Horses To Watch
With the holiday season fast approaching, let’s try to isolate a couple of horses to watch with the intent of making a score to pay for the emerging expenses.
First, the West Coast. This game is not just about the Zenyattas and Goldikovas of the world but about the runners that come from the wrong side of the track, like the filly Bombing Two. This cheapster could shock when the racing shifts over to the conventional dirt track at Santa Anita.
She was equipped with blinkers in her final two starts at Los Al but all of her wins have been sans shades. For a runner of this ilk, she has shown the ability to race close up or come from the clouds and that’s a nice asset to have at any class level.
Hung three wide in her second start at Hollywood Park, the miss was getting to the winner late in a much better than looked effort. She broke her maiden on real dirt at Fairplex and has a little back class as she beat $10,000 claimers earlier this year.
Her trainer Chuck Treece is far from a household name, but he has been popping at 20% this season. Miss will be value and must be followed.
Subtle Greek should only improve after very solid maiden claiming debut for underrated trainer Tom Bell. The sophomore filly could have just sulked after breaking poorly to open her career, but she put her head down and tried hard to the end picking up 2 and a half lengths in the final eighth of a mile.
She has several siblings that won multiple races and is from a new and exciting sire. That precocious sire, Soto, is very potent with firsters as he is 14 for 47 with debuters. Soto was unbeaten in 3 juvenile outs and banked over $650,000.
If Greek comes back for the same $25,000 claiming price, it would be a good time to get down.
Let’s swing to the confines of Aqueduct in New York for the next live future play. Juvenile Break Up the Game acted like a proven professional in his racing debut rallying from between horses to miss by a nose at 22-1.
The thing that makes his debut so impressive is that his trainer, Shug McGaughey, is notoriously patient with his runners and only hit with 4% of his debuters in the last year or so.
Bred to have a nice future, Break Up the Game has 6 siblings that ran and all of them won including near $200,000 earner Baseball Champion.
This Phipps homebred has real estate written all over him and when given a chance to route, he figures to excel.
Adam Rides Again is sitting on an allowance win. This New York-bred has two perfect preps to build on, is out of stakes placed dam that won nearly $125,000 in her career and is trained by 26% conditioner Todd Pletcher.
The gelding was just a tad short when getting beat by favorite Sky Blue Pink recently and he has a super stalk and rally style. You may have to swallow a rather small price with this guy, but he looms a good top key horse in the exotics.
Remember, it’s all about projection and staying one step in front of the masses in this sport.
