It’s official. Barbara Bush has contacted the North California Raceway and informed the officials that she will be attending the 9th annual race named after her, the Barbara Bush Stakes. Although she has been invited several times in the past, she has declined to attend the race. Racing officials were caught off guard when former first lady Mrs. Bush contacted the track and confirmed her intention to attend. <\/p>\n
Track Officials have been scrambling around all week to line up security and will be rolling out the red carpet for this honorary occassion. Mrs. Bush is expected to present the winner a trophy after the race. Caution to all track attendees, arrive early, as there will be delays entering the track facilities due to the extra security precautions.<\/p>\n
Now, the race…there is a field of 7 fillies and mares entered into the Grade II stakes, seeking to capture their share of the $250,000 purse. The race is scheduled to run on a fast firm turf, going 10 furlongs. This is how the field shapes up:<\/p>\n
1. Beatboxer 5-1
Beatboxer enters her first graded stakes race for trainer Bombfly. She is coming off a strong stakes victory, run at 10f, winning by a length in a speed of 107 (a career best). Four of her last five outings have been rated over the 100 level and she has consistantly hit the board in 15 of her 19 starts.<\/p>\n
2. Blue Fox 5-1
Trainer Plunk5 has recently moved Blue Fox to the turf with favorable results. She has won twice and placed once in her only three turf starts. She comes in with a two win race streak, winning her last at 10f and a career best speed of 107. She is making her debut here in her first stakes race and if she can pump out another comperable speed, she will be a contender.<\/p>\n
3. Neuschwanstein 8-1
Neuschwanstein has won 10 races in 18 starts, quite an impressive feat. She is coming in with a two win streak for trainer Waremblem8, winning the last by a head at 8f, and a speed of 104, a career record. The prior win was at 10f, but in a speed of 94. She charges hard from the back of the pack and if she can fire up before reaching the 3\/4 pole, she can take it. Caution is the word for this filly, as she has a habit of not responding to the whip.<\/p>\n
4. Norse Princess 2-1
Norse Princess is the oldest one in this field at the age of 6. She comes in with a very impressive record of 35-16-7-6 for trainer Ninerdust. She has only missed the board twice since January, 2006. Both of those occurred within her last three races. Her last race, she got away from the gate poorly, giving the field a huge jump on her. Three back, she ran a Grade I in 108, finishing fifth, a very good effort. She has also surpassed the 100 speed rating in 11 of her last 12, and must be respected.<\/p>\n
5. Semi Charmed Pye 7-1
Trainer Lordpye4 brings this mare back looking to repeat her last effort at 10f, a 3-length win, coming from the back of the pack. I have some concerns with her, as her win was rated at a speed of 94. She has won 2 of her last 5 outings (both at 10f), however, the three she didn’t win resulted in poor finishes. She has broken the 100-speed barrier a few times, and will need to do so to take this one.<\/p>\n
6. Wicked Wench 5-1
Wicked Wench closed a ton for trainer Tesio in her last, trailing the field by 7 at the half, to win by over 4 lengths. This was against $46k allowance company and run in a rating of 99. Her previous two races, against stakes, resulted in disappointing 6th place finishes. She sustained an injury back in October, where she was pulled up during the race. This injury may still be taking a bit of a toll on her. <\/p>\n
7. Red Royal 3-1
Red Royal has been in a pattern since September for Romeshome. Starting in September, she put in a career best speed of 112, finishing second at 9f. This is where her pattern starts….every other race since this, she has finished second. The ulternating races have resulted in finishes off the board. She has predominately been over the 100-level since establishing her career mark, and, if the pattern holds true, this is where she should finish second again.<\/p>\n
Norse Princess is facing a gentler field than the one she saw in her last effort. She is consistantly hitting good speed ratings and is the top pick. Since Red Royal is in a pattern, and if it holds true, she should get second and is my pick for that spot. Beatboxer could be the pace setter in a field lacking speed. She has raced well and I’ll make her my third choice.<\/p>\n
Good luck at the betting window and give my regards to Mrs. Bush if you happen to pass by her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barbara Bush Agrees to Attend Barbara Bush 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-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798","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=5798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}