A Very Fine Field for a Very Fine Race

Welcome to the inaugural running of The Very Fine Handicap – G3.   Today we have 10 非常好的 (Chinese for very fine) 4 and 5 year old fillies and mares running.   After 12 très fine (French) horses have their try at 11 furlongs in The Jai Alai Park Turf the ladies will get their turn.  They will race the 11 furlongs on the zeer fijn (Dutch) turf which is listed a firm for the race.  And here in Florida it is hard to complain about the sehr fein (German) weather, almost always nice and sunny.  Rarely is my handicapping πολύ ωραία  (Greek), usually it is all Greek to me, but I will have a go at it.  Here is our molto bene (Italian) field: 

PP 1   FINANCIAL IMPACK   (DEEP IMPACT x DEPUTY MINISTER x BUCKPASSER) bred and trained by okiedokie (Red Dirt Runners, 10%)   Odds:  5 to 1

Out of post position one we have the first of three muy fino (Spanish) top 25 ranked long turf routers, Financial Impact.   She is a 4 year old daughter of Deep Impact out of Financial Minister II.    Despite being well bred Financial Minister II was never able to do what her first offspring has done and that is be competitive at the graded level.  Financial Impact is a 4 time stakes winner and a G1 winner.  Her last two graded tries were prestigious G1 events that attracted very tough fields and although she didn’t win, she was in the mix.  She is coming into this race off a listed win and the last time she tried this distance she had her career high speed of 112, also one of the highest in the field.  She also has the highest last time out speed in the field at 107.  Not surprising that she is the second favorite here.  Financial Impact has a flexible running style, sometimes running at the front, but more recently she has been running a few lengths back and making up ground in the stretch. 

PP 2   MON COUP (IRE)   (MONTJEU (IRE) x KINGMAMBO x SEATTLE SLEW) bred and trained by lasthope1 (Dixiedotco Racing, 26%)  Odds:  7 to 2

Next we have Mon Coup, the number one ranked long turf router for older females.  She is a 5 year old daughter of Montjeu out of Seattle Hit, who had a beautiful career, winning 18 times, including 5 G1s.  Mon Coup is the only of her 6 offspring to win like her dam.  She hasn’t won since the G1-Breeders Bowl Turf Distaff where she finished ahead of Financial Impact and Jena Berlin, also in today’s field.  She has been competitive though, finishing second in two G2 attempts.  Her last out was a listed stakes and her first out of the money finish in almost 5 months.  Mon Coup is a late runner, but doesn’t like to get too far back.  Watch for her to start creeping up on the leaders shortly after the mile mark.  You can’t write about a horse from Dixiedotco Racing and not mention the 非常に細かい (Japanese) win record at 26%. 

PP 3   SUNNY FUTURE (IRE)   (HAASIL (IRE) x SADLER’S WELLS x KRIS S.) bred by spudeater and trained by sourthern  (Cmd Stables, 11%)  Odds:   8 to 1

Sunny Future, a prophetic name I think.  She started her career at Nickesyd Racing where she took 7 tries to break her maiden.  Then she received another 3 allowance tries before her trainer entered her into a claimer.  She was picked up by Cmd Stables, our resident comedian, and her future was indeed sunny.  A erittäin hieno (Finnish) claim indeed!  In fact she has only finished out of the money 5 times in her 16 starts for CMD.  She has only tried graded company once before, about 6 months ago and had a decent third place finish in the G1 event.  Early in January she won her first stakes and is coming off a second place finish in a stakes last time out.  This will be her third race in 6 weeks so rest might be an issue for her.   Almost all of her wins have come wire to wire and as the first early speed horse in the field I expect her to head for the rail out of the gates. 

PP 4   KNEEL BEFORE ZOD (KY)   (ROCK HARD TEN x FORTY NINER x ROBERTO) bred and trained by willyam40 (Willyam13 Stables, 12%)  Odds:  9 to 1

Next we have 5 year old scratch bred daughter of Rock Hard Ten, Kneel Before Zod.  She has earned over a million for Willyam13 Stables and won the muito fino (Portuguese) G1-Adelaide Oaks.  She also won the 2007 12 furlong on turf Smackdown race.  Unfortunately she only has one win since then and that was almost 5 months ago and an allowance race.  Even though she hasn’t been in the best form recently she is coming off a 2 month rest and in her last out she was just out of the money.  If she is able to race at the same pace as last time she could be in the mix here, but it looks like her best races are behind her.  Last time I said that about a horse she won.  You never know. 

PP 5   JENA BERLIN (JPN)   (KING HAMEHAMEHA (JPN) x DANEHILL x TURN-TO)   bred and trained by astinator5 (Astins Place, 24%)  Odds:  3 to 1

Out of post position 5 we have the جيد جدا (Arabic) favorite from Astins Place, another trainer with an impressive win%.  Jena Berlin is a 5 year old scratch bred daughter of King Kamehameha.  She is one of only 3 stakes winners by this son of Kingmambo and his only graded winner.  She has an impressive past performance history, only finishing out of the money three times in her 25 turf starts and she won almost 50% of those races.  Her only out of the money finish since her 3 year old campaign came against Mon Coup in the Breeders Bowl Distaff where she finished sixth.  Her first and only graded win came at the 10 furlong turf Equinics race.   She has been consistently been putting up triple digits speeds in tough events and I think she will definitely be a factor here.

