1 1/16 Mile Dirt Graded Stake Purse $2,000.00 Colts And Geldings Two-Year-Olds. At KEE

1st   Grass Crown                                        *7-2 HRP 5-1 SRF

Credit to the betting public, they didn’t let the amount of time between this race and the Champagne bother them as I expected they would or maybe they read my preview and thought, “By Golly, it shouldn’t matter how long it’s been. If Ol’ Max is picking him, we should too.” Anyway, that was my excuse for giving him the same odds as the favourite, but not the star. And those were some short odds for a favourite in a 14-horse race. Quite a lot of confidence. Obviously, Victor Espinosa was under strict orders to win the race because after a quarter, he moved Grass Crown into the lead and didn’t allow anyone in front thereafter as he cruised to a one-length victory.

2nd  Snapped                                                12-1 HRP 7-1 SRF

Snapped‘s adventurous life has this time brought him a second in the BC Juvenile. It looks like the instructions this time were “don’t let him get so damn far back.”, and it worked nicely coming within a length of a BC Juvenile victory. He was still a deep closer, but this time he was never farther back than tenth. Now he looks like one of the top two-yea-olds in the world.

Told ya. Bold Flames was my longshot pick in this race. I noticed that he was showing a lot of development for a lightly raced horse and knew from past performances what Dan was up to. Bold Flames is a natural-born deep closer and did a spectacular job of displaying his talent at it as he laid way back in thirteenth for the first half, was still twelfth at the top of the stretch and jetted down the lane to finish third a length from the winner. When talking about Snapped, I said, “no horse is going to win the Juvenile from position fourteen.” You can see how that statement relates to his run from thirteenth.

4th Umoja                                                     5-1 HRP 10-1 SRF

Umoja has been a deep closer all his life, and I reckon he knew no other way of running this race and got too far back. He was all the way back in twelfth and didn’t make his move from eleventh until the top of the stretch, so fourth was all he could reach, but it was an impressive and lucrative fourth.

Categories: BC 2026, THE BREEDERS CUP