Racing coverage returns to Virginia this week with a look at two year old sprinters, in the fourth annual running of the Ray Jackson Special. This race for two year old runs over six furlongs of turf, which has been rated firm for this Saturday\u2019s event. It carries a purse of $50000, which everyone will get a piece of in this short field. Historically, the race has spawned three graded winners and is usually a wide open affair. Won by closers and fronter runners, favorites and surprisers, you never can tell what\u2019s going to happen. Lasst year\u2019s race was won by Elusive Danzer(KY)<\/B>, making up nearly two lengths down the stretch to post a one length victory. This year\u2019s race has drawn an unusually short field, with only three horses taking up the challenge, and a fourth generously being supplied by the Virginia horse pool to round out the field. Though there is some stakes experience here, there are no prior stakes winners, so the race will produce a first time winner at this level. Oddsmakers are calling this one a two horse race, with the top two choices going off at even and 6\/5. Rounding out the field are a pair of longer bets at 4\/1 and 7\/1 odds. Bettors should save their money on this one, with the short fields and short odds not looking to produce much of a payout even if there is a total surprise at the finish line.<\/P>
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PP 1) Toronto Gem(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Noverre(IRE), Trained by Virginia Horse Pool. Toronto Gem(IRE) makes his second career start in this race. After a dismal outing in his maiden debut, his trainer consigned him to the horse pool to move on to bigger and better things. That race was a four and a half furlong outing on dirt in Wyoming, where after running a competitive first half, he simply ran out of steam, trailing a field of seven to the wire by just over seven lengths. The switch to turf and the longer distance makes him somewhat of a wild card in this one. The progeny of his sire, Noverre(IRE) has generally had most their success as turf milers. The nine stakes wins produced last year out of daughters of End Sweep all came on turf, as well. His trainer may have thrown this one back too early. If he runs true to his last race, he should provide much of the early speed in this one, though he will have one of the stronger runners in the field on his tail to keep him honest. The distance may still be a bit short here to see him bring this one home, but there is a possiblity that he could make a race of it. Has a horse pool horse ever brought home a stakes win, you ask? Historically, there have been 189 winners fielded by the resident horse pools, mostly in the early days of racing. The most recent though, came in May of last year, so it\u2019s not totally out of the question to see a horse pool horse win. This one will need to dramatically improve with the switch to turf to have a shot at that here, though.<\/P>
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PP 2) Henzig(KY)<\/B> Sired by Henny Hughes, Trained by ploink. Henzig(KY) enters his fifth career race here, and he comes into this one as the race favorite. This will be his third try at stakes level, still looking to bring home his first win at this level. He has gone 1-1-0-0-1 in his first five, putting up a top speed number of 74.8 in his maiden win earlier this season. His last race was a stakes race at this distance in New Jersey, where he was never able to mount any real close, finishing fifth in a field of six, in what was a fairly tight race. His sire, Henny Hughes, generally produces dirt sprinters, but after opening his career on dirt, this colt has shown a marked preference for the softer turf surface. His best outings have both come in races a half furlong shorter than this one, and he has all the marks of a pure sprinter. He tends to break in the midpack, but his only win came early in the season where that break put him right in the mix early, and when he made his break early in the second half, no one could chase him down in the shorter distance race. When he has actually been asked to close a gap in the second half, his results have been mixed. While he has never been too far out, he\u2019s also never brought one back from over a length behind at the half. He\u2019ll have speed ahead and behind him here, and he will need to show more fire in the second half to justify his favorite billing here.<\/P>
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PP 3) Seven Oh Four(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Redback(GB), Trained by betterdays. Seven Oh Four(IRE) takes the gate in start number six in this race. This will be his fourth try at stakes, including one at graded level, and he looks to improve on his previous best third place finish as he enters this race. His five career starts have seen him run to a 1-1-1-0-0 record, with a best speed of 68.9 coming in a Grade 3 outing two starts back. His last start was a five and a have furlong stakes in Indiana, where he made his closing break far too late, finishing a closing third in a field of four. All five career starts have been on turf, and he seems comfortable with the surface. His sire Redback(GB) has produced a mixed bag, with two crops strongly preferring dirt, and another pair strongly turf oriented. They have uniformly been sprinters, though. The presence of the Northern Dancer line on his dam side should help to reinforce the turf preference, but I\u2019d like to see this one give dirt a try at some point along the line. His only win came at this distance in his debut, a low level claimer where he found himself move on to a new trainer. He\u2019s a pure closer, and with the exception of a stumble in a very competitive graded field, his close has been quite consistent. What it hasn\u2019t been, however, is strong enough to bring him all the way home, especially in stakes quality fields. The form has been good, but the issue so far has been speed, and this race looks to be no exception. He\u2019s going to need to find another gear to be able to close down on some strong stalkers out in front of him here.<\/P>
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PP 4) Triple Inversion(ENG)<\/B> Sired by Three Valleys, Trained by guzzler01. Triple Inversion(ENG) steps to the track for his sixth career outing in this race. He steps up to stakes level for the first time here, looking to make his mark in this higher level of competition. His trainer has watched him race to a 2-1-0-0-0 record in his first five, capping his speed figures with a 78.3 in his maiden win two starts back. His last run was an A1x at five and a half furlongs in New Hamshire, where he handily defeated a field of eight by a length and a quarter, behind a strong stretch run. After a pair of disappointing starts on dirt, he seems to have found new life on turf, with two wins and a place coming in his three races since the switch. This will be his longest start by a half furlong, but his breeding says that shouldn\u2019t prove to be a problem. His sire, Three Valleys, is a freshman out of the Diesis line and backed by Galileo on his dam side, the lines should give him plenty of stamina to go out to about any distance he fancies. He generally prefers to start at a stalker\u2019s pace, but it is worth mentioning that both career victories came in wire to wire fashion. He should be providing pressure earlier, and should have at least a piece of the early lead, especially as they approach the half way mark. He\u2019s sporting the best and the most consistent speeds in this field. In his three turf runs, he\u2019s posted speeds in the upper seventies in two of them, the only exception being on an off track start in New Jersey, two race back. With the speed he has been showing, if he gets out front, it\u2019s going to be tough for anyone to run him down, and for my money, he is the horse to beat in this one.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First time stakes winner will walk out of this one<\/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-6450","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\/6450","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=6450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}