Welcome to Ireland for this week’s stakes, The North Collect Special<\/u>. This race will feature 3yo and up long turfers, going 11 furlongs for a purse of $80,000. We’ve got a bit of everything in this one, from sophomores making their stakes debuts, to a former claimer who has found new life as a distance specialist, to a graded placed 10 year old. Let’s take a look at our nine entrants in post position order.<\/br><\/br>On the rail at 5\/1 is Bounded Fool<\/b> owned by freddy<\/i>. He is a 7yo out of the final crop of the Round Table stallion Royal Ovation, and is his only stakeswinner. Although it has been three years since his lone stakes victory, he is no stranger to the toteboard, with eleven second place finishes in his 56 race career. He ran second last time out in a stakes at today’s distance, so he’s not quite ready for the old friends home yet. Top jockey Z. Kentucky (22%) gives him a good chance to add stakes number two to his already solid career.<\/br><\/br>In post two at 9\/2 is Black Boreal(Ger)<\/b> owned by ireagle<\/i>. A 4yo, he is from the first crop of Boreal(Ger), a son of Java Gold, and is his best runner to date. He flashed his ability early on, breaking his maiden in only his second start as a 2yo. As a 3yo, he ran third in a two mile Grade 3, as well as hitting the board in a pair of listed stakes at today’s distance. He was shortened up this year, and eventually dropped to higher claimers, where ireagle picked him up and stretched him back out, resulting in two stakes placing in his last two starts. A. Jones (13%) may be able to get that first stakes win out of him.<\/br><\/br>In post three at 6\/1 is Total Chaos<\/b> owned by benttree<\/i>. A son of Rahy, this 3yo has only eight starts to his young career, but his first long route last time out was a smashing success, with a 98 speed figure earned over the 12 furlong allowance. With a gorgeous almost-white coat, compliments of his damsire Caro(Ire), he made quite the pretty picture as he crossed the line, leaving two stakesplaced earners of more than 100K in his wake. He has only finished off the board once in six tries on turf. C. Rice (12%) would like to see that trend continue. <\/br><\/br>In post four at 6\/1 is Tow The Dark<\/b> owned by jjfalcon<\/i>. A 4yo by dual Classic winner War Emblem, he opened the season with a second place finish in a G2 at today’s distance. That followed on the heels of a win and two seconds in listed stakes races to close out his 3yo season…all at 14 to 16 furlongs. He ran a 101 in that G2, and finished ahead of no less than five graded winners, including such big names as Hey Zeus and Rainbow Moonshell. He hasn’t been able to duplicate that effort, but he certainly is capable of it. P. Adams (9%) is in the saddle.<\/br><\/br>In post five at 32\/1 is Grazza(Ire)<\/b> owned by angellic2<\/i>. A 4yo by Grandera(Ire), he has been lightly raced throughout his career, with a record of 4 wins in 9 starts. He was stakesplaced twice as a juvenile, and won an allowance last time out very convincingly as he stretched out to 10 furlongs for the first time. The third race back after a layoff usually will show the horse at his fittest, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him run better than his odds. He has a jockey trend going, as Fred Durst (12%) rides this week, following rides by David Bowie and John Lennon in his other starts this year.<\/br><\/br>In post six at 9\/2 is Kool Thing(Ire)<\/b> owned by eddieatc<\/i>. A 3yo, he is the only stakeswinner so far in Black Sam Bellamy’s second crop. That win was in a mile race as a 2yo, but he has proven to be much better over a longer route of ground, winning by more than 5 lengths in a 12 furlong allowance last time out. He likes to run just off the pace, but D. Nickesy (8%) may choose to send him right out as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of pace in this field. <\/br><\/br>In post seven at 9\/2 is Gallant Dancer<\/b> owned by coffee<\/i>. This 3yo would seem to be bred for this type of race, being a son of Sadler’s Wells and out of a Daylami(Ire) mare. This is his first attempt beyond 9f, but he is a multiple stakeswinner at shorter distances. With A. Reed (15%) up he has as good a chance as any other here, as long as he runs to his pedigree and handles the extra distance well. <\/br><\/br>In post eight at 6\/1 is the grand old man Milk W.<\/b> owned by stefanus<\/i>. A son of A.P. Indy, he has as many non-M\/C\/O\/S wins as his age…ten. He didn’t even begin racing until he was four though, and only ran for three seasons before taking three years off. Prior to resuming his career, he won multiple stakes, as well as placing in a G2 and two G3’s. His comeback has been a disappointment so far, but with 13 wins in 39 starts and half a million in the bank, his overall career has been a success. Journeyman P. Michael (1%) won’t be of much help.<\/br><\/br>Starting on the outside at 8\/1 is Drowned God<\/b> owned by confessor<\/i>. Much like Gallant Dancer, he is a royally-bred 3yo by Sadler’s Wells, out of the stakeswinning Kingmambo mare, Shiphole. He is making his stakes debut here in his eighth start. His first six races were all in Denmark under that track’s top rider B. Schardein. He’s coming off two consecutive allowance wins, the last against older horses at Ascot going 10 furlongs. He seems to run best on or less than a length off of the lead, which isn’t E C Doyle’s (10%) cup of tea normally, but she’s perfectly capable of letting the horse do what he does best.<\/br><\/br>That is our field. Quite a mixed bag here, with no one really standing out as the class of the field…as evidenced by the fact that 7 of 9 runners have odds between 9\/2 and 6\/1. Even an experienced handicapper would have problems with this one. Good luck to all the runners, and may they all come home sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three Co-Favourites in Evenly-Matched Field<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"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-3090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090","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\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}