Fillies and mares keep te focus, and we shift to classic distance this week in Virginia, as we host the fourth annual running of the Brigadoon(GB) Special. All fillie and mare four years and up are invited to run over eight and a half furlongs of turf, for a piece of the $50000 prize. Bring your umbrellas for this one, as we are expecting steady rain throughout the day, and the track will be rated as yielding for this event. Though winning speeds have historically been on the low side for this race, it does boast four graded level winners among the thirteen total entrants in the first three runnings. Last year\u2019s race was won by five year old mare Breakdance<\/B>, who came just off the early pace to lead the field home by nearly two lengths. This year\u2019s running of the stakes draws a field of five, and they look to be fairly evenly matched. Oddsmakers have installed an 8\/5 favorite, but the longshot in the field is a mere 6\/1, and the yielding surface could make for some surprises. With the odds here, it looks to be more of a spectator\u2019s race than one for the bettors, and handicappers are recommended to use that betting money for a nice cold drink, and sit back and enjoy the show.<\/P>
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PP 1) I Can\u2019t Stand It(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Galileo(IRE), Trained by sdmfclaims. I Can\u2019t Stand It(IRE) is a four year old filly, taking her twenty third career trip in this race. She has two previous career stakes wins, with her last coming last May. That was also her last win of any kind. Her last ten starts have seen her run to a record of 0-2-1-1-2 with a top speed of 102.4, which she ran twice over that period. Her last start was in a six furlong stakes at Epsom, where after getting a slow jump, faded throughout, finishing sixth in a field of eight. Twenty of twenty two starts have been on turf, and her money race has been the long sprint. In the miler\u2019s range, she has a win and two places in six career tries. She has one off track start, which she won on good turf, running what was then her career best speed. Galileo progeny have shown a tendency for a slight speed drop on the off track. She is a fast starter, and that should put her in the driver;s seast early in this one. She needs a piece of that early lead for success, but recently she has had trouble hanging on, even with a decent cushion heading into the stretch, and the extra distance here won\u2019t help her in that regard. The yielding course will generally help a front runner, but this race doesn\u2019t have any deep closers, and the pack will be sitting on her heels from the start. Look for her to have a minimal cushion at the half post, which will likely disappear quickly as they move into the second half.<\/P>
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PP 2) Bullet Dodger<\/B> Sired by Pulpit, Trained by swale007. Bullet Dodger is a relatively light raced five year old mare, making her twentieth start in this race. She has one prior stakes win, which came right here in Virginia last March. Her last ten runs have resulted in a record of 2-3-1-0-3, with a top speed of 103.6 coming late last season on the same yielding surface she faces here. Her last start was an A1n at seven and a half furlongs in Michigan, where she soundly defeated a field of six by three and a quarter lengths. She has sixteen turf starts, and is comfortable in any type of long sprint or short route. In the mile range, she has a pair of wins and four top three finishes in six tries. She has one prior off track start, and is the only horse in this race to have previously run on yielding turf. That race resulted in a career best speed figure for her by two full points. Pulpit offspring have shown very good success on off tracks, with both speed and winning percentage increasing under those conditions. She generally likes to run from the head of the midpack, but her close has been spotty recently. Her last start though was a textbook example, running the perfect race for her style. With the yielding track here, she is worth second look by handicappers at her 9\/2 odds.<\/P>
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PP 3) Origin Of Storms(KY)<\/B> Sired by A. P. Indy, Trained by super15. Origin Of Storms(KY) is a regally bred four year old filly, taking the gate for start number eighteen in this race. She is still looking for her first career stakes victory. Over the course of her last ten starts, she has put together a record of 4-0-1-2-1, with a top speed number of 101.0 earned on dirt last November. Her last race was a ten furlong stakes on sloppy dirt in Illinois, where she was hurt by a fast early pace, finishing sixth in a field of eight. She has spent most of her career on turf, but her speeds, on the average, have been better in her dirt starts. She seems to prefer a slightly longer race, with the ten furlong range looking to be about her best. In the mile range, she has two places and a show in three turf starts. She has two career off track starts, both of those coming in longer races on sloppy dirt, and her speeds have tended to suffer, though she did win in one of those starts. A.P. Indy tends to excel as an off track sire, gaining a slight edge in speed, and a modest increase in win percentage. She tends to favor a break that puts her at the head of the midpack, but she hasn\u2019t shown much inclination to close recently, and her last two victories have both been gate to wire, where she was able to control a somewhat slower early pace, with plenty left for the second half. The combination of the shorter race and the yielding turf both work against her here, and this could turn out to be a long day for her.<\/P>
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PP 4) Lightseeker(IRE)<\/B> Sired by North Light(IRE), Trained by lenny3. Lightseeker(IRE) enters her nineteenth career start here as the oddmakers\u2019 pick to bring this one home. The four year old filly has six career stakes wins, with two of those coming against graded competition. She boasts a record of 3-3-1-1-1 in her last ten starts, putting up seven 100+ speed figures, capped by a 108.9 earned in her final start last season. Her last start was a six and a half furlong stakes in Eastern Kentucky, where an inspired stretch run saw her fall short by a scant quarter length in a packed field. She has never stepped a hoof off the turf, and she has made her mark as a sprinter over the course of her career, at the top of her game in the six to six and a half furlong range. She is the number 5 ranked sprinter in the world among older females. In this distance range, she has two wins and a show in four tries, all of those successes coming late in her two year old season and early in her three year old season. She has a pair of off track starts, both on good turf, and she won both of them, without her speed seeming to suffer much. North Light\u2019s offspring tend to lose a step on the off track in both average speed and winning percentage. She is another one here that likes to run from the head of the midpack, and her close has been very consistent. She has shown she can run on the off track, but the combination of the longer race and the yielding turf are going to make it tough for her to close in this one. Look for her to be in the mix down the stretch, but with the compostion of the field in this one, I don\u2019t see her bringing it home.<\/P>
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PP 5) Faux Pas(KY)<\/B> Sired by Forestry, Trained by mharris. Faux Pas(KY) is a four year old filly, who looks to make her eighteenth career run in this race. She has been on a tear recently, but she is still seeking that first elusive stakes victory to put on her resume. Her last ten starts have seen her post an impressive 5-1-1-3-0 record, with ten straight 100+ speed figures, topping out at 106.8 in an open allowance last October. Her last race was a seven and a half furlong stakes in Texas, where she finished a close in fourth in a field of eight. Sixteen career starts have been on turf, and this is her overwhelming preference in distance. In nine starts in the mile range, has has five wins and seven top three finishes. This will be her first off track start, and that is a big question mark for her here. Forestry\u2019s progeny tend to take a good size speed drop on the off track, though their winning percentage is still decent. She likes to run just off the early pace, and her close has been fairly good, but not totally consistent in her recent starts. Her specialization at this distance and her consistently excellent speeds recently should normally make her the one to beat here. The yielding track is the huge question mark though, and it could take away that speed advantage. It\u2019s hard to call this one, but the first half of the race should answer the question of her reaction to the spongy surface here and go a long way towards determining her finish.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yielding track could mean some surprises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"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":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791","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\/472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}