The spotlight moves away from the juveniles for a week as sophomores get their moment in the sun. A fateful group of 13 will fill the starting gate in this weekend’s $80,000 Sir Testimony Memorial Stakes, at 7 furlongs over a turf course rated firm.Cahill Road, a full brother to Unbridled, is somewhat underrated in the sim, having gotten his share of nice runners along the way. One of them is rintintin’s<\/I> Miron Hollandia<\/B>. The lanky colt exits a tough as nails race against the top sprint turfers in the division, and was right there, finishing fourth in the Never Ready Sprint-G1 (102 SF). The extra furlong will only be to this closer’s liking – I’d be curious to see him give a flat mile another try. This stakes winner continues to improve as the season progresses, and at 8\/1, offers some real value. Crescent Lake<\/B> matched Miron’s 102 SF last time out, although his came in a 7 \u00bd furlong allowance. The handsome son of Cozzene campaigns for bigskyfarm<\/I>, who has been very patient with this talented guy, managing him to a 9-4-3-0 record. It’s not an easy spot for a stakes debut, but he has a two race win streak, and he seems to like this distance.
Westfly’s Officer<\/B> began his career as a precocious 2yo on dirt, where he enjoyed quick success. As his peers started to catch up with him, onfly<\/I> made an audible to try the diminutive colt on the lawn. The son of Officer proved equally adept over the green stuff, and he has compiled a 5-2-3-0 record on that surface, all against stakes competition. Ignore that fifth last time out, it was his first routing attempt against older, and should sharpen him for a nice rebound here. Has the tactical speed to get the job done, regardless of how the rest of the pace scenario shakes out.Swale<\/I> has a very nice filly in Night of the Ghost<\/B>. The well-named daughter of Night Shift is riding a two race win streak, and beat older males in an allowance last time out (99 SF). She’s never finished worse than third in nine starts on the turf, and has an excellent shot of continuing that streak this weekend. Another filly tackles the boys, as overbrooks’<\/I> Represent<\/B> is also set to compete. Like Night of the Ghost, Represent seeks the hattrick. She is fresh off a solid win in the Clem’s Mount Stakes against fillies last time out, and has won five of 14 on the grass. She’ll be on or near the lead early, but should get a decent ride by Ian Wimpy, and the cutback to 7 panels makes her a tough customer indeed.
If Swale and swale007 are run by the same person, then there is an entry in this race, and spelunker’s<\/I> Digital Overture<\/B> is by no means the weaker part of the entry. The compact son of Rahy has been well-managed, and gets the ever dangerous Herbert Ross in the irons. The eyecatching colt has won six of his last eight starts, including a gate to wire win in the Ongoing Catch at 6 \u00bd furlongs last time out (102 SF). If there’s any knock on this guy, it is that he may have trouble sustaining his speed the full distance against this level of competition. That said, two of his recent wins came at this distance, so it is more of a nitpick than a real concern, as his rider is more than capable of keeping him out of a speed duel (and if there is an opportunity to steal the race on the front end, it will happen with Ross aboard). Excellent value at 8\/1.
As a Pantera fan, I wholeheartedly approve of the name Cemetery Gates<\/B>, and peeps6<\/I> has a very nice colt indeed. The lightly raced son of High Chaparral has won three of nine starts, including a stakes victory as a maiden. His speed figures have leveled off recently, so it would be nice to see him take another step forward (a dirt experiment might be in order). His best races have come on or near the lead, so the start should tell the story about his chances pretty early on. Brian Ironside is probably a good fit for him – ideally, he ought to sit just behind the leader and make a move n the turn. May ultimately be better at six furlongs, but he’s done well enough at 6 \u00bd that I wouldn’t be quick to label him as having distance limitations just yet. Legitimate shot here.
Out on Bail<\/B> has raced only once on the turf, but that was a gaudy performance for the tflyer<\/I> charge. The son of E Dubai made an eyecatching move in the stretch to power away home first in a 6 \u00bd furlong unconditioned allowance, putting up a 102 SF. Another step forward here, and he could take another step on the road to really making some noise in this division. Was no slouch on the main track, with a pair of triple digit speed figures and five victories from 10 starts, but he’s a pretty exciting prospect if he can handle the class test. Sadly, though, even the normally blind oddsmaker has figured this guy out, so he offers a relatively paltry 5\/1. Another colt making his second start on turf is arsprize’s<\/I> Striking Desert<\/B>. While his debut wasn’t quite as impressive as Out On Bail, it certainly was a solid start, as the colt steadily closed from midpack to grab second against older horses, earning a 97 SF in the process. I’d actually like his chances more here if this were a mile or 1 1\/16 miles, as he may simply run out of ground here. The Strike the Gold colt is clearly talented, and a small improvement would put him in the thick of the hunt. Most likely will be closing late. The third colt making his second lifetime start on turf is lenny7’s<\/I> Polish Minor<\/B>, who for those of you who care about post position (I don’t), is mired on the outside in post 13. Had a nice turf debut facing his elders, finishing second with a 99 SF. The extra distance appears to suit this son of Mining, and if he can improve just a tad off that debut, he’s right up there with the favorites. Dixie Leon<\/B> has proven to be a pretty nice claim, but hasn’t been able to handle stakes company so far. Last time out, he was second for a $25k tag against his elders, and did put up a nice 95 SF, but on the whole, this looks like a tough assignment.
Only one colt in the field is making his turf debut, and that is my own Holland Park<\/B>, who draws the rail and Chip Sanders, who is fresh off a Grade 1 winning ride last weekend. A grade 3 winner sprinting on the main track, he hasn’t been the same since I tried to stretch him out to a mile. I’m hoping a change of scenery does the colt some good, but this is essentially a wildcard, and certainly isn’t the easiest spot for a turf debut.
Finally, there is one maiden in the race, tryarder’s<\/I> Ashlea House<\/B>. The Machiavellian colt is the least experienced in the field, with only one race under his belt. While he finished a decent third in his debut, earning a 79 SF, this is a really tough spot for him at this point in his career, as he would need to improve more than 20 points, speed-figure wise to have any chance here (which is possible, but unlikely), and he looks like a cutback to 6 would probably have done him more good than a stretchout to 7. Could surprise at 71\/1, but unlikely. Good luck to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delaware’s Competitive Feature Attracts 11 Colts, 2 Fillies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":438,"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-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","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\/438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}