The Explosive Bet Stakes, a Graded I race, is being held in Louisiana this weekend. The event is being run on a turf track, at a mile and 1\/8, for a purse of $500,000.<\/p>\n
Leading Jockey, F. Oxon, is seeking his 3rd career win in this stakes event. He won both the 2005 and 2006 running of this stakes event before finally being beaten last year aboard hard closing New Storm by 2 lengths. Oxon is aboard the 3-1 favorite Rock Ballad and has a good opportunity to capture his 3rd victory in this stakes event.<\/p>\n
1. Rock Ballad 3-1
This young 4-year old colt is already in the millionaire club. He has won 9 races in 22 starts for trainer Opionra. He hasn’t run a speed under 100 since June nor has he finished worse than 4th. His last 3 were sharp 110+ speed ratings, all in graded races. He loves to run up front and is hard to catch. Beware!<\/p>\n
2. Otto Oh No 6-1
Otto has amassed over $2 million under the training efforts of Freeky. He has won his last 2, charging hard and pulling away from the field. These two races were at the allowance level. Otto struggled in the prior 3 races and was in need of a break. I’m not sure if the tune-up against graded will boost him here.<\/p>\n
3. Take Some Stick 12-1
Take Some Stick has an impressive 14-4-6-2 record on the turf. He got banged up badly in late December in an 8f race, sidelining him. He came back very sharp in February, finishing second at 8.5f with a speed rating of 112. Trainer Webfly seems to have got this horse back on the right foot and shouldn’t be discarded.<\/p>\n
4. Draco 5-1
Draco has hit the board in only 4 of 12 stake races and is a question mark to me. Trainer SPQR has Draco trained to make a late move. When Draco takes off, he’s dangerous. He does have a habit of not running when asked to.<\/p>\n
5. Ollie’s Quest 5-1
What do you say about a horse who has been on the board 21 of 28 turf races, hasn’t finished worse than 3rd in his last 10, and has posted speeds of 107 or higher in his last 4? According to trainer Beamnreasn, you got something hot. I agree and here’s another horse that will be flying at the end and is able to catch the leaders.<\/p>\n
6. Gone Wylde 6-1
Gone Wylde put up a career speed mark of 113 in last for trainer Sarava02. His best finishes are when he runs in the top 3 early in the race. If he can’t get there, he will be in trouble. There’s not much early speed in the race so he should put in a good race.<\/p>\n
7. Unintentionally 12-1
Trainer PJLRacing ran Unintentionally in an easy allowance prep race in last after a 3-month layoff. Unintentionally has been on the board 14 of 18 turf races, but lost his last 2 stakes with poor finishes (11th and 5th) causing the layoff. The prep was run in a rated speed of 93 and I don’t feel he’s up to form yet to take on this bunch.<\/p>\n
8. Deputy George 53-1
Deputy George is at a disadvantage here for trainer Tsunami8. He has 6 wins in 56 starts and makes only his 2nd career stakes start. Additionally, this is only his second turf start and he rarely breaks the 100-speed mark. Maybe the return to the turf will shock us all.<\/p>\n
9. Azkaban 9-1
Azkaban has put in four races with speeds over 100 for trainer Lenny4 in his most recent starts. In 8 stakes, he has been on the board only twice, however, he had a nice 2nd last July in the Shakedown III. He’s a lot like Draco. If he gets his late charge going, he will be tough. If he doesn’t get it going, he will not be there.<\/p>\n
10. Sky Hill Dancer 24-1
Age may be catching up to trainer Youngnhung’s Sky Hill Dancer. This 7-year old is very competitive with the allowance class, however, the stakes level has been a challenge. He hasn’t scored in a stakes since December, 2006. He looks outclassed, however, is dropping from his normal 10f+ races, which may prove helpful.<\/p>\n
11. Forambo Wildcat 10-1
Trainer Zwhisper recently returned Forambo Wildcat to the turf where he has been achieving results. On 3-8, he closed well to finish 2nd in a 10f race, setting a personal speed of 110. If he can duplicate the speed here, it will open some eyes.<\/p>\n
I like the early speed in this race and I think jockey Otto can pick up his 3rd win in this stakes. My choice is for Rock Ballad who has run speeds of 110 or over in 4 of last 5. Gone Wylde should not have a problem running up front and is coming off a nice wire job and is my second pick. The one I think has the best shot to catch these speedsters is Ollie’s Quest, my third choice. He’s very consistant and usually doesn’t wait too long to make his drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jockey Oxon seeks 3rd win in Explosive Bet Stakes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"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-5638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638","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\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}