The Birdstone

1 1/2 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $200.00 Open 3 Year Olds And Up.

1st        Transformer    The Sidley Stud            Franco M                         2:29.05

This stable is one of the best claiming trainers in the game and when they claimed this one for ten dollars back in February he was put on a very familiar path. Two runs at the lowest level saw a narrow win at BTP and that was enough to put the horse at the level he ultimately belonged.

A one paced fourth over a mile in an LA state bred stakes convinced the trainer to go for the longest trip available at HRP, todays 12 furlongs, and sure enough the magic formula worked again as he ran out a convincing winner.

The pre race work was all sorts of good and this win a clear improvement on form that promised but hadn’t delivered. I am not sure how much further he can go but he has already made that $10 investment look like money very well spent.       

2nd       Littiputian        Mojica Racing               Ortiz J L                             2:29.32

Stalked the lead but just flattened out in the run to the line, this was a good effort but maybe could have been a little out of his stamina range.       

3rd        Blackdown      Broken Spoke Stables             Rodriguez Jam 2:29.48           

One of those you don’t know till you know races for this horse who weakened off the lead into third. What I meant by the statement was that he had done a similar thing in an optional claimer at HOU, running similar splits off the front and winning in a similar time looking very strong at the end. Today in a stakes race that looked very different so we can only come to one of two conclusions, no class gene or another year of maturity required for this level.

4th        Yansa                 Invicta Group Llc         Alvarado J                        2:29.50

Suffered the race engine closers issue as he got way back and then ran on too late to snatch fourth. It’s a running style that has brought only four wins from thirty races and will continue to hinder him until they change the engine.          

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded