{"id":7539,"date":"2009-11-27T02:47:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T02:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=7539"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=7539","title":{"rendered":"Parking Ticket a dubious Grade I"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ITCH<\/STRONG><\/P>

With the weather turning cold for Thanksgiving here along the Ohio-West Virginia border, what better tonic than a trip to California?<\/P>

That’s where we are for week 4148, to attend the Grade I Parking Ticke<\/STRONG>t, an 8.5-furlong test on the grass course for all horses. While the weather is nice, unfortunately, what we have on the track here is another stark example of the collapse of graded stakes racing in the Sim.<\/P>

The Parking Ticket is a Grade I in name only. The top 59 horses in this division are missing. Wow. Can you imagine that? It’s too bad that awful races like this have become commonplace in the Sim since the expansion of the graded racing schedule. It would not surprise this writer if one or two of the Bargain Bowl races this week are stronger than this open Grade I.<\/P>

Utter disaster aside, let’s get to the competitors.<\/P>

Rafa’s Zambaygo Stables<\/EM> have the top-ranked entrant in the Parking Ticket. A 5yo brown son of Smarty Jones, DEMPTOS <\/STRONG>is at least an accomplished graded runner. He is a Grade I winner, having captured the Kingab Mile as a 3yo back in 2007. Earlier this year, Demptos was still in form capable of competing with the best turf milers in the Sim. One of the toughest mile grass races of the year is the annual Grade I Dr. Reuben Garr Memorial, and Demptos came with his closing rush to be second in big field of 20. At age 5, he had restated his claim as a superior turf horse in the Sim. Or, so it seemed. Something about that race had an adverse impact on Rafa’s fine horse, for he ran very poorly in his next two, never firing at all. Since then, he has been off the board in three more graded tries, so that’s five straight off the board in graded company for this horse, who is now a veteran of 43 starts. He is by no means all the way out of it, however, having fired a nice 110 speed figure last out when second in a non-graded stake. At career earnings of $899,000, Demptos only needs another good payday or two to make the $1 million mark. Even though he’s on that bad streak in graded races, this Grade I has come up super soft and is a likely spot for the horse.<\/P>

RUSSELL BAZE<\/STRONG> is a longtime, great jockey and a very good Sim horse to boot. And speaking about longtime greats, how about Seveii<\/EM>, who must be a fan of Northern California racing to name this 5yo son of King Cugat after their perennial leading jockey. Like Baze, Seveii knows how to win races, and lots of them. In 1,160 starts for this Simfamous barn, Seveii has won a whopping 318 races. A quick check of Will’s excellent Sim Stable Stats reveals that he is No. 18 on the all-time wins list. When you consider the fact that there have been thousands of barns in the history of this fine game, to be No. 18 is a tremendous feat indeed. New players would be well advised to look through the stables of great Sim trainers like Seveii and see how they develop their horses. He’ll teach you how to win races. Look at this horse, Russell Baze, as an example. This is the kind of work that has earned Seveii his career win percentage of 27.4 percent. Russell Baze, the horse, has been a win machine, ringing the bell in 13 of his 37 career starts. Seveii waited on him, and saw him grow into a good horse. He struggled a little early in his career, failing to win consistently in restricted allowances. The more he ran, the better he got, and now he’s a Grade 3 winner. If Seveii says he’s ready to take down his first Grade I, that carries a lot of credibility.<\/P>

Hand me the bottle, says Otto Haack of Venezuela,<\/EM> or PASAME LA BOTELLA, <\/STRONG>in this South American trainer’s native Spanish tongue. When many longtime American railbirds think of thoroughbreds from Venezuela, they may recall the longshot Canonero II, the Venezuelan-bred who shocked the 1971 Kentucky Derby at a big price. That horse had a foreleg so crooked that he sold for a mere $1,200 as a yearling, only to come back as a 3yo and take down the biggest prize in Amercan racing. Like Canonero II, Pasame La Botella is a bit of a rags to riches story himself, rising to contention in a Grade I here despite his lineage. While this writer personally is a fan of the Danzig sire Librettist, having two horses by him, he’s not had all that much attention or success in the Sim. Pasame La Botella is the second-best Librettist in the history of the Sim. The only one better is Perko’s LIBRAVELLIAN, who has won $472,000, compared to Pasame La Botella’s $352,000. However, with a $400,000 pot riding with this soft Grade I, Pasame La Botella has a great shot to become the best Librettist in the Sim with a victory here Saturday. The horse has lost seven races in a row, but has been hitting the board in graded company, which gives him a class edge over this field.<\/P>

The “now” horse in this race appears to be Given’<\/EM>s KAZIMI<\/STRONG>, a brown 3yo son of Distorted Humor. The horse has won three in a row and four of five, and earns his way into this Grade I chance. Everyone knows that Given wins his share of big races, and he’s maneuvered into an extremely likely Grade I spot here with this improving 3yo. Kazimi has raced only 14 times and won six. He’s run the best speed figures of his short career in his last two, winning with 113 and 110. He’s on his way up, while one or two of these others, including the No. 1 qualifier, are trying to hold on, instead of improving. Kazimi handled the jump to older horses just fine last out, winning just as he had against 3yo only. Like we said, this is an improving horse, and it’s hard to imagine a better situation to be moving up to Grade I. This field is marshmallow soft for a Grade I and it’s hard to imagine Given not getting a big piece of this with Kazimi.<\/P>

From here on down, there is a giant dropoff in stakes points. Kazimi has 68 points, and we fall all the way down to only 15 stakes points with the fifth qualifier, Fabman’s<\/EM> speedy BACKWOODS BILLY<\/STRONG>. But before we go dismissing this son of Bertrando, let’s consider a few things. First of all, anybody who’s raced in this Sim for any period of time has seen that Big Yellow F beat them a time or two. Fabman is a tough-as-nails Sim veteran, and he would not be putting this horse in this spot if there was not a good reason to do so. And what might that reason be? First of all, it’s a very soft race. Second of all, Backwoods Billy may have a huge pace advantage in his favor. He’s running style is the exact opposite of every horse who qualifies in front of him. While the top qualifiers in this race all share the common trait of good horses, that is, coming from behind, Backwoods Billy is going to the front. This horse has set the pace in 10 of his last 11 races, and there’s no reason to think he won’t go right to the front here. Fab has taken shots like this with this horse before. He’s never been able to steal a race like Fab is hoping, but this might be the softest spot in which he’s taken the shot.<\/P>

The Super Gang<\/EM> might have hit a jackpot with the sixth qualifier when they switched him to the turf. ABSOLUT GOLD<\/STRONG>, a 3yo brown colt by Awesome Again. This is the first foal for the Grade G Fusaichi Pegasus mare Unbridled Gold, and we have to think they are excited about the possibilities with this broodmare. Talk about going one for one in a big way! Absolut Gold was good on the main track, winning his first three races in a row. Now, that would be a hard precedent to ignore. It would be hard to switch surfaces after a horse showed something like that. But, eventually, after Absolut Gold did not quite deliver on the promise showed in the those first three races, the Super Stables did indeed make the switch for this colt’s 11th career start. Cue the dynamite. Kaboom! This horse has just exploded on the lawn, running the first triple-digit speed fig of his life in his turf course debut, and following that up with two straight victories. He accelerated all the way to a great, big 114 last out for an obvious career high. Now, this horse faces some big challenges here. This is his first race against older, and his first graded stakes try. But, it’s hard to blame Super for making this decision. This horse is improving fast and that 114 would convince anybody to step up in class. This horse is a lot like Given’s 3yo colt in here and has improved rapidly.<\/P>

Chances are, Topicount<\/EM> saw this soft Grade I spot when Absolut Gold was entered, and decided to enter one of her own with WAR GAME<\/STRONG>, a brown 4yo son of Mr. Greeley. Unlike several of his opponents in here, War Game is not exactly a win machine. This horse has won only four of his 30 career starts, which hardly inspires confidence in a Grade I, even one as soft as this. This horse just does not look like much in this spot, but you cannot blame Topicount for giving him a run here, as soft as the field is. War Game does, however, have some back class, having been second in a Grade 3 as a 3yo. He does have one giant run on an off track, but the track here in California this week is firm. This horse has lost 10 races in a row and has not won a race in nine months. It’s not like he’s been getting beat in graded company, either. That 10-race losing streak has been built in allowance company for the most part. Would be a surprise, that’s for sure.<\/P>

We’ve got another Awesome Again in Zoomr’s<\/EM> AGAIN CHESTER<\/STRONG>, a 4yo brown son of Frank Stronach’s Canadian Hall of Famer. Zoomr has been patient with this horse, and has seen that patience rewarded with a very good current form cycle. After a difficult 3yo season, Again Chester is doing much, much better as an older horse. He’s on a very good run right now, first or second in five straight races, including a three-race win streak and the first stakes win of his life (albeit in a short four-horse field limited to 4yo only.) Still, he backed up that easy race with a second last out in a much more competitive non-graded stake. Off that race, Zoomr has decided to take a shot in this Grade I and he finds a soft spot. Whether Again Chester is going to have the ability at this distance is the main question with this horse. A Grade I is not the perfect spot to try a new distance, no matter how easy the race has come up. But, that’s what Again Chester will do here, make his first attempt at 8.5 furlongs. His latest success has been at 7 furlongs or 7.5, so we’ll have to see what this horse can do going around two turns.<\/P>

Finally, we have CVBear’s<\/EM> GIDEON’S TRUMPET<\/STRONG>, who is making his turf debut after establishing himself as a solid graded stakes performer on the main track. In yet another case of a Sim morning line oddsmaker gone nuts, Gideon’s Trumpet has been pegged as the 4-1 favorite despite never having raced on the grass. Not even his trainer is expecting much. “My expectations are rather low for him,” CV said. “He’s 4-1 by default, and I don’t believe he will win.” Here’s a bit of news which will not be welcomed in the Fabman camp. CVBear is sending Gideon’s Trumpet to the lead to challenge Backwoods Billy. “It’ll be a most interesting exercise, and I’m sending him to the lead to try and at least see how fast he can run on the grass.” Yet another son of Awesome Again, CVBear is not convinced that his horse will like the turf course, but he has decided to give it a try. At the least, he says he will have his horse shipped back to the U.S. “He needs a spark,” said the trainer. “He’s been slumping since the spring, and maybe this will give him a boost going into the winter months.”<\/P>

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!!!!!<\/STRONG><\/P><\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Field is short and soft as a marshmallow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"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-7539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539","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\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}