Juvenile sprinters take to the turf in Kansas

Despite most eyes being focused on Vermont and China for the 2008 Equinics, there is still stakes racing to be seen here in Kansas this week.

The fourth running of the SHANNON DOCTOR Bonanza is set to hit the grass on Saturday to see who will become this year’s Inclusive — the gate-to-wire winner of last year’s event.

This seven furlong sprint is set to run on good turf for a purse of $55,000 and is open to juvenile fillies and mares. Now let’s take a look at the 2-year-old runners set to take to this slightly off track:

PP1      Inside the Eighth(KY)          mycaza                        B Coates                     7/1

War Chant x King of Kings (IRE) x Fastness(IRE)

This brown girl goes to bat for Smokeglack Stables and the Ireland residency. There isn’t a whole lot of history to look at here, with only one race on the resume. Inside the Eighth was dropped immediately into the first of stakes competition in her only race so far, finishing a close second in the Easy Seattle Special just over a month ago. She fell to Emerging Threat, who has one two of his three races. Inside the Eighth ran towards the back of the bath before gradually passing her tiring opponents, and then had a strong spurt down the stretch to just miss out on the win. Going seven furlongs here may give her the extra room to finish things off, but it is a bit of a jump.

PP2      Shake A Spear(KY)              dogfarm                      B Clark                        4/1

Shakespeare-Malta Mistress(IRE), by Giant’s Causeway (IRE)

Dogfarm Stables sends this brown mare to Kansas just off her broken maiden. Shake A Spear got her first win last time out with a strong closing effort, which followed up a second-place run in a 30400NW2L allowance. She was the favorite in her allowance effort, despite only a 10^th-place finish in an MSW her first time out. She is the daughter of freshman sire Shakespeare. There’s no stakes experience here, but is running against mostly inexperienced competition.

PP3      High Hill Prospect(IRE)       manorsquar                  L Bucholtz                  4/5

High Chapparral (IRE) x Danehill x Mr. Prospector

This brown mare has impressive bloodlines out of Brundlefly Stables. She broke her maiden first time out with a stalking effort that led to the five-furlong win. From there, High Hill Prospect made the leap to listed stakes, going third in the Lainey’s Saint Stakes. The winner of that race was $100K-earner Some Castle. High Hill prospect ran a speed of 74 in that race, the highest of all the Shannon Docter runners. All of that leads to a heavy betting favorite that is hard to ignore.

PP4      Mrs. Reeley(FR)                    rockaway                     M Arnold                    9/5

Country Reel-Icecold, by Mr. Greeley

This brown mare makes her racing debut here for Fortune500, jumping right into the stakes world with no previous experience. In small field anything can go, and Mrs. Reeley is a wild card that we no little about. She was bred out of an inexpensive son-of-Danzig sire that only has 13 runners with mixed results and no stakes winners. They seem to have their most success in dirt sprints. She is out of the mare Icecold, who only has one other runner that has found limited success in claimers. With so many question marks, it is interesting that this runner is the bettors’ second choice. I’m not sure I would say the same, but the horse is certainly in a position to have the most success possible in this race.

PP5      CC Four(KY)                                    11807frank                  D Green                      34/1

Cat Ridge x Arctic White x Alphabet Soup

Street Stables sends out a second mystery in this field, with this chestnut mare making her racing debut here in Kansas. With no history to go on, one can only look at the pedigree, where we see another bargain sire with little history of producing winning offspring, but whose progeny seem to like running turf sprints. DDS Alphabet Soup may produce some juice in this pedigree. With so many things unknown, it does not help to have a jock that is inferior to those of the rest of the field, and CC Four probably deserves to be the long-shot in the field.

With a small field and few standouts, this could be anyone’s race. I think the horse with the best burst down the stretch will be the one to bring home the top prize. Looking at these runners, my gut feeling tells me to go chalk. High Hill Prospect is my pick to win the race, with greater experience and a superior speed time to all the other horses in the field. Shake A Spear is my choice to run second, with Inside the Eighth ending up third.

It should be interesting to see how this race plays out, as the top choices are closers. If nobody wants to take the lead and set the pace, it could be an all-out duel down the stretch.