{"id":8636,"date":"2010-11-11T12:03:17","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T12:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=8636"},"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=8636","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Top Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of 2 mile grade II races are going this weekend in Tennessee<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>One is for the girls only, which I will cover in a separate article.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This feature focuses on the Rocky Top Derby, which is open to all horses age 3 and over.<\/P>

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1.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Imoto\u00a0 <\/SPAN>16-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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Imoto has been running at the allowance level primarily in non-winner conditional races.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has recently been trying out the long routes and has found success wining a 14f race in September by 6 with a speed of 95.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Imoto has only one career race with a speed over 100 which puts him at a disadvantage in this field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Several horses have regularly surpassed this speed mark and Imoto is making a huge jump to the G2 level.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He likes to run near the lead and the last two starts he was the frontrunner.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Leading this race may be his best chance if he can breakaway from the field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Also, the track is labeled as good and Imoto has won both times he\u2019s been on an offtrack.<\/P>

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2.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Looking to Network\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>7-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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In 10 stake races (which includes one graded start) Looking to Network has a record of 1-1-3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His last 2-mile race was an allowance event in June where he won handily by 4 strides and a speed of 101.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>It\u2019s hard to tell where Looking to Network will run in the race, but I think the middle of the field is most likely.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He rarely will set the pace, but that may not be a bad idea in this race.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Twice he has gone to the front and twice he has wired the field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He may figure in the triples, but I don\u2019t see him taking the victory in this race.<\/P>

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3.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Montana King\u00a0 <\/SPAN>8-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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Speeds have been a little low for this well-bred Awesome Again Colt.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Throughout 2010 he has recorded speeds in a tight range of 93-97.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has yet to break 100 and only has 2 wins in 12 lifetime starts.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He\u2019s been hitting the board with some regularity, however, Montana King has been medium to low-sized fields.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Fortunately, this is a medium sized field and Montana King moves up after a second and third in his only two stake races.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Looks like it may be a tough race for him.<\/P>

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4.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Distorted Colac\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>8-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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Distorted Colac is bred out of Distorted Humor who has a knack for having offspring that fare well in route races.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Distorted moved into graded racing this past August running at distances of 9f and 8f\u00a0 <\/SPAN>with the best being a 4th<\/SUP> at the longer distance where he set a 103 speed, his career best.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>That\u2019s the only race he\u2019s been over 100 and he\u2019s never raced over 10f before.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He adds a lot of distance and I\u2019m taking a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach here.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/P>

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5.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Rock Island<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> Raptor\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>3-1<\/SPAN><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>

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As a 6-year old, Rock Island Raptor has won 12 races in 38 dirt starts.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In all those starts, he has only gone 2-miles once and that was 2 years ago.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This season, he has an average speed of 103 on the dirt running between 9 and 11.5 furlongs.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>On the dirt, he has 7 stake race appearances and a record of 3-1-2 on the dirt.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Although he has race graded before on the turf, this is his first race at this level on the dirt.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The track is wet and he has won 3 times in 7 starts of off-track conditions.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He looks promising as a front runner, the only question is the long distance.<\/P>

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6.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Job Cannon\u00a0 <\/SPAN>9-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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Job Cannon is similar to Imoto in that he also has been racing in allowance conditional races and also lunges upward to the graded level.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His last start was a near miss at 12f, finishing 2nd<\/SUP> by a quarter length in a speed of 103.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>It looks like he will run near the front which will give him a good chance to steal this race.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Job will be going the marathon route for the first time but looks like he could handle the distance.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>If he can put in a similar effort like his last, an upset may be in the making.<\/P>

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7.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Hellhound\u00a0 <\/SPAN>4-1<\/SPAN><\/P>

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Hellhound is a Big Brown bred colt and looks promising with question marks.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His last two starts were in graded turf events where he ran speeds over 100 but missing the board.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>On the dirt, he\u2019s tried the graded level 5 times at distances of 9f to 10f\u00a0 <\/SPAN>finishing 3rd<\/SUP> once.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The graded races he\u2019s been in before seem to have had tougher foes than he\u2019s seeing in this race, still, his record at this level hasn\u2019t been shinning.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He hasn\u2019t gone 16f before, but his last start on the turf at 14f was a speed of 101 and missed winning by a length while finishing 4th<\/SUP>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He\u2019ll be in the back of the field and may have his best shot to date of winning a graded race.<\/P>

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8.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Wrisky Cat\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>2-1<\/SPAN><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P>

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A ten-time runner in graded races, Wrisky Cat has a record of 1-1-0.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Not the best of records for running in graded events, but trainer Tcrowell may have stumbled upon something.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In May, he moved Wrisky out of the mile to 10f races he was in up to 14-16f races and found success.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Since May, he is 2-0-1 in 5 starts with an average speed of 105.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This includes a pair of races with speeds of 111, not bad for a 6 year old. Wrisky will be in the back of the field and could pick up his second graded win.<\/P>

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No real standouts in this race and I\u2019m going with Hellhound.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Albeit, the last start was on the turf and he showed a nice effort going 14f for the first time.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He faces a softer field and opportunity is knocking at his door.<\/P>

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Job Cannon\u2019s last race was a good effort.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Should be able to handle extra distance and a nice price too boot.<\/P>

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Change in distance for Wrisky Cat has been working and is likely to find a position on the board, rounding out my top three picks.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fella’s take on 2-mile Marathon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"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-8636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8636","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\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}