PP 6   KANTIA (JPN)   (ALKAASED x SHARPEN UP (GB) x RIVERMAN)   bred and trained by bellissimo (Rafa Stables, 14%)  Odds:  11 to 1

Kantia is a 4 year old scratch breed daughter of Alkaased, another son of Kingmambo who has produced well for his first 2 years as a sim sire.   Kantia is coming into the race off a veldig bra (Norwegian) 7 race win streak, including 2 stakes and one graded win.  In her first 6 starts she only had one win and that was the only in the money finish, but as soon as her trainer at Rafa Stables starting stretching her out she couldn’t be stopped.  Most of her wins were at distances longer than 11 furlongs, but she has won at this distance.  In her graded debut late in December she put up her career high of 112, which was her first triple digit speed.  She is a late runner and that concerns me a little since she has been racing longer distances.  Hopefully C Stubbs in the irons will be able to time when she should fire.  At 11 to 1 you could make a nice profit on her.  

PP 7   K’S MASTERPIECE (KY)   (GHOSTZAPPER x NIJINSKY II x SEATTLE SLEW) bred and trained by sledwith2   (Pompeya Thoroughbred Racing Corporation, 26%)  Odds:  6 to 1

Looking at K’s Masterpiece makes me realize how little I know and how much I have to learn.  She is a 5 year old scratch bred daughter of Ghostzapper who started her racing career strong.  She broke her maiden at first asking and then zipped through almost all of her conditions, all on the dirt.  After 5 wins and one second her meget fin (Danish) trainer at Pompeya Thoroughbred Racing Corporation made the bold move to turf, a move I wouldn’t have thought of making, but I have a much lower win percentage than ledwith.  And on the turf she continued to be strong.   After 4 stakes wins on turf she tried her first graded, the G1-Rich and Famous Handicap where she won.  Since then she has struggled, especially in her two graded tries, those were G1s though and much tougher than this field.   Her career high speed came 2 races back at this distance in a G2 event that she almost won.   

PP 8   SLINGING ROCK (IRE)   (ROCK OF GIBRALTAR (IRE) x SEEKING THE GOLD x LYPHARD)   bred and trained by lenny13 (The Evil Empire, 21%)  Odds:  9 to 1

Next we have Slinging Rock, a 5 year old scratch bred daughter of Rock of Gibraltar.  This will be her first graded attempt in over a year and a half.  She is coming off a stakes win and place and looks to be in jako fino (Croatian) form to make the jump in class again after racing in allowance races for most of the last year.  Her last win was at this distance.  Almost all of her wins were wire to wire and the two that weren’t she was in second for the first part of the race.  If she is going to be a factor here she is going to need a great start out of the gates and we will see her leading early. 

PP 9   FRIDAY HARBOR (KY)   (STORM CAT x DANZIG x COASTAL) bred by bigmoose and trained by diabolical (The Squirrel Empire, 12%)   Odds:  7 to 1 

Right next to Slinging Rock is Friday Harbor, another early speed horse that usually gets her wins wire to wire.   In fact you have to go back to the race where she broke her maiden for the only win where she didn’t wire the field.   Unfortunately you also have to go back about 8 months to find her last win.  She has been in the mix though, finishing in the money 5 of the 7 starts since her last win.  She has also been putting up her career best speed figures in the last few races.  She has a few in the money finishes in graded races, but the “graded winner” title still eludes her.  She will have to overcome the distance issue if she is going to get that title today.  She has only raced over 10 furlongs twice in her career.  In one try she was distance and in the other she started strong, but couldn’t hold on to the lead and finished 8 lengths back.  Regardless of what she does in today’s race or any future races, with a pedigree like hers, Storm Cat x Danzig, she should make a velmi jemné (Czech) broodmare down the road. 

PP 10   SILVER SLEIGH (KY)   (SILVER DEPUTY x RAHY x TOM ROLFE) bred by deepsouth and trained by nikolai  (Blacksoxuk Nordic Stables, 8%)  Odds:  48 to 1

And last we have Silver Sleigh, a 4 year daughter of Silver Deputy, the много добре (Bulgarian) long shot of the field.   She is a lightly raced 4 year old scratch bred daughter of Silver Deputy.  She broke her maiden at first asking in her sole 2 year old race, but then struggled to win in allowance company.  Her trainer at Blacksoxuk Nordic Stables tried 4 starts on dirt, but she didn’t fare any better there.  After switching back to turf last October she finally started to show some improvement.  She has only one out of the money finish since then and she also won her stakes debut.   Today will be her graded debut.  She has yet to break the century mark and will likely need to do that if she is going to be in the money here. 

We should have a очень мелкая (Russian) race with these bardzo dobrze (Polish) fillies and mares.  If you look at the speeds each of these horses put up last time out they are all very close, within a point or two, except for the long shot.  We have some early speed in the field, but since they all like to win wire to wire a few might get discouraged and the others might wear each other out fighting for the lead.  My pick for winner is the late runner Kantia, hopefully her winning streak will continue.  I think K’s Masterpiece will be close behind Kantia and my pick for show is Jena Berlin.  Good luck and happy racing.  🙂