Twelve classy runners meet Saturday in the $100,000 Grade III Town of Tokyo at California Racetrack.\u00a0 Many of these competitors are looking to regain sharp form they have displayed in the not so distant past.\u00a0 Others in here climb the ladder looking to use this spot to break into the elite graded stake races that the revised stake schedule now offers.\u00a0 The lukewarm favorite at 7\/2 is Non Negative<\/STRONG>, the 4th ranked horse in the Dirt Classic division from the powerful barn of keely<\/EM>.\u00a0 In post position order, here is the field for the Town of Tokyo.<\/P> Kitten No More<\/STRONG> draws the rail for the unreal<\/EM> division of Jef’s Thoroughbred Club.\u00a0 The Kitten’s Joy colt holds the 29th spot in the Classic Division.\u00a0\u00a0He’s been a consistent performer at the stakes level since taking the Grade I Eddie Haskell last year as a three year old.\u00a0 However, his lone win since that effort was in a minor stake in Mexico two starts back.\u00a0 That effort was on a wet track, as was his previous effort, a 5th in the Grade 2 Saints Handicap in Louisiana.\u00a0 If his form holds, we could see a big effort out of this one.<\/P> topicount<\/EM>‘s King Of The Wind<\/STRONG>\u00a0is the old man of the dozen.\u00a0 At age 7, this Deputy Minister stallion has amassed over $1,000,000 in earnings, with 10 wins in 52 starts.\u00a0 The bad news is ‘King’ has lost his last two starts, both allowance heats, after winning against weak competition in North Dakota with a 97 SF.\u00a0 Just this past fall, we saw ‘King’ competing at the Grade 1 level, finishing 3rd in the Grade 1 Farewell to Cryptozot and 4th in the Grade 1 California Classic.\u00a0 He was certainly an excellent runner in his time, but is now showing signs of losing a step.\u00a0 Would be a surprise here.<\/P> The horse with the distinction of longest shot on the board is Crazy Miner<\/STRONG> from the blacksoxuk<\/EM> group of stables.\u00a0 ‘Miner’, a son of Stormin Fever, owns a stakes win but remains eligible for the ‘two other than’ condition.\u00a0 He’s\u00a0ran in four\u00a0stakes\u00a0since winning a minor stake as a 3 year old.\u00a0 However, those last four starts have taken place over a year and a half and he ahs been trounced in each.\u00a0 He’s well deserving of the 99-1 billing that the oddsmaker has assigned.<\/P> Got A Headache<\/STRONG> is a speedy type from the JRogue<\/EM> Stables who leaps into the graded stakes level after knocking out two allowance conditions in back to back tries.\u00a0 Both were won in nearly wire to wire fashion, one of those races was over a distance of 12 furlongs.\u00a0 The son of Tiznow has the stamina, but class is a question mark.\u00a0 The jump in speed figs over the last three starts\u00a0is encouraging.\u00a0 If we continue to see improvement, this one may be in for a minor award.<\/P> Sakh of Doja<\/STRONG> last visited the winner’s circle in the Minnesota resident restricted Minnesota Classic on December 20th.\u00a0 Since working his way through his allowance conditions for Team DOZA Racing<\/EM>, this son of Sakhee has rattled off eight 100+ SF’s in a row on varying distances and surfaces.\u00a0 He cuts back to 9 furlongs for the Town of Tokyo, which may be a little short for his liking.\u00a0 Will need some runners up front to duke\u00a0it out in order to set the race up for his late kick.<\/P> Longshot Legendary Stud<\/STRONG>\u00a0 breaks from post 6 for the Shamrock<\/EM> Stables from Blazing Saddles.\u00a0 In his most recent start, the Afleet Alex colt won\u00a0what amounted to a 4 horse public workout by 7 1\/2 lengths down in Arizona.\u00a0 He registered a 67 SF for his effort, and ran 10 furlongs in a pedestrian 2:07\u00a0 and change.\u00a0 The Stud has lost several marginally tougher allowance heats, and will need to do a lot more to take the prize here.\u00a0 He did compete in the Equinics back in the fall with some limited success.\u00a0 However, he has no graded stakes tries since.\u00a0 Tough assignment.<\/P> Vicissitude<\/STRONG> comes into the Town Of Tokyo on a bit of a winning streak.\u00a0 This son of Giant’s Causeway has won two straight stakes with speed figures in excess of 110.\u00a0 His style is to sit just off the pace and pounce in the stretch.\u00a0 He tries 9 furlongs today, which should further enhance his speed.\u00a0 Look for him to be the one saying “Come and get me” at the 1\/8th pole.\u00a0 A very dangerous one for the barn of Tseals1<\/EM>.<\/P> Morning line favorite Non Negative<\/STRONG>, as previously mentioned, hails from the keely<\/EM> stables.\u00a0 An impeccably bred A.P. Indy stallion, this guy has notched 12 wins from 28 starts including the Grade 1 Bob Woodward Stakes last September at this distance.\u00a0 He finished last in the Breeders’ Bowl, but has rebounded and looks to be rounding into form.\u00a0 This is a perfect spot to pick up a graded stakes victory, as I’m sure Non Negative has bigger fish to fry this season.<\/P> Turmoil<\/STRONG> makes his graded stakes debut in his 19th start for the super<\/EM> stables.\u00a0 This son of Mineshaft discovered route racing in his most recent effort, winning a non winners of four allowance contest going away.\u00a0 All of his previous efforts were sprinting, so it is impossible to tell what this one is really all about.\u00a0 He’s well meant in this spot, however, and could make some noise at a price.<\/P> Thing One<\/STRONG> is an off and on performer from the barn of timolloy<\/EM>.\u00a0 He shows some toughness in allowance races, turning in triple digit SF’s in his most recent start.\u00a0 However, the two stake tries on his most recent form are complete disasters. He’s regally bred (Kingmambo) but one has to wonder if he is truly a stakes class critter.\u00a0 The 33\/1 billing seems about right.\u00a0 It will be tough to knock down the door against this competition.<\/P> Gramid<\/STRONG> is a hard knocker who placed in the Grade 1 Parental Advisory just four starts back.\u00a0 He is proven at the distance and class level, and is by a hard knocking stallion in Peaks and Valleys.\u00a0 The wincountr <\/EM>stables have done a great job spotting this horse where he can run well.\u00a0 His last effort in Wisconsin may have been a bit of an aberration as that Grade 3 spot may have came up a little tough.\u00a0 Look for this one to strike, especially if they’re rockin’ on the engine.<\/P> Shamalangadingdong<\/STRONG> has a name that is an announcer’s headache, but that’s too bad as he’s been getting a lot of calls here lately, especially down the lane.\u00a0 Foxon<\/EM> stables collected a Grade 3 victory in the Maxxed Platinum Plate.\u00a0 He was trounced in the Grade 1 California Cap, but slides back down to a more appropriate level here.\u00a0 This one is another closer that could be running if the pace is quick.<\/P> \u00a0<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twelve runners clash in Cali; Several looking to regain form<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"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-7472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}