Virginia turns over the track to the speedsters this week, for the inaugural running of the Your Dancer Memorial. The stakes race is open to all horses, four years and older, and runs over a short five and a half furlong distance. The snow has been cleared and the track has been conditioned, and it will be rated as from for this $30000 event. The race has drawn six entries, and looks to be loaded with early speed. Oddsmakers are calling it close to the vest, assigning a 2\/1 favorite, but making the longshot of the race a fairly short 8\/1 shot. There is a possibility of some passable exotic payouts, but handicappers aren\u2019t likely to break the bank in this one.<\/P>
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PP 1) Stet(KY)<\/B> Sired by Point Given, Trained by starman. Stet(KY) is a hard run five year old horse, making his forty first start in this race. This will be only his second stakes start, and he is still looking for his firs twin at this level. Over the course of his last ten starts, he\u2019s run to a 1-3-0-2-3 record, with a top speed figure of 103.5 coming in his first start of this season. His last race was an A2n in Iowa at seven furlongs, where he ran a relatively close in fourth in a field of eleven. He started his career early on dirt, running fairly well, but a switch to turf about two years ago appeared to be a good shake up for him, and he has stayed on the grass since then. He\u2019s had the bulk of his success in the six to seven furlong range, and his only turf start at this distance resulted in a foruth place finish. He generally likes to stalk from just off the pace, but he hasn\u2019t shown a big closing kick. He\u2019s up against some good speed out in front of him in this one, and that could tire him early. Look for him to be in the mix early, but start to fade as they hit the half.<\/P>
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PP 2) Bert\u2019s Prospector(ENG)<\/B> <\/B>Sired by Bertolini, Trained by millerfar5. Bert\u2019s Prospector(ENG) is a five year old horse, and he comes into his twenty ninth start here as the race favorite. He has one stakes win to his credit, coming in June of the 2007 season. He\u2019s put up a 4-2-0-1-2 record in his last ten, cracking the 100+ mark in nine of those. His best speed of 111.8 came on an off track in his last race, an A2s in Florida, where he took control down the stretch to best a field of fourteen by a length and a half. His career has been about an even split between dirt and turf, and he has run equally well on either surface. He is a pure sprinter, dominating in the five to six furlong range. At five to five and a half he has two wins and a place in three tries. He likes to be in the mix early, but has shown the ability to close short gaps in the second half at need. He\u2019s going to have a fight up front in this one, with the fastest breakers in this field also fielding the highest average speeds. He has shown the most consistent speed in this field, however, and that puts him in the driver\u2019s seat in this one.<\/P>
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PP 3) Rising Tide(AUS)<\/B> Sired by Redoute\u2019s Choice(AUS), Trained by whack. Rising Tide(AUS) is a five year old horse, taking the gate for start number twenty five in this race. This will be his second career stakes start, and he looks to turn around a dismal outing on a yielding track in his first stakes run. His last ten starts have netted him a 4-0-2-0-2 record, with five 100+ outings, capped by a 113.2 speed early last season. He comes into this one behind two straight wins at allowance level, his last an A2n in Jamaica, where he eked out a thriller at seven furlongs, with a three quarter length victory over a field of eight. Outside of a single dirt race early in his career, he has been a turfer and it has paid of fairly well for him. Six to seven furlongs has been his payday race, and two starts in this distance range have earned him only a single show. He\u2019s a deep closer, and his close has been quite good on a firm surface. He had almost a six month layoff before making his first start this season, and getting back on firm turf in his last two, he\u2019s run two of the best races of his career. The field here gives him an excellent setup, with what looks to be a grueling early speed duel. The only thing that prevents me fom giving him the nod here is the short distance of the race. He should be threatening down the stretch in any case.<\/P>
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PP 4) Perils Of Love(KY)<\/B> Sired by Afleet Alex, Trained by allyfarms. Perils Of Love(KY) is another weel run five year old, stepping the track for career start number thirty nine in this race. This will be his first stakes start since last April, and he is still seeking that elusive first stakes win. His last ten starts have seen him go 3-2-4-0-1, in a combination of allowances and stater allowances, with all three wins coming under his new trainer, who picked him up last year for a hefty 150K tag. He cracked the 100+ mark five times in that stretch, with his best being 109.4 in an allowance last August. He comes off a 150K starter allwaonce at six furlongs in Michigan, where he took a field of eight gate to wire to win by a length and a quarter. Outside of a handful of dirt starts as a two year old, he has been strictly a turf horse, piling up fifteen wins and nearly a quarter million in earnings. He\u2019s been a solid performer in everything from short sprints out to nine furlongs, and in sprints under six furlongs on turf, he has six wins and eight top three finishes in nine tries. He\u2019s a front runner, and he\u2019s proven that he can survive in an early duel, even in the shorter races where he can\u2019t build much of a cushion. His speeds have been up and down, but he has been consistently fast in races under six, with more than enough speed to compete here. Could be a decent dark horse pick in this one at 7\/2 odds.<\/P>
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PP 5) Call Me Surely<\/B> Sired by Machiavellian, Trained by cabin. Cal Me Surely is the grizzled veteran of this field, a seven year old horse, making his fifty third career appearance here. He has three career stakes victories, with the most recent coming in April of last year. His last ten starts have seen him run to a 1-1-1-3-2 with a top speed of 107.7 coming last summer. His last race was a seven and a half furlong stakes in Upper New York, where he settled for a close in fourth place, only two and a quarter out at the wire in a field of five. He did a good bit of dirt running early in his career, but his best speeds and a good deal of his success has been on turf, and that is where he has spent most of his time. The seven furlong range has arguably been his best range, and he has a second place finish and a 102 speed in his only try at this distance on turf. He\u2019s another fast starter in this field, but has recently had trouble holding his leads much past the half. With the exception of an off track run a couple starts back, his speeds come up short against some of the consistent 100+ runners in this field. Look for him to challenge or even set the pace early, but start to fade as they approach the half.<\/P>
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PP 6) Shocking Secret(KY)<\/B> Sired by Orientate, Trained by favetrick5. Too the outside of the eldest in the field, Shocking Secret(KY) is the youngest in the field, a four year old colt, making his twenty fourth career start. He has three lifetime stakes wins, all of them coming on dirt, the most recent late last September. In his last ten starts, he has posted a record of 2-1-1-0-1 cracking the 100+ mark five times, with a best of 110.4 in a dirt stakes last autumn. His last run was an A2s in South Dakota at seven and a half furlongs on dirt, where he faded throughout, finishing sixth in a field of eight. He has primarily been a dirt runner, though he has done fairly well in his five turf starts. His best range on dirt has been seven to seven and a half furlongs, and has performed well a bit shorter on turf. In one turf run at this distance, as a two year old, he came out with a second place finish. He generally likes to run from the head of the midpack, but he has had much second have jump in his recent starts, tending to fade more than he gains late in those races. His best speed of 96.9 on turf isn\u2019t going to be enough to close down the front runners here. He\u2019s going to need a good deal more turf speed that he\u2019s shown to be a serious factor in this one.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Short sprint loaded with early speed<\/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-7351","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\/7351","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=7351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}