Street Sense
1 1/16 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $200.000 Open 2 Year Olds.

1st Spiced        Smokey Stover       Gaffalione T

The toughest thing these days seems to be getting the right position out of the gate and then using that position to best advantage. Of course we have instructions to help us to achieve that but with most of us using the same instructions on a pace driven race engine this part can often come down to a bit of luck and some good judgement. The better stables either get more luck or have better judgement and you don’t get much better than this stable that seems to be moving into the higher echelons of the game. This gelded son of Con Artist seems to have really come into his own in his last two races and that seems to have come about with the route trip and two very similar races ran at very similar paces. He is quickly developing into the sort of horse that will go on to the TC qualifiers.

2nd Foreign Relation       Nakamura Stables     Court J K

The trainer has been pushing just about all their runners to the front recently and has been getting some great results. That of course is the great thing about this click and play game as is easily seen in this horses last two performances. In the Iroquois off a matching first quarter he was way back in the field and ended up eighth after making a little ground, in this race he went into a clear lead ending up a strong second. With the game now set up that horses close much slower we will see more and more of these types of races with the leader holding on or the stalkers getting to them in the last furlong. This was a fair effort and this one does seem to be improving with racing.

3rd Madagascar        Waldo         Landeros C

Made the lead off a faster pace last time but was content in sitting a little off the pace in this race, why that is is anyone’s guess but i do feel that whilst he ran a creditable third he may have been even better had he gone to the front. Another that has needed racing to start improving he is moving nicely through his gears now and looks to be developing into a smart router.

4th Commander Chai        Serenity Stables       Talamo J

One feels that under the old race engine this one would’ve slingshot the leaders and won this but with the closing speed turned down he was just too far back to mount a winning challenge. He wasn’t far off at the end and narrowly missed second so this was a pretty good first effort over ground and i think there is more improvement in this one than most.

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded