Well, the Equinics are behind us, but that certainly doesn’t mean there will be a temporary shortage of top-level horse appearances or races; not like that at all. The field assembled for Sunday’s Windy City Turf Classic over the firm turf at Illinois has some $20 million in earnings and ten of them have Grade 1 badges in their possession.<\/p>\n
One gap that exists in racing categories in that event is the fact that for older turf horses, there were no turf races in between 8 furlongs and 13 furlongs. Of course, it could very well be possible that the existence of this 10-furlong Windy City Turf Classic just one week afterward is exactly the reason why the Equinics has left that apparent \u201chole\u201d in their events.<\/p>\n
That leaves this little 3-million-dollar Grade 1 race as a \u201cconsolation\u201d for some fine horses who didn’t have an Equinics event to aim at; a very nice \u201cconsolation\u201d indeed.<\/p>\n
So, what kinda virtual horseflesh do have here? Real good; let’s have a look:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
BARB’S BABY BOY<\/strong><\/span> won the Grade 3 Little River Band Stakes in November, but hasn’t won since and goes off at 13\/1. A 4yo son of Oasis Dream, this jakematt7<\/span> <\/em>trainee has distance questions, considering his only 10-furlong attempt went quite poorly. Will need a huge effort in this crowd.<\/p>\n RAGPOINT DANCER<\/strong><\/span> won the Grade 2 Kinsho Cho Classic in fine style, but his three Grade 1 tries have all gone poorly. The 4yo Danehill Dancer colt trained by jrogue5<\/span> <\/em>could be dangerous if he can get free on the front end, but that’s a tall order here.<\/p>\n THE JOY OF LIFE<\/strong> <\/span>has three wins in his last five starts, but he was upset at odds-on in a minor stakes last time out, though he still fired a 113 in that loss. As a matter of fact, the consistent 4yo Kitten’s Joy colt has run 110 speeds or better in nine of his last ten starts. Trained by icbomber1<\/span><\/em>, this guy is almost a complete certainty to fire a big shot every time he enters a starting gate. Gets much respect at 6\/1.<\/p>\n I WILL FIX YOU<\/strong><\/span> is a head short of having three graded-stakes wins in a row coming into this, having barely missed in the Grade 2 Karakuza Tinen Cup last time out. Before that, the handshobb7<\/span><\/em>-trained 4yo Bernardini colt garnered wins in the Grade 1 Queen’s Spring Cup and the Grade 3 Night At The Exbury, both by large margins. This very dangerous runner gets 8\/1 odds.<\/p>\n WEEKEND JOY<\/strong><\/span> is a veteran of the graded-stakes wars, having tried the level sixteen times. The 5yo by Tapit has hit the tote board in five of those, grabbing wins in the 2015 Grade 3 South Florida Mile and the 2014 Grade 1 Coalminer Cup. The blankpoin4<\/span> <\/em>trainee has remained competitive in 2016, though he only has an allowance win to show for it. Going off at 15\/1, he has at least a bit of upset potential.<\/p>\n STREETS OF SIN<\/strong><\/span> found 11 furlongs a bit too far in the Grade 1 Man Of War Stakes and couldn’t make much of an impression on NO CHANCE CADET in the Prince Of Whales in June. However, if the simsters5<\/span> <\/em>trainee can find the form he showed in the Grade 1 Manha Manha Challenge just before that, he’s certainly got a big chance in here. The 4yo Street Cry colt goes off at 6\/1.<\/p>\n THE ESKAJESTY<\/strong><\/span> won a pair of Grade 1’s last year, but things have really gone south for the 4yo Eskendereya colt in 2016. The meguire4th<\/span> <\/em>trainee will need a big turnaround in form to compete here, but he could possibly respond favorably to today’s shorter distance. Lots of questions to answer, and the 21\/1 odds reflect that.<\/p>\n RUN THROUGH FIRE<\/strong><\/span> has just nine starts thus far in his career, but he has quickly become a superstar. The 4yo Galileo colt’s a perfect 5-for-5 for 2016, with impressive 3-length wins in the Grade 2 Kinsho Kho Classic and the Grade 1 Eclipsed Stakes. Both of those wins were at double-digit odds,yet the mattyw2<\/span> <\/em>trainee gets little respect yet again, this time at 13\/1.<\/p>\n STREET SECRET<\/strong><\/span> has only managed one allowance win for 2016, but trainer gioponti<\/span> <\/em>takes another shot in hopes his 5yo son of Street Sense can regain the fine form he showed while winning the Grade 1 Canada Turf and the Grade 1 Singapore Cup last fall. Going off at 9\/1, he fired a 112 while running 2nd in an allowance last time out; this form improvement brings hope.<\/p>\n BOBBI ENGLISH<\/strong><\/span> took his first shot at graded-stakes racing in almost a year last time out, running a strong 2nd vs. a slomewhat light Grade 3 field in the Chicago Handicap while firing a 114 speed rating. This much tougher field will present quite a challenge for this rlogan<\/span> <\/em>trainee, a 4yo son of English Channel. He goes at 15\/1.<\/p>\n RAMBUTAN<\/strong><\/span> comes from the gcliffo5<\/span> <\/em>barn. If he can bring the same kind of form he showed in winning the Grade 1 Tattersalls Gold two starts ago, the 4yo son of Arch can certainly make an impression here at 9\/1. A very consistent colt, he also won the Grade 2 Guillaume Stakes last summer. He took almost four months off this past winter in preparation for this year’s campaign, and that appears to have paid off well.<\/p>\n NO CHANCE CADET<\/strong><\/span> is a 4yo son of Galileo who has won over $2 million in just eight starts while winning six. He has a pair of Grade 1 wins in three tries, and the cadetdagen<\/span> <\/em>trainee won the Grade 1 Prince Of Whales last time out while putting up a ridiculously fast 120 speed rating, and he has run no less than 112 in each of his last six. Will be a major factor on or near the early pace, and should remain a factor all the way to the wire.<\/p>\n MY PREROGATIVE<\/strong><\/span> is in with a 12\/1 chance for trainer mtk2010<\/span><\/em>. Last time out, the 4yo Cape Cross colt finished a solid 3rd, 4 lengths behind RUN THROUGH FIRE in his grade 1 debut, the NY Island Cap. He dominated lesser in two turf starts just before that with high speed ratings, and has been on a 9-week mini-vacation since that last try. If the break did him good, he could pop a big one.<\/p>\n OLD DYNAMICS<\/span><\/strong> may be the only 6yo in this field, but he’s not exactly drying up and fading away; the son of Dynaformer was a solid 3rd last time out in the Grade 1 Eclipsed Stakes and won the Grade 1 Movieland Turf Cup just before that. This flagdown1<\/span> <\/em>trainee has a pair of Grade 1 wins to his credit and almost $4 million in the bank; if he gets his stretch drive going early enough, he certainly could threaten here at 8\/1.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ll go with NO CHANCE CADET<\/span><\/strong> to attend the early pace closely and shoot on by to get the win.<\/p>\n RUN THROUGH TIME<\/span><\/strong> is my choice for 2nd; and he certainly could very well win… but I’ll stay with 2nd.<\/p>\n I’ll pick the ultra-consistent THE JOY OF LIFE<\/span><\/strong> to grab 3rd.<\/p>\n Good luck to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, the Equinics are behind us, but that certainly doesn’t mean there will be a temporary shortage of top-level horse<\/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-38576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38576","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=38576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38583,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38576\/revisions\/38583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}