Snow Chief Stakes
1 1/8 Mile Turf Stake Purse $150.000 Open 3 Year Olds Foaled In CA.

This one turned into a quarter horse race with a wall of leaders weakening and most of the field jostling for a way through making it one of those race where the form could be made to look rather false if any of them meet again.

1st Brooklyn Winning Link Stables Maldonado E

Sometimes when you are previewing a race and then reviewing it afterwards you can do a lot of head scratching and that is what i ended up doing here as i contemplated this great victory for a stable that is having their best season since they started playing 20 years a go.
There was nothing out standing in this ones record that would put him as teh winner in this field. As i mentioned in the preview he was a solid sort who was working well but nothing in his record was standing out as a winning chance. So i looked long and hard at this result and finally came up with a reason which may of course be right or just pure speculation.
His best races as a two year old came when he was running as a deep closer, whether that was on a particular instruction or HL we don’t know but his maiden win and subsequent stakes efforts were not bad at all. Fast forward to this year and a new race engine and in his first two races he was either instructed to run with the engine bias or the engine did it for him but either way he looked a bit one paced and far from impressive as a loose stalker. If you compare his effort as a stalker in a faster time in his last race compared with his deep closing in this race in a slower time you have to conclude one of two things, the trainer went back to instructing a closing type instruction or the wide gate saw the race engine make one of its two choices on a HL type instruction and send him to the back. Whichever one of those it was luck would have it that he was at last in his happy place and he ran on in his old closing style to nab victory on the line. Now as players of a skillful game you have to hope this was a brilliant decision by the trainer and not just a result of the draw and the race engine but whatever it was this horse did indeed, at last, fulfill his potential.

2nd Grandish Team 7 Illusions Smith M E

I thought as this, the race favorite, got himself into a winning position down the stretch that he was blow on by and win but in the end, though he tried hard, he could not prevail. This was a good effort after only breaking his maiden a month ago and it certainly looks like the penny has dropped. Going forward i can see this one getting better the further he goes and as the three’s start to use their weight allowance over older’s i would imagine he will be winning again pretty soon.

3rd Visionaire Mb Stables Rispoli U

He got within a half length in a race that changed completely down the stretch and you can’t really say that he disappointed in only finishing third. You would probably have to say that the first seven or eight, in different circumstances could turn these finishing positions around so i think the champion trainer will be looking for a similar race for this one to get back to the winners circle.

4th Traveller Royalty Stables Vazquez R A

Won a big ticket allowance at CD last time over this trip and surface in a much faster time so it is hard to see why he couldn’t do the same today. The large field, the class rise can all be offered as an explanation and most of these had a compromised trip so i would expect that if any of these meet again in the future then this form will be suspect at least.

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded