After taking a few weeks off for vacation the Minnesota beat reappears at the BTB this week. Winter racing is always a challenge up at Minnesota with the horse population having to get used to running with snowshoes and bearing the sub zero temperatures. But it is a hardy bunch of equine stars that reside at the Minny Downs and the continue to put on a great show every week. The 10th race feature this Saturday is The Tootsie Rain Stakes for 3 year old fillies. They will be sprinting 6 1\/2 furlongs on the frozen tundra (also known as the Supertoy 7 Marshall Turf Course). A field of 5 are willing to brave the elements and will chase the top share of the $50,000 purse.<\/P>
Let’s take a look at today’s field:<\/P>
1)BASSETT GIRL(KY)—EVEN—<\/STRONG>jockster sends this filly out of WOODMAN with a record of 12-5-1-1 and lifetime earnings of $166,475. She is out of the mare TURCAT who was 1\/23 at the track and this is the only foal on record to date. This 136th divisional ranked filly races for the unafilliated Jpritchett stables. This filly had a busy 2 year old season last year running 11 times picking up 5 wins including 3 overnite stake wins. Two of those stake victories were on the dirt and the third was on the grass. She has not raced on the turf since last August and has run on the dirt in her last 5 starts. Overall her speed ratings show to be higher on the dirt with a 91 top rating on that surface compared to a 77 on the turf. But that can be misleading as her turf experience came fairly early in her freshman campaign. Still she may be a bit of a risk at her morning line odds should she not take to her return to the turf. She is a speed horse who loves the lead and will be charging out quickly from the rail when the gate opens. The jockey for today’s race will be Bowen (14.7%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—81 (TURF)<\/STRONG><\/P> 2)HEAVEN HOP(ARG)—14\/1—<\/STRONG>mrv sends this filly out of COLONIAL AFFAIR with a record of 2-1-1-0 and lifetime earnings of $15,485. This divisional unranked filly races for an independent and unafilliated stable. An interesting spot to have this filly debut in a stakes race as so far she has only run in a pair of MSW dirt races–both this year btw as she did not race as a 2 year old. In her debut she closed a bit in an 8 furlong race and last time she wired a small 4 horse field in a dirt sprint. Her top speed rating of 74 was posted in her debut. Her sire has a slight better rating with Turf to Dirt ratio being 47% to 53% and her Dam Sire also edges out the Turf success over dirt. Just how much improvement on the turf this girl will show is anybody’s guess but I probably would have recomended trying a restricted allowance over a stake for her debut grass run. The rider for today’s race will be Cothill (14.9%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—NA (TURF)<\/STRONG><\/P> 3)RATAGORN(KY)—2\/1—<\/STRONG>darny sends this filly out of ARAGORN(IRE) with a record of 8-2-1-2 and lifetime earnings of $55,789. This 1146th divisional ranked filly is the local entry in this race today as she races for local Minnesota horseman Darnath with his purple and gold silks and Minnesota’s favorite rodent pictured on the front. She ran 7 times as a 2 year old and picked up a pair of allowance wins last year. She raced in an 8 furlong turf stake right here in Minnesota 3 weeks ago where she pressed the pace before tiring slightly in the late stretch settling for 3rd and that has prompted Darnath to cut her back to 6 1\/2 furlongs for this start today. Her 88 top speed rating posted last time out fits here and with the morning line chalk horse seemingly looking to favor dirt she may just be the one to watch in this race today. The rider for today’s race will be Ritorto (9.3%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—86.