BARGAIN CLASSIC REVIEW
The Bargain Classic unfurled against a pleasant Northern California afternoon, thankfully far from the smoke-bearing Santa Ana winds to the south. Staunch older horse and slight favorite JOIN’ EM looked on the final turn to be repeating his winning move in the Bargain Summer Classic, in which he turned back four of today’s competitors. Just back of the leaders early, he swept by pace duelers ST.HAWK(JPN) and VAINEST as they began to falter. But that was SPARE KEY(FL) on his outside flank, pushing JOIN’ EM hard as they slugged it out at the top of the stretch. In the end, though, the four-year-old SPARE KEY(FL) pulled away by more than two lengths and avenged his somewhat lackluster performance in the Bargain Summer Classic. The winner posted a 107 speed to return to his best level, quite lofty for a bargain bred. The runner-up posted a 105, stamping the top two as the elite of the classic bargain set as the bettors had predicted. It was well back to the rest of the competitors.
QUART LOW(TX) attended the tough pace duel and did well to hold on for third, seven lengths behind the place horse. COLONIAL GOLDS(IRE) was below his par but came from midpack to grab fourth from the gallant survivor VAINEST, who bested his consecutive eleventh place finishes in this race’s previous two versions. The biggest surprise to the bettors was BARE WHIP, sent off at 4 to 1, who never got rolling late and settled for sixth with his lowest speed of the year. The rest of the entrants were behind at all times and never factored.