Tennessee hosts the Grade III Pea Patch Juvenile this Saturday and it should be an excellent race. Most of the field will be covering 8 furlongs for the first time and it appears the biggest talents in the field prefer to come from off the pace. It should make for an exciting race to watch.<\/SPAN><\/P> 1 – \u00a0<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/B>CONSCIOUSNESS(KY)<\/SPAN><\/B>\u2013<\/SPAN><\/B> willyam49 \u2013 6\/1 Sire-EMPIRE MAKER<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt is the least experienced horse in the field. He has only one race, a maiden victory (71spf), where he stalked the leaders before opening up to a one length victory in the stretch. It’s difficult to predict with any accuracy where this colt will end up here in the Pea Patch. He may like the extra distance, get a second-race bump and be challenging the leaders in the stretch or he might just get outraced by his more experienced competitors and fade to mid-pack. 2 – FIRST CLASS ZIP(JPN) \u2013 3gs \u2013 12\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-AGNES DIGITAL<\/SPAN><\/I> This horse will be battling for the early lead. He picked up two wins, including a nice wire-to-wire allowance win (80spf), to start his career, but came in a fading 4th in the Grade III Faber College Juvenile his last time out. On the plus side, the Faber was run on a sloppy track, so we may not have seen First Class’ best effort. On the minus side, we are adding two extra furlongs and this horse has shown a slight propensity to fade. 3 – GRAFF HOUSE(KY) \u2013 gipper4 \u2013 9\/2<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-EMPIRE MAKER<\/SPAN><\/I> The success of this colt in this race will largely be determined by answering the question: is it better to have experience (and a win) at the distance or to have experience in stakes company? Graff House just broke his maiden in his last time out, but did it in style, coming from nearly 10 lengths back to record an 84spf as he won going away. He obviously loved the added distance with a 13 point speed figure jump from his previous effort, so the real question is whether or not he can spot a graded field so many lengths and still be competitive. 4 – ONE TRUE CHAMP(KY) \u2013 graywolf7 \u2013 13\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-EDDINGTON<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt comes in with the most race experience in the field, having run seven times in his short career, but six of those were maiden races and he ran fourth in a listed stake last time out. He will have to make a big jump to be competitive in this one, as he previously has faded down the stretch in each of his three 6f efforts. 5 –<\/SPAN><\/B>BRAGGING RIGHTS(KY) <\/SPAN><\/B>\u2013<\/SPAN><\/B> mtkdynasty \u2013 5\/2 Sire-PULPIT<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt is making his first foray into graded company, but he certainly looks the part of favorite. His last two races, both listed stakes, included a hard-charging 2nd (87spf) at 6f and a win (79spf) going away at 7f. I see no reason why this one won’t enjoy the extra furlong in this race and it would be very surprising if he’s not in or near the lead as they approach the wire. 6 – STREETMAN(KY) \u2013 coachwill \u2013 7\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-STREET SENSE This horse comes in with three prior efforts. In maiden and allowance company, he looked fairly impressive, notching a 1st and a 2nd while running low-mid 70’s speed figures. In his one stakes outing, he ran a dud, finishing 10th in a listed stake. Two things make the connections hope they can throw out that effort. One, it was an off track (though still good) and two, it was at 5f and his other two races have been at 5.5 and 6. He will have to really enjoy the extra ground this mile-long race provides, but if he does and sneaks that speed figure up near 80, he could be in the hunt for the top three. 7 – SILVER MOONSHINE(KY) \u2013 danbarg \u2013 9\/2<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-MALIBU MOON<\/SPAN><\/I> This is one of those colts who may not have the big-race experience, but truly looks like a big-time threat in this field. He has come from mid-pack to win in dominant fashion in both his 5.5f maiden debut (74spf) and his 6f allowance follow up (78spf). Both victories leave you thinking he had plenty left in the tank and that he will enjoy the two extra furlongs. If he can overcome the lack of experience with this class of horse, he should be a contender as they fly down the stretch. 8 – CROSS ME ONCE(IRE) \u2013 tazbred2 \u2013 6\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-CAPE CROSS This guy has a similar resume to Silver Moonshine, as he also comes in with two wins in two races, beating maiden and allowance company. His speed figures are similar, though a bit lower, at 74 and 75. He has come from off the pace to win at 5 and 6 furlongs and looks like the extra distance should be to his liking. The one red flag here is that both previous races were against four-horse fields and the allowance win was a narrow 3\/4 length victory, not an open-length romp. 9 – KEY TO BE A PRO(IL) \u2013 graywolf7 \u2013 17\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-FORT PRADO The second entrant from the graywolf7 stable in this graded stake (an impressive feat in and of itself), this colt made an early transition from grass to dirt and doesn’t look likely to return. He has a maiden win and two 2nd place runs against allowance company. However, his top two speed figures are 70 and 73, so he will need to improve substantially to challenge this graded field. So that’s the field of nine very nice colts battling for their first graded win. It should be a fascinating race, as the favorites all like to come from mid-pack or further, which could give an opportunistic horse a chance to build a substantial lead early.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>It still looks to this observer, however, that the class of the field, particularly going 8 furlongs, are those closers…and I can’t wait to see which one crosses the line first.<\/SPAN><\/P> My prediction: 5-7-3 (chalk might be boring, but in this case, I think it’s boringly correct).<\/SPAN><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nine colts battle for their first graded victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"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-8286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8286","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\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}