The second edition of the Barely For Speech Special<\/b> features six older horses going 9.5 furlongs on California’s main track.\u00a0 The 2005 running\tof the Special had just four entrants; trainer Woodhead’s Pinning My Hopes earned his sole stakes win in that race. This year’s Special might see another\tentrant earn his black type as well. <\/p>\n
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Coon’s Dog<\/b>, trained by tigereyes<\/i>, has drawn the inside post.\u00a0 The\t5yo Theatrical mare is well-regarded by the tracka handicapper, who placed\ther at 5\/2 on the morning line.\u00a0 She’s a confirmed dead closer who, in\ther last victory, somehow made up about 12 lengths in the last quarter mile.\u00a0 Look\tfor her to drop waaaay back and come running late.\u00a0 This race distance\tmight be a tad too short.\u00a0 Despite her come-from-behind style, she’s never\tbeen given more than 11 furlongs to run.\u00a0 She’s not exactly a slouch at\t9-10, but she might really shine at 12 or possibly more. Coon’s Dog will\tbe making start #46 here. <\/p>\n
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Euroalien’s<\/i> charge Oxys<\/b> will break from post 2.\u00a0 The oddsmaker\tdoesn’t seem to love or hate this one as he’s been listed at 6\/1.\u00a0 At just\t4 years old, Oxys is fairly lightly raced with just 12 races in him (he’s\twon four times).\u00a0 The Woodman colt has shown flashes of brilliance (he\twon a 9f allowance 5 back on the lead with a healthy 103SP) but is a bit\tinconsistent at placing.\u00a0 Oxys runs his best when he gets an early lead,\tso I’m expecting jockey W Rogers to get this colt out front fast.\u00a0 Could\tbe in the mix at the wire, but doesn’t seem to have yet developed the determination\tthat will get him his first stakes win. <\/p>\n
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Jockey M Staples gladly took the ride on the field cofavorite (at 9\/5 odds)\tForgotten Halo<\/b>.\u00a0 The Stoners<\/i> Stable trainee has put together\tan impressive record of 8 wins in 16 starts (with an additional 5 board finishes)\tand over a quarter-million in earnings.\u00a0 He hasn’t hit the winner’s circle\tsince four starts back in February, but certainly could be ready to make\tit back there in this race.\u00a0 This gorgeous light gray son of Jolie’s Halo\tloves to have the lead by the half-way marker, so if he’s in front at that\tpoint odds are good the race is his to lose.\u00a0\u00a0 The distance is ideal\t(his last stakes win was at 9.5) and he’s in pretty good form.\u00a0 The tuneup\tin an allowance last out may have been just what the doc ordered.<\/p>\n
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Trainer bigeasy<\/i> probably isn’t thrilled that his Danzatame colt Northern\tDanza<\/b>\tended up in gate four right next to Forgotten Halo.\u00a0 Northern\tDanza hasn’t routed since he was a 2yo (he’s 4 now) so this is asking a lot\tof the colt to both move out of allowance company and run a long ways at\tthe same time. Northern Danza has shown flashes of speed at times in his\tcareer, but all three of his wins have come on the lead.\u00a0 Unless the field\tfalls apart he really doesn’t have much chance of getting (or keeping) the\tlead, unfortunately.\u00a0 The 20\/1 odds assigned are a pretty good reflection\tof the colt’s chances.<\/p>\n
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Calsea<\/i> sends out the 6yo Undeniable Pigeon<\/b> from the five post\tat 12\/1 odds.\u00a0 The\tson of Pat The Tenor has earned seven wins from 36 starts, but so far zero\twins in stakes company.\u00a0 The horse is actually pretty good on both surfaces,\tand seems to put in a nice turf race most every time he’s switched back to\tit. In terms of running style, the Pigeon has a nice closing kick.\u00a0 However,\tit looks like age has caught up as his speeds are slowly declining.\u00a0 If\tthis were 2005, I’d say Pigeon had a real good shot at winning.\u00a0 Given\this gradual slowdown, however, I don’t think it’s likely.<\/p>\n
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The other cofavorite, Alderaan<\/b>, breaks from the far outside.\u00a0 Aalusive’s<\/i>\thomebred\tson of Aldebaran out of the hemare Dark Invader has lots to recommend him\there.\u00a0 He’s\tcoming off of two very convincing allowance wins including one at this distance\ttwo back (although on sloppy rather than fast dirt).\u00a0 Alderaan\talready has a pair of stakes wins under him so he certainly has the class\tto win here.\u00a0 He also has a versatility of style that much of the rest\tof the field seems to lack.\u00a0 The 4yo colt can handle stalking, he can handle\tclosing from midpack, he can handle closing from the rear of the pack.\u00a0 Jockey\tE Land has, in my opinion, the best horse in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The second edition of the Barely For Speech Special features six older horses going 9.5 furlongs on California’s main track.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}