NY Stallion Series- Bid ($100.000 Purse)
BEL- For Three Year Olds Foaled in NY
Seven Furlongs on the Turf
June 26, 2016

A field of six three year olds hailing from the Empire State are set to go to post in the 9th running of the Bid Stakes, which is part of the NY Stallion Series.   With the exception of Underpaid Jockeys, this is a rather inexperienced field at the stake level, but it’s likely that we will see more out of several of these in the Stallion Series as the summer progresses.  Here’s a quick look at the field:

#1- Yellow Rolls Royce (Blushing Meadows, ridden by K J Desormeaux)- The gelding looks to become the sixth stake winner sired by Rene, who is quickly establishing himself as one of the hot young sires in the game.   He can be a bit of a hit or miss type of horse, with his three wins being the only three times he has hit the board in his 10 career starts.  Won a $35.000 claimer at SA two starts back under similar conditions, and goes stake racing for the first time here.

#2- Tumbleweed (Hambletonian Stable, ridden by I Ortiz Jr)- After regularly competing in optional claimers, the Levi Strauss colt also makes his stake debut in this race.  He has won two of his 11 career starts, but has hit the board in eight of them.  His last start was a seven furlong turf optional claimer right here at BEL, and he placed second in a tough luck headbob photo.  I like him at this distance, and it was a career best SRF that he scored in that race.  However, he carries eight more pounds here then he did there.

#3- Rip Rip Woodchip (Our Athletes, ridden by J Rosario)- After taking a while to find a permanent home, Rip Rip Woodchip has looked good while running in the Our Athletes silks, and in total has won three out of six.  He usually goes a little longer then he will today, and it will be interesting to see how he handles that.  Based on his past results, it looks like it can go either way, and there might also be a tactical adjustment here to accomplish the shorter distance. His last race was an allowance event at CD, in which he won, and he too makes his stake debut.

#4- Underpaid Jockeys (John Henry, ridden by J J Castellano)- Castellano looks to earn a nice pay check here with the wisely named gelding.  He has a great mount to do it, as there is no one in this field who has the type of resume that Underpaid Jockeys has.  After all, he is a graded stake winner, taking the Grade 3 DeMile at DMR around Thanksgiving last year.   That’s been a while, and this is the first race for John Henry after the new trainer claimed him for $18.000.  He had a great two year old season, but does he have anything left to win here? Underpaid Jockeys has the accolades, but he needs to have the form.  After all, he was only third in that $18.000 claimer last month.

#5- Neto (D J C Racing Stables, ridden by J Ortiz)- This trainer and jockey often pair up for success, and here they are together again.  Neto knows how to be near the front, hitting the board in eight of ten career starts, but just two of them have resulted in wins.  The most recent time he was out there was one of those victories, and came right here at BEL at this distance on the turf in an allowance.  Neto has particularly good in his last two starts, and with that improving trend, I’m looking for him to get win number three here.

#6- Devils Colors (Allinthegate, ridden by J Lezcano)- One of only two in the field who has run in a stake before, but the Tempe Handicap is a race that he would probably like to forget. His two year old season was fantastic, winning four of five starts, though the biggest purse he ran for in that stretch was $27.000 in an optional claimer at GG.  The trainer has tried to get better things out of him this year in the two starts he has been in, one of which was his poor performance in the Tempe.   This is a tough assignment.

Prediction: 5-2-1-4

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded