Awesome Again Stakes – Grade I [BC]
SA Race #7 1 1/8m Dirt Graded Stake
Purse $300.000 For Three Year Olds And Upward.

With three year olds winning four of the last six running’s of this race it is a testament to the change that was never a change, according to HRP, that here we are in 2023, the second year of the change in the three year old’s, with not one three year old even in the field.
Let me just say i have never felt it was a bad change, (although of course, there wasn’t a change, wink wink). It is great to see horses come back as older horses and perform well, it is great to see only the best three year olds competing and not TUP Allowance winners thrashing established stars.
So with a field of great horses some of whom we have come to love and support over many years lets settle down with the form book and work out who will win and let me tell you these days the form book is about as clear as mud!

1 Quality Art Mb Stables Gaffalione T

With three runners and all drawn nicely through the field you do get a feeling that the champion trainer will be using this race to get at least one of his stars either into the big dance or keep a few others out. This is one that probably needs to win to get in but he has taken giant strides this year and it may just be his time. Pretty average as a two and three year old he stated to impress as the trainer stretched him out and finished a run of stakes starts with a fine second in the Pacific Classic last time beaten just a half length by one of the stars of the season in Combat Wombat. He should get a perfect run from this draw today and i expect him to go very close to winning.

2 Sexy Back Night Rider Stables Espinoza V

When you look at this ones last three runs you can see just how HRP form and finishing positions are so difficult to read as instructions and draw trump the very small difference in ability.Comfortably in front of Quality Art in the metropolitan, he then suffered a 4 length turn round in The Whitney when well behind the same horse and was then just a half length behind him in the Pacific Classic last time. With form like that it is impossible to tell what will happen today so whatever chances you give Quality Art, and they seem pretty good, you have to tar this one with the same brush.

3 Sensei Mb Stables Silvera Ru

The second stable runner and the second great draw this is a horse that has been brought back from the brink after looking like he was heading down his improvement curve at the start of the year. Bought for just $75 his form has been dragged back and his last run in the JC Gold Cup was as good if not better than his best three year old form. Consistency has always been his main problem but at his best he is more than capable of taking this race and moving on to his second Breeders Cup race.

4 First Sargeant High Voltage Rispoli U

A former turf runner he seems now to have settled into the role of Dirt Router and is having a great season. His big win came in the 1K OP Handicap where he beat the likes of King Que Niagra, Charleys Latte and Sports Page but then of course in true HRP Style was thrashed out of sight by Sports Page next time in the Gold Cup when a very poor ninth. He ran pretty well to be third in the CT Classic last time but with his best win coming in a handicap and handicap form at HRP being so unreliable i do worry that he has had his big win of the year. Having said that he gets a much better draw today and we know the ability is there so if all the planets align, well trip and instructions at-least, he could get into the action.

5 Hard Discretion TwinTowersRacing Gonzalez Ru

I would never write off any horse from this stable and this one who won the San Diego Handicap with top weight looks to be just the sort that this stable can get into the finish. He has been in everything from sprints to routes, from dirt to turf in his last six starts so it is incredibly hard to line him up against these and he does have a bit to find on Pacific Classic running but we have seen how easy it can be to turn round four lengths. The works are on the money so there may be some value in including him in your bets.

6 Expert Eye TwinTowersRacing Franco C

There is no doubting this ones ability and no doubting either that this is a computer game when you look at his body of work. He has gone from turf sprinter to turf router, then to dirt sprinter to dirt router so again it is very hard to settle on one string of form to weigh up his chances. Most of his success has been on the dirt and certainly when he ran a brilliant third in the BC Sprint it looked like that was where his future was but then he came out and won the Harlan over a mile and sixteenth and spent the next few races in dirt routes. After not finding glory he was brought back to sprinting where he has run three great races to put himself in the BC Sprint picture again but a month out from the big dance here he is back to dirt routes. I have no idea what the thinking behind this is but TwinTowers has been around the block a few times and there will be method to the seeming madness.

