Down the road from the big Breeder\u2019s Bowl doings in New York, Virginia this week hosts the Jungle Alert(SAF) Bonanza. The race runs over nine and a half furlongs of firm turf, and highlights some potential future BB stars, as well as some well run older veterans. The purse is $50000, and there is a field of nine contending for the prize. Eight males and a female comprise what looks to be a very close and well rounded field. Oddsmakers seem to agree, grouping seven of the contenders in the 5\/1 to 9\/1 odds range, bookending them with an 8\/5 favorite and a 20\/1 longshot. Virginia has seen plenty of overwhelming favorites fall this year, and as close as the rest of the field is rated, this one is shaping for for a quite interesting finish.<\/P>
PP1) Graceful Dice<\/B> Sired by Rahy, Trained by bikeboy. Graceful Dice is a five year old horse, making his twenty fourth career start here. He has been quite successful in the allowance ranks, but he is still seeking his first stakes victory. In his last ten starts, he\u2019s put together a record of 2-2-0-0-4, with no 100+ speeds since around this time last year. He comes off an open allowance victory in Jamaica in his last start, besting a short field by three lengths in an eight furlong effort. He has only had one career start on dirt, and that was enough to convince him that the turf was where he belongs, and he hasn\u2019t gone back since then. As far as distance goes, he has shown talent in just about any range from four and a half out through eleven furlongs. He seems to be at the top of his from in the seven to eight furlong range, but has notched a victory in this distance range this season. He has been experimenting with his running style this year, but in general he has had his best success running just off the pace at the head of the mid pack. His speeds fit well in this field, but he is going to need to find some kind of happy medium at the break to be a factor here.<\/P>
PP 2) Gove The Governor <\/B>Sired by Royal Academy, Trained by tizdubai. Gove The Governor is the sole filly to grace this field. This four year old filly makes her twenty third start here. She is still looking for her first stakes win, and her first win of her four year old season. In her last ten, she has a record of 0-2-2-2-3 with no 100+ starts. She comes off a thrilling second place finish in a ten furlong stakes right here in Virginia in her last start, closing to within a half length at the wire, taking second in a photo over Windshielded, also in this field. She has only one race on dirt, and it resulted in one of only two out of the money finishes during her three year old campaign. The grass is definitely where she wants to be. The bulk of her career success has come in the seven to eight furlong range, though her last two runs, both at ten furlongs, have been a couple of her best efforts of the year. Only part of that may be attributable to distance though, because she has also stepped up her break from the gate, leaving her a lot closer to a second half striking distance. She does have a pwoerful close when she\u2019s on, and with a good break here she could be in the mix down the stretch.<\/P>
PP 3) Go Bigg Daddy <\/B>Sired by Rahy, Trained by kingpony. Go Bigg Daddy is the most veteran runner in this field. Though only four years old, he makes his thirty eighth career start here. While boasting eleven career wins, several in open allowance company, he is still seeking that elusive forst stakes win. He has gone 2-1-1-0-0 in his last ten starts, with three 100+ starts, though those have all been in dirt sprints. He comes off a second place finish in a twelve furlong turf stakes in Nevada in his last run, fading in the stretch after leading most of the races. He switched back to turf after spending the bulk of last year running on dirt. His turf and dirt speeds are about the same on average, especially in routes, though the bulk of his success has been on dirt. He\u2019s built his career as a sprinter, with seven of eleven career victories coming under six furlongs. His last two races mark the first time he has stretched out, both being at 12+ furlongs, and he met with mixed results. He also broke all out from the gate in those starts, after making most of his starts in a midpack to stalker range. As a sprinter, expect him to break quickly here, but it will be a surprise if he lasts much past the half.<\/P>
PP 4) Heros N Villians<\/B> Sired by Elusive Quality, Trained by dexterb. Heros N Villians is a three year old colt makng his tenth career start here. He makes his second stakes start here, and is looking for his first stakes win. In his first nine runs he has gone 3-0-2-2-0, with no 100+ speeds, at least yet. He comes off a fourth place finish in his first stakes try last outing, an eight and a half furlong outing on an off track in Rhode Island. He switched to turf after his first two lifetime starts running on dirt. While looking somewhat lackluster on dirt, he hasn\u2019t finished worse than fourth since the surface switch. The switch in surface coincided with some increased distance, and that may have had as much to do with his success as the surface. This colt is a deep closer, and he is at his best in this distance range. Two of his three victories have come in the nine furlong range. His close has been quite consistent with his close, and he will need that here. There is not a great amount of early speed, and he has some other very good closers to out run. A career best could help him surprise a few here.<\/P>