<\/STRONG><\/P> 4)SULTRY(KY)—7\/1—<\/STRONG>squirrel3 sends this filly out of STORM CAT with a record of 8-1-2-3 and lifetime earnings of $55,651. She is out of the he-mare RA HEAT who was 7\/41 at the track. This 1150th divisional ranked filly races for the NWRC division of the Squirrel stables. Well, some expensive breeding is evident in this fillies pedigree and so far she has not been quite what was expected. She did debut on the turf for her first 3 starts lifetime but did not break her maiden until her 6th start and that one came on the dirt. Her lifetime best speed rating of 78 came in that race and she did not look overly sharp in her 2 races since then while showing some brief early speed but falling back in the second half of her races. This will be her first start in the 2008 season and perhaps her crafty trainer has schooled this filly well for her sophomore campaign as she has switched her back to the turf for this weekends race. The rider for today’s race will be Douglass (0%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—70(TURF)<\/STRONG><\/P> 5)LONDON EYE(KY)—5\/2—<\/STRONG>blueriband sends this filly out of SEEKING THE GOLD with a record of 7-4-3-0 and lifetime earnings of $143,190. She is out of the mare FIRST TRY who was 2\/26 at the track and who has 5 foals on record, all winners with 3 stakes winners. This 49th divisional ranked filly races for a trio of unafilliated stables. This filly could end up the post time favorite (ok maybe in the real world only) as she has never finished worse than 2nd in her career. She posted a nice 87 speed rating in a 7 furlong turf stake win to close out her 2 year old season last time out and will be making her 2008 debut here today. She is quick out of the gate and will either be on the lead or more likely pressing the lead from the outside post. She may be one to watch in the future if she shows any improvement here today as she does have some very nice breeding lines. The rider for today’s race will be Friar (25.6%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—85.<\/STRONG><\/P> NOTE #3 RATAGORN(KY) IS ELIGIBLE FOR THE MINNESOTA DOWNS 200 CREDIT PURSE SUPPLEMENT IF SHE SHOULD WIN THIS RACE TODAY.<\/P> WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCE THIS WEEK<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> An announcement is expected soon but it has been confirmed that Minnesota Downs will be joining with Del\/Penn National and the GR Simsters in the Smackdown IV competition that will be run on July 5th.<\/P> The Minnesota Cup 08 contest starts this weekend with Doza looking to repeat as champion in our 3rd annual competition.<\/P> Last week Randy came out ahead in the No Mercy handicapping contest and took home the 600 credit prize by beating out TeamCk. The next contest will start next week (3497).<\/P> Dundey took last weeks High Speed Rating contest with his horse ALY TORNADO who posted a big 110 speed rating and edged out Kingkirby’s SOUTH DAKOTA KID for the 200 credit top prize.<\/P> With yours truly taking a vacation from the Minny beat for the last few weeks we have a few Chuckrock HOTW entries to post here today.<\/P> WEEK 3469 WEEK 3476 WEEK 3483 3 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-5407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407","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=5407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Minnesota Homebred contest is one of the better contests that we have in this residency (ok, i am biased since i usually do well in it) This year Theo has gotten out to a quick start with Minny Niner (Emigrant Peak X Storm cat X Forty Niner) with a win in a MSW at Minnesota this week. Minny Niner ran an 80 besting the field of 14 by a half of length. congrats to Theo and Minny Niner…but don’t get too comfortable as this is a LONG contest.<\/P>
This week’s award goes to a 9 year old mare from aphill’s apush42 stable.
PRINCESS CAUSE won a 10 furlong allowance on the grass in Puerto Rico. The win was Princess Cause’s 13th lifetime, and third since being claimed by aphill. This race was her first in the PR, and I hope she has a return engagement. (..and while your at it aphill how about a little love for my jockey c. donofrio?\u00a0 )<\/P>
This week’s award goes to a three year old colt by Speightstown by the name of Speedtown. Speedtown is trained by citation and is currently the 5th ranked 3 year old sprinter. Regally bred (Speightstwon x Danzig x Seeking the Gold) and the son of Queen of Gold a D rated mare that citation has exclusive ownership of. Speedtown is her first foal, and he is a monster. This week he won the Every Award Special in Connecticut. he went 6 furlongs in 1:10 posting a 97 speed. Congrats to Speedtown and citation!<\/P>
GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING<\/P>
THEO<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"