7 Joe Grind Night Rider Stables Carmouche K

Very lightly raced we find a five year old here that just needed one thing to turn him into a potential superstar and that was the Gelding operation at age five in April. He went from cheap allowance horse to high track allowance winner to Stakes winner and in his last start was a huge second in the CT Classic finishing in front of First Sargent. It is hard to settle on him as the winner but he is clearly much improved and that can be dangerous at this time of year. He has chances for sure and deserves his one shot at the BC.

8 Howl Of The Hound Mb Stables Bridgmohan S X

Everyone knows the name but everyone knows that if he wasn’t a gelding he wouldn’t still be racing because his former greatness just hasn’t been matched this season with any consistency. I feel his best races this year have been at seven furlongs but there was a subtle change in running style last time (which may have been down to the very fast pace) and i wonder whether we may see a tactical gamble here to try and get him back to the BC. He flew home in the Forego to be beaten just a head coming from further behind than he usually does so maybe we will see a closing effort today. Look we know how great he can be but i am just not sure he is the horse he was.

9 Splash Mountain John Henry Van Dyke D

This great horse, now a seven year old is one of the stalwarts of the game at the moment but as the years have marched on his brilliant best has started to waver. There is no doubt that in his hey day he would’ve won this race and gone on to be a huge chance in the BC Classic a race he won in 2018 and finished a brilliant third in last year. It is hard to admit that he may never reach the magical 10K in prize money, a benchmark he so deserves, but at HRP a horse can drop off very quickly and certainly his last few starts have had ominous signs that the retirement home beckons. I would love to see him win this, i think most people would, but it is hard to and whilst i would love to write about a victory i doubt i will have that honor.

10 Mintmach Nakamura Stables Gutierrez Mario

Another that is reaching an age where things can start to go south, he too is good enough at his best and whilst his recent form does seem to have roots in the discrepancies in the game it is hard to make a case for him on his last start. Draw, instructions or just complete randomness take your pick but in his last three starts his form has been so vastly different that it seems reliable form is but a distant memory. Terrible efforts in the Foster and most recently in the Pacific Classic encircle a brilliant on speed effort in the Whitney where he went down by a neck to Charleys Latte, with the likes of Sports Page and Combat Wombat behind. That effort make his other two recent efforts incomprehensible with the only possible explanation being draw and or instructions. Well he isn’t drawn well again today so that is probably the reason to leave him out, but like Splash Mountain his best form make him a big chance if things go his way.

11 Sports Page Fractious Centeno D E

Whilst others form has flip flopped between brilliant and terrible this one has remained at least a little consistent however even he is suffering from the randomness of recent form having a 7 length turnaround with Mintmach between the Foster and The Whitney. It can only be deduced that instructions and draw are trumping any innate ability these horses have and so we once again have to hope things go right rather than rely on a form line. On his recent efforts this wide draw seems an almost positive for him and with his consistency that makes him a winning chance in my books and one of the safer bets in the race. It certainly would prove to be an inspired purchase by the new owner should he waltz straight into the BC today.

12 Stolen D J C Racing Stables Lopez P

Last but not least we find a five year old entire that may be flying a bit under the radar. The stable seems to get more wide draws than most recently but like Sports Page this horse has done pretty well with that disadvantage in the past so i wouldn’t see it as a total negative. Of course where he ends up from the break and what the pace is will be key to his chances but if the pace is honest and he can get into mid-pack and not too far back i feel he could be the surprise package.

SUMMARY

Just looking at how these horses can turn round up to seven lengths form from one race to the next tells us just how impossible it is to use form as a guide at HRP these days. This is a field full of talent and all have the ability to win given that they all seem to flip flop their finishing positions on a turn by turn basis so i guess it is more a matter of working out who’s turn it is and which trainer has chosen the right instructions and gets a bit of race engine luck. It is easy to look at gates one two and three with two Mb Stables runners and Sexy Back all there with great positions but i have never been one to take easy and i rather like the two widest drawn horses in Sports Page and Stolen. Why? well to be honest it is easier to try and work out the race engine than the form so i am taking one of these to go forward and one to go back and give myself two chances of picking the winner at a decent price.

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES