the saddle.  S. Schreiber, who does not rock as far as this writer is aware and who may be riding with pitchfork en lieu of whip, is charged with running this hot little mare (get it? hot? hell?) in her second lifetime stakes race.  Most of the time, this running involves coming back from the back of the pack during the stretch of the race. 

PP#3       DUTCHMAN’S MINE (TX)             colt11                   N. Turner               6/1

In May of this year, trainer colt11 appeared to see something in a little light gray mare running the twelfth race in Alabama.  So for $40,000, DUTCHMAN’S MINE was claimed in a race she finished fourth in.  Since the claiming (at least that is what it appears to be, feel free to correct the writer if this is incorrect – thanks), DUTCHMAN’S carded a third place in an allowance sprint and a twelfth place finish in her first run at the stakes level.  DUTCHMAN’S is now looking to improve on that one stake start (and seeing how she will finish no worse than fifth, there will be improvement).  Improvement beyond a finishing number can also be found in improved speed in the middle of the race when the mare attempts to run down the leaders.  At the claiming and allowance level, her closing speed from the middle of the pack was enough to catch most if not all of the front runners.  It will be up to N. Turner to try to translate that speed to the stake level.

PP#4       PRINCESS ABBY (KY)                    barba                     R. Dillard               8/1

The only runner that has not experienced running at the stakes level, PRINCESS ABBY will look to continue her rise though the racing classes.  The brown mare just recently broke her maiden three starts ago and has won an allowance start since then.  Both of these wins showed a different approach towards the same result.  Her maiden saw the barba trained horse win from gate to wire which the allowance victory came by closing from the middle of the pack.  Her last start, a disappointing seventh at the allowance level, saw the mare try to close again, but this time there was no speed to be found.  It will be jockey R. Dillard that will guide the PRINCESS, but will it be in the front of the pack, or from the middle?

PP#5       AUROR DREAMS (ENG)                spingo80               L. Habib                                4/1

The third runner in the race to find her name on the board after a stakes race, a third place finish at the Save the Dancer Memorial, AUROR DREAMS is another horse that attempts to run from the competition out of the gate all the way to the wire.  The last few starts has found the spingo80 trained mare fading at the end though and normally being caught by some late chargers.  L. Habib will be riding with the hopes that the half to full furlong less than this mare is used to running will be a benefit to help alleviate the fading problem.