Super Saturday

Good Sunday morning racing fans!

Yesterday was quite the day. Here are a few thoughts.

• Verazzano Verrazano won the Wood and earned a 95 Beyer in the process. I won't bet a Pletcher horse in the Derby unless something odd happens (almost never in the Breeders Cup either, despite it costing me a pick 6 last year), but this horse does not look like the prototypical Pletcher horse that I like to fade. He is green, big and strong, but doesn't look like a keyed up monster. It's a little odd he had to be scrubbed on at the 3/4's, but maybe he was just a little flat, or a little green. He finished well and looked really good, I thought. 
• Flashback : Derby Horse as Pocket : Flowery Blog Writing. 
• Normandy Invasion looks like a perfect wise guy horse, if it was 1984, when people couldn't watch replays. This horse will take a ton of money in a month, methinks. 
• I think I ran the 100 metres in high school in maybe 13 seconds. If I ran it at Santa Anita, I'd have a chance to break 10 flat. For those calling for Keeneland to go back to dirt, be careful what you wish for, because it could look like Santa Anita. And that would be terrible.
• Vyjack looked great, until the last sixteenth, as pedigree guru types feared. I see the owner tweeted he scoped sick, which is not enough for me to change an opine that he might be a better sprinter/8f horse. However, it's easy to manage a horse when he isn't yours. Vyjack will go to the Derby, and he'll be lower than 20-1. I can't argue with a small stable wanting to go. If he raced that well sick, maybe they'll shock a lot of people.
• Keeneland opened this weekend and if you wonder why it's so popular, just turn on your track feed, or television. Big fields, great TV production, huge crowds, good races and a decent betting menu at a fair price makes everyone want to take a punt. 
• I'm glad I can switch the betting channel to other tracks, and it's a great part of racing. The Gulfstream meet was getting to be too long.
• Foiled Again, at age nine, captured a leg of the Levy at Yonkers last evening. 
• One thing the Verrazano win yesterday did was take the shine off the "he's a superhorse" meme. He didn't win by 10, and the time is what it was. Ironically, a slower time, with a nice comfortable turn of foot home, usually allows a horse to move forward. If he was 6-1 board odds Friday, I suspect he's 8-1 today, though.
• Next week is a week worth watching, for fans of Java's War and Uncaptured. The former can be a real wise guy horse (with a real shot), and the latter has a good Beyer over the CD oval. I'm interested in watching both of 'em.

Have a great Sunday everyone!