Alpha whose sire won the Travers in 2006 and whose dam won the Oaks trial at Lingfield in England in 1994, who was bred and owned by the Ruler of Dubai, was being ridden by a 2 time Eclipse winning jockey and trained by a BCC, Belmont and last week's Alabama winning trainer.
Golden Ticket whose dad won the 2004 BC Sprint and dam was winless in 4 starts, ridden by a former Californian based jockey whose greatest win was in Dubai, owned by a group that started to race last year, trained by someone who is best known for upsetting War Emblem in 2002, but had he not originally retired would have also trained Curlin.
Their race records even show the difference in quality. Alpha was coming in off a win in the Jim Dandy and was second in the Wood Memorial in a thriller earlier this year. Golden Ticket was coming off a runner up finish in an allowance on Derby Day and his best finish in a stakes race was in the Tampa Bay Derby where he was 2nd. He had broke his maiden in February.
A few other thoughts to take away from Travers day:
- Zagora- WOW!!!!! That was a very uber proformance and broke the track record too.
- Currancy Swap and Trinniberg are beatable. Willy Beamin who ran on Weds wheeled back to win the King's Bishop today. Even though yesterday I said this was a stallion making race, Willy is a gelding.
- If you are looking for a mile and a quarter horse look for a horse by Speightstown? Believe it or not Golden Ticket is Speight's 2nd mile and quarter horse, the other won was Haynesfield in the 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup.
- This is the second time there was a dead heat, however there was a run off afterwards between the two horses who won to settle for the winner. That would be Attila in 1874.
So tomorrow is the Personal Ensign and Pacific Classic, I'll have a recap of that on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment