Short Field for Grade 3 Crimson Bank

With two graded stakes in New Jersey this weekend it will be hard not to spot some famous trainers, as well as horses. The Grade 3 Crimson Bank has drawn a short but talented field of six. The mile event for three year olds and up carries a purse of $150,000. With the hurricane brushing the coast this weekend the turf course has been listed as good. With five of the six entrants being under 5/1 odds its easy to say a competitive field has been established, but even the longer 14/1 shot has a chance.

Drawing the rail is mintjulep’s sweet Easy On The Lemon. Lemon is a five year old son of Lemon Drop Kid out of an unraced Easy Goer mare. With a race record of seven wins in twenty four starts he has won almost $135,000. Of those seven wins, one was a claiming effort, but he’s certainly not running like a claimer anymore. Easy On The Lemon was claimed off of bigzac at the end of 2008. Since then he’s won a few allowances and comes into this race off of a listed stakes victory. Look for Lemon to go straight to the lead and try to hold off the closers for a wire to wire victory. At 9/2 he’ll have to pop a better speed than 105, as half this field can pop 110+

The longest shot on the board La Pine out of the aldebaran barn will break from post two. La Pine is a three year old son of Sunriver out of an unraced Quiet American mare. With three wins in sixteen tries he has earned over $71,000. Hardly a fresh horse coming into this race he just raced two weeks ago in a grade two out in California, and two weeks before that in a listed stake, with the winner of that listed stake in today’s race. La Pine generally sticks close to the pace to try to make his race, but with a high speed of 101 being beaten 7.75 lengths, I don’t see this 14/1 shot pulling off a shocker.

Naracing9 sends out co-second choice Lucky Nigel, a four year old son of Pivotal out of an unraced Rainbow Quest mare. In thirty one tries, Lucky Nigel has found the winner’s circle thirteen times, with four wins in the past three months. Nigel comes into this race off of three open allowance victories, popping an impressive 112 last time out. Lucky Nigel will be tracking the pace about five lengths behind and be flying at the end to try to find the wire first. At 3/1 Lucky Nigel has some impressive speeds, but if his past comes back to haunt him it looks like he’s allergic to stakes, and allowance to grade three is still a big jump, especially considering he is facing proven graded winners today.

Desperado2 sends out the favorite Stormin Blues, the number two ranked turf miler in the country. The five year old son of Bernardini is out of Hold On Loosely a daughter of Storm Cat. Stormin Blues is a grade one winner with ten victories in thirty three tries. He is however going through a dry spell without any victories in the past three months. He does however have two grade one victories in his last eight starts, winning with a 110, and a 118. Stormin likes to have a good pace to run at to win at the wire. At 2/1 he has something a lot of the others don’t, and that is a preference for the off going. In three tries he has two wins and a place. Dropping in from grade one competition, I think he has a great shot of ending his dry spell.

Cedric the co-second choice with be saddled by illrunbyu2 and break from post five. Cedric is a six year old son of Fantasticat out of an unraced Northern Dancer mare. With seven wins in twenty seven tries he has earned almost a half a million. Coming into this race off of a beautiful g3 win at this distance posting a 112 its easy to consider maybe he’ll bounce in this race. Cedric has a similar running style to Stormin Blues, so a hook up coming down the final sixteenth of a mile wouldn’t be unexpected at all. Two races back he ran a slow 87 and lost by over fifteen. In his favor though is being lightly raced this year and about ten weeks rest to recover from that 112. At 2/1 that last race was impressive, and he has won a grade two before as well, he should be fighting with Stormin Blues coming down the stretch.

Drawing the outside post is jaipur’s Excellent Decision. Excellent Decision is a six year old son of Crowd Pleaser out of an unraced Marlin mare. With career earnings of over $200,000, Excellent Decision has won nine races in thirty starts, and comes into this race off of a listed stakes, in which he beat fellow entrant La Pine easily. The 111 was his best speed figure and came out of nowhere so its hard to know if he’ll be regressing in this next start. Excellent Decision will have to live up to his name when it comes time to making his move to try to win, typically he stalks the pace closely, and take over around the third call, but he’ll have to keep an eye on the closers who will be merely loping in the early stages of the race. At 4/1 if he can hold off the super closers known as Cedric and Stormin Blues he has a shot. Also like that he has won on a good turf course before, something that most of the field has not done.

This may be a short field, but its certainly not short on talent. With only one real speed horse in this race I don’t see too fast of a winning speed, but I do see a closer easily taking the race away from the pace setter, its just knowing who to put the money on. My choices are Stormin Blues, Cedric and Excellent Decision. Good luck to all may your horses run fast and return to the barn safely.