Mine That Bird Derby
1 1/16 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $100.000 Open 3 Year Olds.
1st Adjudication Bayou Star Farm Purcell K
The one thing we are getting used to seeing recently is big form swings with no obvious explanation to anyone other than the owner of the horse who may or may not know the reasons. This one took on the CAC Derby last time after taking his maiden and was a never dangerous eighth after being a long way back for the entire race. Today he was able to sit just in behind the leaders off a slightly slower early pace and then move through for a fairly comfortable half length win. His works hadn’t varied much so we are left with two explanations, one, the 12 days turnaround in the CAC Derby was too short or two, the instructions were different today. Whatever it was, and let’s face we may never know, we saw a different horse today who looked much more like the animal that took his maiden at FG very comfortably. The question now is whether he is worth persevering with as a KYD hope, and I must admit I would be tempted to throw him in one of the qualifiers to see what he has got.
2nd Sante Park Alydar Stables Amparan F
Another that took up the current preferred race position of stalking but not second, he too kept on really well and considering this was only his fourth race certainly ran with some promise. The owner here may also be tempted at throwing the ball at the stumps for the KYD as he is a fit horse that is certainly improving in the right direction.
3rd Re Aggravation Bayou Star Farm Fuentes L A
Probably stalked a bit too close to the pace for this race engine and was left a bit breathless for the last furlong. It may be that this trip stretched his stamina too far although it wasn’t a fast pace so, I can’t help thinking it was more about his ‘class’ level at this stage. I think in the long term this was a good effort, but I feel he may need a few runs under his belt of he is going to tackle anything higher than this grade.
4th Vieux Jeu Acber Farms Juarez A J Jr
Stayed on pretty well but didn’t really answer the questions we had about him in this effort. It was a good run without being outstanding, and whilst I certainly think this trip or further suits, I am still unsure whether he is better on turf or dirt. He seems to be one of those that takes a while but when he finds his groove could be pretty useful, worth a little entry in the notebook after this effort.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded
