The Epson Turf Special Stakes, a grade III event, has the oddmakers stumped. The race is open to all horses, over the age of 4, going a distance of 7 1\/2 furlongs. In a field that only features 6 horses, the oddmakers were found scratching their heads as they reviewed the field. They obviously were in disagreement but settled on placing the odds so close, there is very little variation between each horse. The lowest odds are listed as 3-1 and the highest at 5-1. In fact, you can say that there is no definitive favorite, nor is there a definitive longshot. <\/p>\n
So, my task is to try to take a stab at figuring out who I feel has the best chance to take this race, so here we go:<\/p>\n
1. Victory Buda 3-1
Victory loves the turf, coming in the money in 10 of 13 starts. The field has no speedsters and it wouldn’t surprise me if Victory takes to the front in this race. She has run an occasional race near the front in the past. Victory has put in several recent races recording speeds in the 110 range which may be needed to take this race. Victory hasn’t won a race this year in 7 starts. He made an impressive late move in his last, making up nearly 4 lengths in late stretch before he ran out of real estate. That was at 7f and the extra distance may be just enough.<\/p>\n
2. Legendary Lemon 7-2
Legendary likes to run off the pace and makes a steady accession on the leaders. His last was at this track where he put in a zimmering 114 speed rating going 7f which he won by over a length pulling away from the field. Harzheim will take the mount here (25% win) and has handled Legendary before. Legendary has won 3 times on this track, twice with Harzheim aboard. Tough not to consider this one who has won 11 of 21 turf starts.<\/p>\n
3. Gyrocaster 5-1
Gyrocaster comes in with two consecutive wins, winning 3 of his last 4. The last two races were both run in speeds of 112. Gyro tends to break relatively slowly and closes late and hard. This will be her first start in graded company. Her last two race victories were in stakes and allowance levels. Career-wise, he has only one win in five stake starts. If he can keep his speed going the way it has been, he will be one to watch out for.<\/p>\n
4. Seekin Destroy 3-1
Seekin has a long history of experience in stakes racing. Although he has won just shy of $3 million and 11 of 23 turf starts, Seekin has been in a drought. From last December he has been winless, but that was until his last race in early August. He won a lower stakes race going 7.5f easily in a speed of 105. He does show some signs of early speed and may make a move to set the pace. His recent form shows speeds in the low to mid 100 range which I think needs to be a few notches higher to win this race. He has some work to do.<\/p>\n
5. Rock Ballad 9-2
Rock Ballad has fallen on to some hard times. He hasn’t hit the board since January. His speeds have fluctuated between the upper 90-s and mid 100-s. He is capable of scoring a 110+ speed, but something is up with this horse. Rock has been running graded stakes for some time now and has had a long career of great racing. He may be in need of a vacation or some class relief or possibly both.<\/p>\n
6. Ravenloft 7-2
Ravenloft has made his return to the stakes events. From the start of his career, up until about last August, Ravenloft wasn’t showing much. He was bringing in some checks and BP’s for his owner with mostly 4th and 5th place finishes. Something changed in September and the horse woke up. Since then, he’s posted a record of 10-4-5-1 (the only loss was on the dirt). Most of these were in allowance events, but he has been recently nudged up to the stakes level and has won 2 of his last 4. His speeds have been in the 110 vacininty in those 4 races and he seems to be in the best form of his career.<\/p>\n
Legendary Lemon gets my top selection. He comes off a strong finish and has a proven record of success on this track and with his draw of jockey. Ravenloft will get my second selection. He has been alternating first and second place finishes in his last seven races. If this trend holds true, he’s due for the second spot in this start. My third guess..I mean choice, is for Victory Buda. Victory gets the fail and is reliable on the turf. He is consistant in posting 100+ speeds and should put in a decent race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oddsmakers Can’t Figure out Favorite in Epson Turf<\/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-6455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455","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=6455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}