This weeks 10th race feature at Minnesota Downs racetrack is The Bluer Than Velvet Special Stakes for 2 year old fillies. A small field of 4 have entered this 5.5 furlong sprint that will run on the firm Supertoy7 Marshall Turf Course. With 3 of the 4 entrants coming from the local stables there is an added interest in the race for the 200 credit bonus purse today on top of the $50,000 purse offered for this overnite stakes.<\/P>
Let’s take a look at today’s field:<\/P>
2)FINNISH JEWEL(VA)—5\/1—<\/STRONG>cavendish sends this filly out of NOLES with a record of 3-1-0-1 and lifetime earnings of $3,909. This filly runs for an unaffiliated independent barn.Her sire has a 26.7% winners rate and a 6.7% stakes winners rate.\u00a0This year 28.6 of his 2 year old starters have found the winners circle. This filly started her career off in a humble way by racing in a Maiden Claimer at the $5,000 level. She won that race and then has picked up some minor share cheques in a pair of allowance races. She posted her lifetime best 74 speed rating last time out in an 8 furlong NW1X dirt allowance right here in Minnesota. She will be making both her turf and stakes debut in today’s 10th race feature race. She has shown the ability to both stalk and close in her racing styles so far in her short career. The rider for today’s race will be Bowen (19.7%) who is the current leader in the riding standings this season.<\/P> 3)VALDINI(KY)—6\/5—<\/STRONG>miltlink1 sends this filly out of BANDINI with a record of 6-2-1-0 and lifetime earnings of $91,850. She is out of the mare SAMMIE’S VALENTINE who was 1\/6 at the track and who has 2 foals on record, both winners. This 92nd divisional ranked filly runs for the green, yellow and turquoise silks of JrodneyG who is based right here in the Minnesota Downs backstretch. He is a local fan favorite that is commonly know as Fred around the track grounds. This filly’s sire has a 31.7% winners rate and a 1.7% stakes winner and Graded stakes winner rate in this his first year standings at stud. This filly broker her maiden in her 3rd try and then made it a double by capturing a 2 year old open allowance in California in her next start. She then graduated to stakes races and after quitting badly at Rhode Island made ammends by finishing 2nd last time out in The Furious Boomer Bonanza Stakes in Maine where she posted her lifetime best 81 speed rating over the 5.5 furlong turf sprint. She has cut the early fractions in all of her starts to date but will need to make sure she has something left for the final few yards to reverse the trend of fading late in her races. The jockey for today’s race will be Ballard (6.9%). <\/P> 4)SONGANDARAT(KY)—8\/5—<\/STRONG>drdi sends this filly out of SONGANDAPRAYER with a record of 5-1-0-2 and lifetime earnings of $17,528. She is the stablemate of #1 CAPE RATS(ENG)\u00a0and will have the\u00a0picture of \u00a0everyone’s favorite furry rodent on the front of her jockey’s silks. After breaking her maiden in her 2nd start she has tried 3 straight dirt sprint stakes starts, picking up a minor cheque in each of those races. She posted her lifetime best 76 speed rating last time out in The Pro I Memorial Stakes her in Minnesota where she cut the early fractions but tired badly ending up last in the 5 horse field. She will be making her turf debut in today’s race. She is another who runs up front and even with the small 4 horse field could end up involved in a speed duel and if the 3 frontrunners don’t pay attention could set it up for the longshot of the race who has already shown an ability to close. The rider for today’s race will be Stinson (9.4%) who returns to rider her for the second straight race.<\/P> NOTE #1 CAPE RATS(ENG), #3 VALDINI(KY) AND #4 SONGANDARAT(KY) ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY 200 CREDIT PURSE SUPPLEMENT BONUS.<\/P> WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY THIS WEEK<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> The 8th leg of the Minnesota Sire Series #2 for GULCH sired horses is the 16th race on this Saturdays card. There is a 5000 credit prize for the series winner and Cothill currently holds down first place with his colt BIG GULP RYRY. The series switches to 9 furlongs on the turf for this weeks race.<\/P> The 3rd round of the 600 credit No Mercy Handicapping Contest takes place this weekend.<\/P> The top 3 positions in the Minnesota BP’s contest thru the end of August 07 are 1) THEOLDGUY—BLACKBART—1875 BP’S, 2)WENLOCK—HULLWAYNE—1454 BP’S, 3)TABOO—QUIETJOHN—1341 BP’S.<\/P> The top 3 positions in the Minnesota $$$ contest thru the end of August 07 are 1)RAFA—PALMISLAND—$2,501,173, 2)JOHN—KINGKIRBY—$1,607,485, 3)BRENTUK—BRENTUK—$1,145,333.<\/P> Wenlock won the high speed rating contest last week with KVORT who posted a 101 speed rating and that earned him 200 credits. <\/P> Dundey moved into 2nd place in the Mountains of Money contest with 2 weeks to go. He sits around $45.00 behind Tseals who has the current lead.<\/P> This weeks Chuckrock horse of the week goes to “This week’s winner caught my eye due to her sire. Freud is a Storm Cat son who stands in New York. In her 2007 simcrop, she has 9 winners, including one stakes winner. LENEXA(NY) from the jrodneyg stable, part of Jrodneyg Stables LLC, is now one of the 9. She won against a field of 8 in argentina on the good dirt with Stepnoski aboard. she posted a legit 74 speed and wired the field (a field which included my own Tabasco Eyes). This was her second race, but first on the dirt – a surface she should prefer. The two year old has a breeding of FREUD X MALIBU MOON X SILVER DEPUTY” When learning he had won this weeks award Fred replied “<\/FONT>Thanks Chuck, GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING<\/P> THEO 2 YEAR OLD FILLIES SPRINT ON THE TURF IN MINNY HEADLINER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"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-4664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664","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\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
1)CAPE RATS(ENG)—3\/1—<\/STRONG>darnath sends this filly out of CAPE TOWN with a record of 6-1-3-1 and lifetime earnings of $30,240. She is out of the mare VISIONS OF RATS who was 4\/22 at the track and this is the only foal on record. This unranked filly races for the local purple and gold silks of Darnath based here at Minnesota Downs Racetrack. Her sire has a 73.7% rate of winners with a 6.1% stakes winner rate. This year 21.4% of his 2 year old starters have found the winners circle. Whenever you see a furry rodent in the area you know that one of Darnath’s horses are very close bye. While this filly has 3 seconds and a third on the turf she did break her maiden on the dirt surface. She enters this race after posting back to back 73 speed ratings in her last 2 starts, both turf sprints. This will be her 2nd straight stakes starts and she cuts back down to a short sprint as she appeared to be losing ground in the last stretch last time out at 7 furlongs. So far in her career she has shown herself to be a pace presser and she should be close to the front in today’s race. The rider for today’s race will be Friar (18.4%) who is only 1 win behind in the jockey standings this season at Minnesota Downs.<\/P>
Not knowing if I should run her back on the grass after a decent effort her first time out;and maybe shorten her up a bit(5.5F).Which I normally would do in a second start for 2yr olds.I decided to try her on dirt instead.And it paid off.
Thanks again Chuck and to all my fellow residents.
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