Tonight's North America Cup had everything we wanted - four or five strong contenders, a huge crowd, a lightning fast track and a probable track record. Most onlookers were calling this a deep race where trip would win because so many horses could win this. In the end, the race was not at all as advertised, but it was a good evening for last year's Metro champ Sportswriter.
Somewhat surprisingly he valuted to the lead and had to be worked very hard to get by pacesetter Kyle Major. From there on he played catch me if you can. With only a 27.4 last quarter (and a ripe for the closers last eighth of 14.2) and the contenders on live cover and in the pocket, one would think that would not do the job. But a funny thing happened - Rock n Roll Heaven, All Speed Hanover, Kyle Major - all failed to fire. Rock N Roll popped a 28 last Q and came 4th. Kyle Major backed up off the pocket and came 8th, and the real surprising one: All Speed Hanover came dead last and popped a 29 flat last Q. Fred and Ginger, as we noted on the live blog was full of sweat before post time as well.
Funky stuff. One horse might be no good on a night, maybe two, but for all the others to completely have nothing turning for home? Wow.
The blanks shot by the other big horses was not expected, however a couple of folks who benefited (and are probably on cloud nine tonight) are SBOA rookie owners of Piece of the Rock. Congratulations guys! He came third. The chalks who failed to hit the board keyed a monster super.
Another benefit of the big dogs being flat was the little We Will See. How pumped are they coming second? It must be awesome.
This year one other thing happened. Woodbine tried their butt off. The race was piped into TVG and handles were superb. There was once hand-wringing about going out to Mohawk for this race. The crowd was once again huge and it looks like they are building this brand at the Hawk.
Thanks to everyone who followed on our live blog, with twitter pumped in from across the land. It was fun. We should do that again soon!
I hope the windows treated you very well!
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3 comments:
I thought I was the only one at home at the head of the stretch saying....... 'where the hell is everyone?'
Southwind farm must be happy. Two weeks ago they wondered if they even had a horse. FF Two weeks later and the big guns stink and he walks away with the crown. This is a fickle, fickle sport.
Roy.
I was waiting for my All Speed Hanover bet to come.... but he never did!!!!!
It is nice to see Sprtswriter win because he is a good horse. Those first few races were awful and he deserves to show better. I thought they were going really really fast because no one was coming. When I saw the final time I am beginning to be convinced this crop will not be what people think.
But time will tell!!!
Roger
Boring race. Not "as advertised" (like you said in paragraph one).
I bet SW. I thought 7-2 was okay. But I would not have the horses behind him in any exotic that I could come up with. Unless I used my old pal - the all button.
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