Thunder Road – Grade III
1 Mile Turf Graded Stake Purse $100.000 Four-Year-Olds And Upward. At SA
Thunder Road. I hate this race. I just can’t tell which is which or what is what. Seven-year-olds, an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old! A four-year-old, he was a sophomore barely a month ago. And to top it off, one of the seven-year-olds has only raced ten times! Why are you doing this to me??! Well, I showed them. I chose an eight-year-old to win the race. I think Kidding is in the best fit and form to take this one in spite of age. On the other hand, I’m placing lightly raced four-year-old Noble Conquest second just behind the old timer. After that, I have marathon man Martinez speeding into third. From there it’s close and wild. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Kidding High Voltage 4-1 96
Noble Conquest Riggins Racing 4-1 94
Showable Set Angelos Stable 4-1 99
Freak Fog The Sidley Stud 9-2 96
Atomic Eclipse Spankys Barn 5-1 94
Camp Command Delta Farms 5-1 95
Angel Star Threshold 6-1 95
Reeves Nakamura Stables 8-1 94
1 Atomic Eclipse Spankys Barn 94
Well, at least they gave Atomic Eclipse the inside post. A nine-year-old shouldn’t have to race as far as everyone else. By far and away the richest horse in the race, his numbers and wins indicate he hasn’t lost all that much zip, but his performance level may be a bit off graded level nowadays. In his last four graded stakes attempts he’s been up the track, and you have to go back to 2024 to find a graded stakes win. Still, he’s a consistent deep closer with two out of three wins in his last three including a win in the $100.000 California Flag Handicap at SA.
2 Showable Set Angelos Stable 99
Showable Set was cruising along through life as an allowance/claiming horse winning now and then, changing barns now and then and sort of a bridesmaid. Then, on March 13, 2024, something clicked. The odds makers expected another bridesmaid performance, he had a dozen of them by then, but he woke up with a win. OK, big deal he won, he had done that four times before, but this time he followed with a nose loss second and then three more consecutive wins, the last being the grade 3 Sycamore at KEE, lose a race and win the grade 3 TAM Stakes with a whopping 103 SRF, and so it goes until a three race win streak that gets us here with a win in the $75.000 Blitzen Handicap at PRX. It’s hard to ignore a horse this hot.
3 Freak Fog The Sidley Stud 96
Freak Fog has been laboring at lower-level tracks and small stakes mostly in his short career, His development curve definitely seems to be on the upswing with a second place in the $30.000 Puss n Boots Cup at FE followed by a win in the $80.000 Lure Stakes at SA which brings him here with a decent 96 SRF. For an improving five-year-old, this is a nice spot to step into graded racing.
4 Camp Command Delta Farms 95
Camp Command spent his life as a claimer until Royalty Stables auctioned him off for $2.460. Since joining Delta Farms, he’s been an allowance horse-wanna-be-a-stakes-horse. His every start has been a ninety-something SRF, six of his ten starts have been first or second and he comes here off three of those the most recent a win. Only problem so far is the two graded stakes attempts were unsuccessful.
5 Angel Star Threshold 95
A seven-year-old with only ten races, Stu? What are you doing to us? Really, Angel Star’s whole life in the period with Tacaro Farm is a strange mystery. Finally, he shows up as a six-year-old in April of last year, and Threshold claims him for $5.000 and then sits on him until August 4 for a winning return debut at FE, follow that with an easy three-length victory in an FE allowance. Finally, in the last days of the year he gets a third in the grade 3 San Gabriel Stakes at SA. All three of those return races were 95 SRF. It’s all very amazing and I don’t know what to think. He could very easily be the favourite for this race. He could just as easily win this race. He looks like he’s going to win one of these eventually, why not now?
6 Kidding High Voltage 96
I like Kidding’s chances here because he’s been placing in grade 2 races. That step up from grade 3 to grade 2 is a pretty big accomplishment. He spent the first half of his career as mostly a claimer but has been pretty much a graded stakes horse since flying the High Voltage colours, and I’m talking as high as second in the grade 1 Hirsch Turf Classic at AQU and first in the grade 2 Smith at AQU. So, I’m going with an eight-year-old with 48 races under his belt because I think he still is fit and has the form for the tight race win.
7 Noble Conquest Riggins Racing 94
Lightly raced Noble Conquest is just learning to race and looks like a quick study with five wins out of eight starts. He has practically won his every start, his longest loss over a nose being a three-quarter length third in his second start. As he stretches out, he keeps winning. His latest start being the third of a win streak was a one-mile win in the $100.000 Let It Ride Stakes at DMR. He’s developing quickly and could very well take this as the youngest horse in the race. If I were handing out the odds, he’d be no longer than the favourite, the HRP odds monkeys may see it differently.
8 Martinez Spankys Barn 94
This race may be a little short for marathon millionaire Martinez, but back in 2023, he broke his maiden at a mile at AQU. There’s a lot of class in this probable favourite which regularly performs well enough to qualify for the BC Turf, he’s been there the last three years. Most of his races are 1 1/2 mile grade 2 stakes races. Last year he shortened up to win the grade 2 United Nations Stakes At 1 3/8 miles at WO. If he can get on the lead, which he has shown the ability to do, he will win this on class alone.
9 Reeves Nakamura Stables 94
Reeves is lightly raced for a five-year-old and certainly is not yet a stakes horse with only one stakes attempt in his 15-race career, and it did not go terribly well, although he only lost by a length in the closing strides. Three races ago, you could have picked him up for $20.000, but then his last two allowance races showed nice promise with a second at TUP and a win at TAM that sent him here. For me, the most important thing about this horse in this race is you can’t ignore a horse from Nakamura Stables.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES