Spring is mostly about the three-year-old classics, and so sophomore mile-and-a-quarter horses tend to have their attention directed away from these small stakes.\u00a0 The $50,000 Colonel Ton Special<\/EM>, at that classic distance on the turf, has drawn a small field but largely well-matched one, led by 3\/5 shot Barb’s Backpack<\/STRONG>.<\/P> A dark grey son of Daylami out of Grade I winner Barb’s Kristy<\/STRONG> (In the Wings), he was multiply stakes-placed at two and opened his three-year-old season with an allowance win.\u00a0 He didn’t want all 11 furlongs in the Can He Get The Distance?<\/EM> and flattened out in the stretch, but stakes tries at 9.5 and 9 have resulted in a win and a show, both with sustained drives down the stretch. Jakematt Stables no doubt has him in here to get the measure of his distance preferences; I see no reason he shouldn’t handle it just fine.<\/P> Barb’s Backpack gets a dose of stamina influence Sadler’s Wells through his dam.\u00a0 Leonidas<\/STRONG> carries it on top, via sire Galileo.\u00a0 Rainbow Quest as dam-sire doesn’t hurt his theoretical distance potential, and he’s shown it in practice as well, with a second at 11 furlongs and a stalking win last out at 10.\u00a0 He beat entry-level allowance horses there with a good 93 speed rating and the kind of commanding victory that suggests there was plenty left in the tank.<\/P> French-bred Savantas<\/STRONG>, in contrast, is out to make amends for a 10-furlong disaster.\u00a0 The High Yield colt won his first two races before being outrun in stakes company.\u00a0 Stretched out a bit and then some more, he was stakes-placed and then a 9-furlong winner, both in five-horse fields.\u00a0 He earned a 91 speed rating for that victory.\u00a0 Last out at 10 furlongs, he dumped his rider in the first jumps out of the gate and went for a merry run.\u00a0 His normally patient connections have wheeled him back in two weeks and picked up the very capable D. Esperado, who should at least manage to stay aboard.<\/P> The fourth and final entry is Black Valentine<\/STRONG>, by A P Valentine and out of Bold Minnaloushe<\/STRONG>, a maiden by Black Minnaloushe.\u00a0 Black Valentine took five tried to break his maiden but did manage two stakes placings right off of that win.\u00a0 A 9-furlong try was not encouraging for his 10-furlong prospects, and recent form is a little off.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" $50,000 Colonel Ton Special<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"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-4383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383","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\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}