June 8

Close Week 6 With 3-for-5 Day!

Coming off a full day of racing and managing to pull off a profit I was hopeful that I'd finish off the week with a good day, and I did!  The first play of the day was a Churchill 40% Club play in the second.  Dynamic Knight was sent out by trainer Gary Simms.  With this being the second start of the meet for 'Knight that qualified as a 41% winning angle for this barn.  It was a two-turn claiming event and right out of the gate rider Corey Lanerie utilized his inside draw to shoot to the front.  He was in control and never threatened from the opening bell and he wired the field EASILY as the even money favorite!  It looked like I was going to go 2-for-2 when 3/5 favorite Oh Wise One looked to make it two in a row on the front end over the Churchill turf.  But while the fractions were comfortable, he was being pressed by a long shot into the far turn. Still, he opened up and was clear into the lane, but could not withstand the late rush of my second choice who nipped him in deep stretch to pull a $10 upset.  But in the sixth I was right back into the winning circle.  This was a maiden special turf sprint and I picked Mizzen Miss.  She had never been on the turf and had not raced since November, but she had the numbers to love the grass.  Most of all I loved her bullet work for this.  One of the most influential books I read early in my handicapping "undergraduate" studies was by William L. Scott entitled, "How Will Your Horse Run Today," and in it there was a full chapter about works prior to a race.  He espoused the importance of the five furlong workout, or a quick work.  Ever since I look for bullet (or near-bullet)works.  And when they come as best of a large sample of runners I've found that to be especially effective as an indicator of a big effort.  Well, Mizzen Miss was coming off a sizzling best-of-74 work.  I thought she was sitting on a HUGE race.  The gates opened an she exploded to the front.  Inside of five jumps she was clear by daylight.  The teletimer showed an opening fraction of :21.3, but she looked to be running well in hand.  And she was as she coasted to the wire, MUCH THE BEST! 

She had been allowed to leave the gate at a nice 2/1, and paid $6.60....I cashed for over $30!  WHOOO HOOOO!  Less than a half an hour later was my "best" of the day where Clear The Clover looked hard to go past.  In this claiming event we were going the unique one-turn mile.  The rest of the field was a combined 1-for-16 in ALL races at Churchill Downs and winless at the one-turn mile distance.  Meanwhile, Clear The Clover was a perfect 2-for-2 at Churchill and one of those had been at this unique race distance.  He was sent off as the 1/2 favorite and like my first two picks he went right to the front.  Much like Oh Wise One in the 3rd he was being pressed, but I could tell that he was well in hand for trainer Brad Cox.  He's been on fire at the meet, especially first off the claim like this.  When they moved through the turn the closest presser looked to make a run at 'Clover, but the rider was still motionless in the irons.  As they hit the top of the stretch and I was wondering if we had anything left, he asked for run and the race was over as Clear The Clover burst away from the field and won by daylight.....my third in a row! 

The triple investment netted over $20 and I'm guaranteed to be a winner today!  My final pick of the day came in the 9th and final race.  On the turf I liked Bustle.  First, she caught my eye as I'd had her on the Friday before the Travers when I was at Saratoga with my wingman Jason (my brother-in-law) and she'd burst from the back to win as my fifth win on the day - one of the best "racing adventure days" of my handicapping career.  With Calvin Borel, a good finishing rider I thought she was a good price play.  As they moved down the backside he had her moving into contention and as they came through the turn I thought he'd dive inside to save ground, but instead he waited to make a move.  He looked for a seam with a furlong to go, found none, made a right hand turn to get five wide and let her loose.....in a furious rush to the wire three of them hit the wire simultaneously.  They looked at the replay for a good five minutes and I thought that it was oh so close, so close that it depended where the wire was as I either just missed or just barely won.....the photo: 

So close to having a BIG day of over $50 in profits, but hey, I'll take a 3-for-5 day and over $25 in profits!  We leave Tuesday morning for Houston so I'll be playing the races from there this week, including next Saturday night's "Downs After Dark" card....we were there last year!