Fountain of Youth

[mysaladdays]

I really think Merit can run in the tri here.   I like this homebred and he has carried weight in other races.  

Meanwhile, I will never forget this race because the much favored, almost even odds horse, Irish War Cry, failed so miserably here.  He got pressed and either tired or lost his will to win.  And he repeated that behavior in the KY Derby.   The Belmont was just such a much better race for him, and he proved to that be true by running 2nd.  

Then the other year that we had Promises Fulfilled, which it seems very few saw coming and paid large $$.  That was a good race, he even had something left to fight off his rival in the stretch that day, Strike Power, a fast horse but who had never run at a route distance but still managed a 2nd. 

Regardless of what he does in this race, going over Dornoch's trouble lines, I noticed that when he gets bumped he tends to give up a little.  That may be only true in his greener days but I will be watching for that.  In a race like the KY Derby, with a 20 horse calvary charge, you need to be hail and hearty and be able to take jostling, both coming out of the gate and during the race. 


I don't play any tracks other than oaklawn and I hardly ever play stakes races, there or anywhere else, because I find the day to day blue collar horses running maidens, claimers, allowances, I know them and I can find the longshots and the chinks in armour.    

[cherokeescot]

Merit will be scratched and run in an allowance race on Friday according to his trainer

[eye123]

I think the Davona Dale has some very interesting runners. In what turns out to be a very nice race I may try Shug here. Top three all very nice fillies. We may see what Shug's runner is all about Saturday. (price should be right)

[mysaladdays]

Feb 29, 2024 10:35:34 GMT -5 cherokeescot said:

Merit will be scratched and run in an allowance race on Friday according to his trainer

Thanks for the heads up.   

He wasnt' my WIN candidate anyway.  

Looking forward to the KY Derby, the ones I want to see make the gate are horses who did not need lasix to run their highest speed figures.  This is why I listed the non-lasixed horses for the Risen Star, and the final results of the Risen Star looked solid to me (top 3 had never received lasix).  Horses will not have lasix for the Derby, so my experiement this year is shading the ones I don't want to make the gate based on "needing it".   So I can't replace homebred Merit with the other homebred, Speak Easy although he may be horse-for-the-course. 

Right now my boxed exotic would look like:  Locked, Dornoch, Frankie, and Victory Avenue (although I think Victory runs 4th due to stepping up in distance) 

[1hooper]

With nine weeks until the 150th running of the GI Kentucky Derby, NBC Sports will continue its coverage of the 1/ST RACING TOUR this Saturday, Mar. 2, live at 5 p.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock. The hour and a half long program, featuring three live races, will be headlined by the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth S. from 1/ST's Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The additional stakes races that will be presented live on CNBC and Peacock are the GIII Honey Fox S. and GIII Canadian Turf S. from Gulfstream Park.

[cherokeescot]

Victory Avenue is scratched according to his owner

[docd]

Locked scratched too

[ozzy]

So for Locked a virus, missed time and a missed race. Now didn’t gallop well enough for Pletcher to go today…. Running out of time as would think Tamp Bay Derby - Blue Grass the only route unless back up to 1 1/16 for Lexington for final prep. Regardless the preps this weekend, aside from the Gotham, lost a lot of luster with scratches.

[mysaladdays]

U.S. trainers seem to enjoy playing hide-and-seek games with each other.

This is bordering on ridiculous, there is nobody left in the race. I don't care if they are "hiding" from Dornoch, you'd think they would at least want to see how their horses run a route in the month of February in a stakes race??? I know I would. But they don't want to lose to Dornoch so they are going to save their horses for a higher points race, I take it that is the poker play.

How about some sincere intentions for a change and not just excuses 

Or like Cox, they hide their horses in races in Indiana so they can race on lasix, then bring them to stakes races where they win.



Oh well, back to Oaklawn. I need to stick with what I'm good at, because I'm not good at most other tracks or races and certainly not stakes races, I even skip those at OP.   Posted the #9 to win R1 (won at big $$) and the #l2 to win R2 (and he did) so I will just go back to what I know.
I'm going to start a blog here with my OP longshots, I've been doing well on them and want to help others make money.

Last week I had Chapel Barn and Afleet Sky as my longhots. I play in contests at OP and post all my picks before the races. I need to start posting these to help bettors win $$.

I will post donw in the entertainment area

[mysaladdays]

I probably would have scratched Locked for this, on that track the way it's configured, a closer running against early speed doesn't usually do well there as we saw with Dancing Groom.

Of course nobody knew that the #1 Speak EAsy would scratch right before the race and maybe didn't know Victory Avenue was going to scratch at the time Locked was scratched, either, so most of the early speed was missing from the race when finally run except for Dornoch and Le Dom Bro.

[UpInClass]