PP 5) Carl Hotty(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Theatrical(IRE), Trained by windy. Carl Hotty(IRE) is making his twelveth career start here. He is a three year old colt making his second career stakes start. He is 4-4-0-1-1 in his eleven starts, with one 100+ speed, which came in his last outing. The only blemish on his record was his other stakes start, a high purse effort in which he finished a disappointing tenth. His last start was a career best, with him going wire to wire in impressive fashion over a good A4x field in New Hampshire at eight furlongs. He has never been off the green, and with eight top two finishes in eleven starts, there has been no reason to switch. Other than a twelve furlong off track outing, where he was soundly beaten while clinging to fifth in a field of six, this will be his longest start to date. He has had good success in the eight to eight and a half range, but he has also never run below seven and a half to test himself in a sprint. He is a wire to wire type runner, building up as much of a lead as he can in the first half. He has shown that he has the stamina to be able to hold on to that lead, but the distance will be a question mark here, with the good closers in this field. Look for him to have at least a piece of the early lead here, and he is going to make the closers work for it.<\/P>
PP 6) Windshielded<\/B> Sired by Sadler\u2019s Wells, Trained by cream. Windshielded makes a twenty ninth career start here. He is a four year old colt looking for a first stakes victory to round out his resume. In his last ten, he carries a very nice 2-4-3-0-0 record, with no 100+ speeds. He comes off a third place finish in a second place dead heat in a stakes right here in Virginia at ten furlongs in his last start. In his career, he has never strayed from his home surface of turf, and the way he has run, there has never been a need to try dirt. He has shown stamina out to twelve furlongs, but three of his five career victories have come right here in this distance range. He is a midpack closer, but he has given indications that he may be able to close from a bit deeper at need. His close has been fairly consistent, though he has thrown a couple of clunkers in his last ten. Even when his close fails to fire, his stamina has been enough to keep him in the running. He comes off his best run in over a year in his last start, and if he can duplicate or improve on that, he could be in contention late here.<\/P>
PP 7) Cannon In D<\/B> Sired by Sadler\u2019s Wells, Trained by cream. Cannon In D is the second entry for trainer Cream in this race. This four year old colt is a half brother to his stable mate in gate six. He is the oddsmakers\u2019 choice here, and he has the credentials to lend credence to that judgement. In his last ten starts, he boasts a record of 4-3-1-1-0 with one stakes win. He has been on fire, posting seven straight 100+ speeds. He comes off his first try at graded level, finishing a relatively close in seventh place in a Florida Grade II at eight and a half furlongs. He has made two career starts on dirt, but as his last several starts have shown, turf is his hearth and home. His best distance seems to be in the seven to eight furlong range, however he has won both of his previous turf starts at this distance. He has the stamina to compete, especially on a fast track. He runs from from just off the pack, sometimes as deeply as the head of midpack. His close has been quite consistent, but he has shown a tendency to break for the lead early, and the deeper closers have made him suffer for it. He the hottest horse in this field, and dropping back in class, so should take it easily. If he turns on the speed to early though, he could be caught, especially at this distance.<\/P>
PP 8) Fear Seeker(AUS)<\/B> Sired by Zedative(AUS), Trained hellafied. Fear Seeker(AUS) is a three year old colt making his eighteenth career start. With second place finishes in his last three stakes below graded level, he\u2019s cruising for his first stakes win. Over his last ten starts, he\u2019s sitting on a 4-3-0-1-0 record with one 100+ start. He comes off a hard closing second place finish in a Rhode Island stakes at eight and a half furlongs on an off track in his last race. He tried dirt late in his two year old season, in an attempt to shake things up after a few near misses, but has generally stayed on turf, steadily improving throughout his sophomore season. He seems to prefer a slightly shorter distance than he has here, with most of his success in the eight to eight and a half furlong range. But he has only raced beyond that distance twice, showing decent speed in both outings. He runs as a midpack closer, and other than two stumbles at graded level, his close has been very consistent. The distance may be of benefit to him, and he good surprise in this field.<\/P>
PP 9) Thirteen Steps<\/B> Sired by Mineshaft, Trained by lenny6. Thirteen Steps is a real wildcard in this race, a three year old colt making only his third career start. He earned this stakes try by virtue of back to back wins in his first two races, both in this distance range on turf. His last race was an A2y run, where he bested a field of seven by two lengths, going away. He clocked a 94 speed, a twelve point improvement on his debut race. His only experience has been on grass at this distance, and winning both, he seems to be comfortable here. He faces older horses here for the first time, and that could be a factor in his finish here. He breaks as a midpack closer, but in both of his prior starts this has left him close off the lead. He faces more early speed than he has previous, and his reaction to this will gauge his finish.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jungle Alert(SAF) Bonanza draws nine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}