This Saturday at California, a fantastic field of middle-distance turf stars will face off over 9 furlongs for a snazzy $400k purse and a Grade 1 trophy down where the turf meets the surf… It’s the Eddie O Cap!<\/p>\n
This race is jam-packed with graded-stakes champions and looks to be one of the highlights of the 2014 summer racing season, even with the loaded-with-talent King Geoff and Queen Emerald Stakes rightfully attracting tons of attention over at Surrey, England..<\/p>\n
STALKING<\/strong> was doing just that, gaining rapidly on EXCAPE<\/strong> in their last outing, the Grade 1 Cobbler Mile on this turf course. He gets much respect from the oddsmakers, who put a 6\/1 price on his nose. The extra furlong should suit the Monsun colt’s style to a T. The barnbrook<\/em> trainee’s bloodlines are a sight to behold; chefs-de-race all over, but no inbreeding showing. Don’t see that every day…<\/p>\n SWORN<\/strong> had a nice 4-race win streak that culminated in a Grade 2 win, but that came to an end when the Curlin colt lost to one of ROXY EPOXY<\/strong>‘s spectacular 122-speed performances. The shadowclaw<\/em> trainee then came to California and bombed badly as the favorite in the Grade 1 Movieland Turf Cup at 10 furlongs. Maybe he didn’t like the track, maybe he didn’t like the distance, or maybe he just had a bad day. In any case, if he can get back to that 115+ level, he’ll be tough and possibly able to pull off a 12\/1 surprise.<\/p>\n NEVER CROSS MOU<\/strong> is one-for-two vs. graded-stakes competition, but the loss was here on California’s turf course, where the Cape Cross colt ran a fairly distant 5th. The horizons<\/em> trainee will need to turn that one around bigtime in order to cash at 21\/1.<\/p>\n WRECK IT RALPH<\/strong> came into the Grade 1 Prince Of Whales Stakes 6-for-6, on a roll with one graded-stakes win already recorded. Then he ran a fine race, getting a 111 speed fig; it was not enough, and he finished 4th. This just goes to show how difficult it is to pile up wins in the rarefied atmosphere of graded-stakes competition. Never one to back down, lenny23<\/em> flies his Montjeu colt halfway across the world and shortens his 13\/1 longshot up by a furlong for another try.<\/p>\n ALEMARA<\/strong> returns to grass racing after a 3-race look at main-track racing, in which he ran fairly well. Trainer adschus02<\/em> hopes the return to a turf course on which he has won a graded race before (the Grade 2 Cherry Limb Stakes last October) will spur his Sea The Stars colt on to a big run at ’em here. The odds are a juicy 16\/1.<\/p>\n SUN DYNASTY<\/strong> is currently ranked #4 for this division, mostly due to his trio of Grade 1 wins in his last six starts. The 4yo Monsun colt has shown quite a bit of versatility in his recent runs, coming from fairly far back to get wins in addition to his more typical fly-out-the-gate style. My guess is that masterm04<\/em> will have him lay back a bit here due to the added distance he’ll be covering. One of those Grade 1 wins was the BB Mile at this track, a factor in his favor. This all adds up to 5\/1 favoritism.<\/p>\n NOPEACFORTHEWICKED<\/strong> is a Lonhro colt with only one graded-stakes try on his race record, but it was a strong 2nd in the Grade 1 Movieland Turf Cup over this course. The willyam13<\/em> trainee shortens up a furlong and appears to have a shot at 14\/1 with his best effort even though he hasn’t yet been able to top 110 on the speed gun thus far.<\/p>\n ROXY EPOXY<\/strong> will certainly be tough if he fires his best shot; those 122 speed ratings jump right off the page! One of those twin 122’s also got the skunkman2<\/em>-trained Tanino Gimlet colt his only Grade 1 win in the Woody Ford Stakes, so class isn’t much of a question either, and he gets 6\/1 odds. He should have plenty of company on the front end, however.<\/p>\n NO TIPS HERE<\/strong> is a Kitten’s Joy colt coming off highly impressive graded-stakes wins in his last pair, and also looks to have a racing style that will benefit from the expected pace scenario. Nine panels appears to be just the right distance for this steller4<\/em> trainee and he likes this racetrack, but he might to bump up his speed figure numbers just a bit to win here… Hard to say that about one with consecutive 110’s… An intriguing bet at 14\/1.<\/p>\n FEALTY<\/strong> comes off a sharp minor-stakes win and has a pair of graded-stakes trophies to his name. However, those wins were both in 2013 for the confessor2<\/em> trainee. This top-level trainer has done much magic in the past, so maybe he can do it again here at 11\/1 with his Curlin colt, who has won two of three at this track.<\/p>\n GIVING BACK<\/strong> looks to repeat his fine 116 speed earned while winning a Grade 3 race in Texas this past April. The Malibu Moon colt will need that level of performance to compete succesfully with these at for trainer gmen<\/em>. Might be a part of the early pace picture and gets 11\/1 odds.<\/p>\n NO MORAL RESTRAINT<\/strong> has had little luck in his two graded-stakes tries at California, but did pull off a Grade 3 win last September. The ritchie<\/em>-trained Dynaformer colt got an allowance win last time out but he has a lot to prove here. The 11\/1 odds seem like they might be a little low.<\/p>\n EXCAPE<\/strong> is on fire at the moment, having piled up five straight including the Grade 1 Cobbler Mile and a Grade 2, both wins at this track. The Dansili colt will need to find some extra stretch oomph to make it through that extra furlong; his only try beyond a mile resulted in a late fade. Trainer blankpoin9<\/em> thinks that factor is trumped by his runner’s recent form (look at that 120 in his last!) and gives him another chance at 9 furlongs. Will definitely help provide a very lively pace, and goes off at 6\/1.<\/p>\n KAYADOSSERAS<\/strong> has raced at CA six times without a win. The grade-placed 5yo son of Candy Ride will need a huge run to have any shot at grabbing his first graded-stakes win here for blankpoin8<\/em>, but the CPU sees something good (maybe it thinks the impending speed duel sets things up for him) and drops lower-than-expected 12\/1 odds on him.<\/p>\n Heck of a race, and heck of a pace!\u00a0 I have an idea the top frontrunners will cook each other in a pace duel, so…<\/p>\n I’ll pick STALKING<\/strong> to make that late run and get this one…<\/p>\n SUN DYNASTY<\/strong> should have enough to grab the place spot…<\/p>\n I’ll go with NO TIPS HERE<\/strong> to sneak in and get 3rd.<\/p>\n Good luck all!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Saturday at California, a fantastic field of middle-distance turf stars will face off over 9 furlongs for a snazzy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23416","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\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23416"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23506,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23416\/revisions\/23506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}