This week in Virginia, we bring back the two years olds for the North The Baby Bonanza. The race runs over seven and a half furlongs of firm Virginia turf, and carries a generous $55000 purse. The race is open to all two year olds, and five colts have stepped up to the challenge. This is the second anuual running of the race, won last year by Lightfly\u2019s Desert<\/B> who got his first of his five career stakes wins in only his second career start. The oddsmakers have pretty much pegged this one as a two horse race, with a favorite at 7\/5 and a second choice weighing in at 9\/5 odds. The rest of the field comes in at odds ranging from 2\/1 to the 15\/1 longshot. Should be a paltry week at the betting window unless someone can pull off a very big race from the long side of the odds.<\/P>
PP 1) Antity<\/B> Sired by Composer, Trained by patriot69. Antity grabs the rail slot here in his career debut. His trainer jumped at the short field to debut his baby in stakes competition, and he guarantees himself at least an $1100 check in this one. He is modestly bred, right on the edge of bargain breeding. His sire, Composer, has twenty four current offspring, and his best runners have been almost exclusively dirt sprinters. His two year old crop has one winner from three starters, and curiously enough, that win was in a turf sprint with a filly with identical breeding to this horse. Muqtarib, his dam sire, had his first mares come of breeding age this year. They have fielded five two year old progeny, with one winner, the turf sprint mentioned above. He is the longshot bid here, and deservedly so. He will need to be his sire\u2019s first real breakout star of the year to figure into this one.<\/P>
PP 2) Carolina Quickstep<\/B> Sired by Forty Niner, Trained by 1i2. Carolina Quickstep makes his sixth career run here, and his second stakes try. He is coming off his first stakes win, a six and a half furlong effort right here in Virginia, where he dominated a short field, running away with a three and a half length victory. His career mark overall is 2-2-0-0-1 in five starts with a best speed of 81.4 earned in his last outing. His first four starts were all bid races for his trainer, and he has tried both dirt and turf, with his speeds and results being about the same on both surfaces. This will be his longest run to date, by a full furlong. His royal breeding says he shouldn\u2019t have a problem with the distance. Forty Niner is one of the premiere sires available, and his runners have pretty much run the gamut of any type of race, from dirt sprints to turf routes. In general, they seem most comfortable in the eight to nine furlong range, though he has sired some very good sprinters. Their surface preference seems to be overwhelmingly dirt. His dam sire, Sadler\u2019s Wells, though, is a name that is almost synonymous with turf routing. His progeny are built for stamina, and when he comes through the dam side, don\u2019t seem to display a strong preference for either surface, performing equally well on both. Carolina Quickstep likes the run from midpack, and his close has been excellent. The only time he has found himself in trouble was in a fast breaking field that left him too far out early. He shouldn\u2019t have that problem here, in a field with a bit of early speed, but nothing that should overwhelm him. This one won\u2019t be a cakewalk for him, but look for him to be right in the mix as they drive for the wire.<\/P>
PP 3) Popping Bubbles<\/B> Sired by Royal Academy, Trained by swale. Popping Bubbles makes his eighth career start in this race. This will be his third stakes start and he is seeking his first victory at this level. He has gone 3-1-1-1-0 in his first seven, with a career best speed of 80.2 earned in his last start. His only misstep so far was in a Grade 3 outing, and otherwise he has been right in the mix in all his races. He comes off an open allowance victory at six furlongs over a field of ten in his last, posting a nice two length victory. He has never been off the turf, and with the way that he has generally been performing, he hasn\u2019t really made any case for a surface change. He stretches out half a furlong beyond his previous long here, and one of his three victories was a seven furlong allowance run in Tennessee. Royal Academy, his sire, has been one of those frustratingly hit and miss sires. His progeny have been comfortable on either surface, and they tend to prefer routing as they mature. On the dam side, we find Darshaan(ENG), a sire that sometimes tends to be overlooked. His progeny display a very strong turf bent, especially at lower levels, and adds a lot of stamina to the mix. He is unusual in the fact that even the majority of his maiden winners prefer routes to sprints. Popping Bubbles is another mid pack closer in this field. On firm turf, his close has been relatively consistent. He has a tendency to break too quickly if he finds himself too close on the lead at the half, and this has gotten him in trouble a couple times. He should be in his sweet spot in this one, with no blazing early speed, but he has some other excellent closers to contend with here. Look for him to move hard at the half, but he will need to overcome pwoerful closers to both his inside and outside to bring it home.<\/P>
PP 4) Raa\u2019s Mambo(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Nysaean(IRE), Trained by mahjong. Raa\u2019s Mambo(IRE) makes his eighth track appearance here. This will be his fifth straight stakes, and he is still striving for that first stakes win. He\u2019s posted a 1-4-0-0-0 record in his first seven, with a best speed of 82.3 earned in a stakes race earlier this year. His last outing was a stakes race at this distance in North Carolina, where he finished a hard closing second, where eat at up nearly four lengths on the leader down the stretch before falling just short. He switched to turf after a very lackluster debut on dirt, and has been out of the top two finishers only once since the switch, that being in a Grade 3 outing two starts back. The distance certainly shouldn\u2019t hurt him here, as he has spent a good portion of the year running out of real estate before he could bring it home. He may fair better in a bit longer race. Nyseaen (IRE), his sire is a generally overlooked son of Sadler\u2019s Wells. Most of his offspring have been this year\u2019s two year olds, and he has yet to field an allowance or stakes winner. Three of his four winners have been turf sprinters. Rahy, coming through the dam side, has progeny showing talent on both surfaces, and have a tendency to prefer routes, though he has quite a few good sprinters to his credit. Raa\u2019s Mambo(IRE) is a deep closer, and his close has been excellent on turf. He has found himself repeatedly falling just short and the extra distance should be to his benefit. This should be the perfect kind of race for him, with no real blazing early speed, and the mid pack closers battling for position early in the second half. Look for him to be closing hard down the stretch, and I think he has a better than even chance of taking this one late.<\/P>
PP 5) Crackpot(GER)<\/B> Sired by Martillo(GER), Trained by deeprock11. Crackpot(GER) makes his eighth career start here. This will be his first stakes start. His first seven starts have netted him a 1-0-2-0-2 record, with a best speed of 70.8 earned in his last start. He broke his maiden in an inexpensive maiden claim race earlier this year. His new trainer has put him to work at allowance level. He comes off a third place finish in an A1x race at six furlongs last outing, after not being able to hold on to a piece of the early lead. His career has been split fairly evenly between dirt and turf, and his best speeds, as well as the bulk of his success have come on turf. This will be his longest start by a furlong, and it is hard to say whether this will benefit him or not. It should allow him to build up a longer early lead if he gets a good jump, which is what he needs for success. His sire is Martillo(GER), a freshman sire this year, that has fielded only eight runners. Only two have broken maiden, one in a dirt route, one in a turf sprint, both in the claim ranks. In his own racing days, he had modest success as a turf miler. On the dam side, we have Desert Secret(IRE), who has produced decent routers on both surfaces and adds more stamina to the mix. Crackpot(GER) tends to be a fast starter, and his only win came in wire to wire fashion after opening up a good sized lead in the first half then holding on for dear life down the stretch. He is about the only early speed in this one, but he is going to have the closers coming right up his tail in the second half. Unless he can open up a big lead, which is unlikely at best with the speed in this field, look for him to fade quickly in the second half.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Juvenile colts square off at 7.5 furlongs<\/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-2979","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\/2979","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=2979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}