Bargain Bowl – Silent Witness Sprint

Bargain Bowl – Silent Witness Sprint

Five and one half furlongs turf

When interviewing Bargain Bred president knightmare about the history of The Silent Witness Sprint the following insights were obtained. “In four runnings the race has been won by two fillies, and two colts. When the fillies have won, second to fifth has been all colts. When a colt wins second to fifth has been all fillies. That is crazy.
Starinsky won the first running and came back to run 3rd in 2006 and 2nd in 2007.
The stakes record holder is still Starinsky and it was set in that first year of 2005. She ran 5.5f in 1:03 1/5 for a 99 speed figure. Another interesting fact is that the second fastest race was last year by the other filly winner Wu Jen. When fillies have won they have won with 99 and 98 speed figures. When colts when they have done it with 91 and 95 speed figures”. I’m going to play this angle in analyzing today’s race and I am also excited to note that Wu Jen returns and is attempting to defend her title from last year. Dagastan and Count Zimzam are both tied with 12 pts in this division with Volkstad close behind with 10. If any of these three win the day today they will seal the Bargie award for this division.

1. Altieri Sort (Altieri X Carnegie X Sort)– It would be rare to see a Bargain race and not see a Hawkz entry and you won’t see that in this race either as he gets involved right away in the first post position. This four year old mare has been impressive winning nearly 200k in just 23 lifetime races. She accumulated most of that by pulling off the Class Ack Juvenile(07)/100 Guineas (08) double which puts her into the bargain history books. Her recent form gives her fans little hope for a trifecta of bargain achievement but its great to see her on the stage that made her famous in 07.

2. Saint It Aint’ So (My Halo X Interprete X Morning Bob) – Lebowski brings us this lightly raced 3 yr old who has 2 wins from 6 lifetime tries. His allowance win at 6.5 furlongs posting a nice 90 speed figure shows he has massive ability and if he has fully recovered from his injury 2 back he could offer intriguing value at 43/1.

3. Music City One (Green Tune X City On A Hill X Future Storm) – 1917sox guided this 4 year old colt to his maiden win in his last race all the way back in August. He’s been training up to this race since then. The win was at today’s distance but oddsmakers have this guy as a 99-1 longshot and that seems well deserved based on the accomplished runners in today’s field.

4. Wu Jen (Fuji Kiseki X Slewpy X Compliance) – Boss knightmare knows he has a good one here and her 400k+ bank account is all the proof you need that she’s a force. She has won bargain stakes races on both surfaces including a win in last year’s Silent Witness event. She has already started 10 times this year but her last race could be a key race as she was prepped on dirt and won easily by 2 lengths. If she’s the beneficiary of a turf to dirt prep bump up or can run back to her form of April 09 she could yet again thrill her legion of fans.

5. Count Zimzam (Count Albrecht X Wayne County X Homing) – Hawkz saddles the 5/2 favorite in today’s race. 5 year old finished 7^th in last year’s edition of this race but has made big strides since then, most recently winning the Tokyo Sprint going away. If he runs back to that race he likely wins but the slightly shorter race may find him running out of room late but a win here would significantly bump is already hearty 320k in lifetime earnings.

6. Ct’s Grindstone (Emancipator X Just a Cat X Grindstone) – Three year old colt is still a maiden after 9 lifetime races and I hope his jockey M Rabo can place him far enough back so he doesn’t get turf burn from the rest of these runners.

7. Players Champion (Sawgrass X Danzero X Somethingfabulous) – Three year old won his MSW debut but has not scored a victory since but that does not tell the whole story. He has been a respectable hard knocker hitting the board consistently and his speed figures give him a realistic shot in today’s race. He managed a third in the 100 Guineas and hopes to represent his 3 yr old bargain class well today.

8. Volkstad (Volksraad X Kaapstad X Jr. Prospect) – Another in the Hawkz legion this 4 yr old colt has shown awesome front running ability and just missed in this race last year as a three yr old finishing 3/4 lengths back as Wu Jen ran him down late. Two back he wired the field in the 7f Everglades posting a nice 95 speed figure. Look for him to get to the lead and dare the others to keep up over the 5.5 furlongs.

9. Lana’s Imp (Young Daniel X Accelerator X Latin American) – I love this horses name mostly because I used to date a girl named Lana back in high school and found out she does in fact appear a bit impish after some 10 years later. This mare has run respectable on the dirt in various bargain races and in her only turf try (at 9f) she posted a respectable 87 speed figure. She’s a bit of a wild card and could intrigue those looking for a fatter payday in bigger tickets at odds of 9-1.

10. Dagastan (Soviet Star X Nudist Colony X Kashmir II) – When your DS is Nudist Colony your taught from a young age to leave it ALL out  there on the track and this four year old has done that finishing ITM in 9 of 14 career tries. Trainer fastnfirm has done a nice job bringing this one along and she is really knocking on the door of this bargain series having finished ITM in 5 series races spanning her career. She is going to break out one of these days although if her race in the 9f Hunt Club is any indication it may come at longer distances on the grass. She’s well respected at 9/2 and is going to give a big effort.

11. Concotelli (Le Vie Dei Colori  X Star Appeal X Sadair) – Knightmare claimed this colt last out with the premeditated intent to find another entry in today’s race. Appears to be a very astute claim as just two back he scored an impressive allowance win at 7f posting a 98 speed figure in the process. This will be his first try in the series and based on form he will be rolling like a simulated bargain bred locomotive late in the race. I believe he may find the distance a bit short but that is yet to be seen but either way he looks to have a promising future in bargain land.

Prediction:

1st –  Volkstad takes the lead and never looks back avenging his narrow defeat to Wu Jen in last year’s edition of this race.

2^nd – Wu Jen regains form and arises to the challenge but misses the leader this time around

3rd – Concotelli rewards his new connections faith and closes hard for third.

Good luck to the connections of all these bargain barn burners.