Clicking Heels: Maidens and Upsets

Wow what a weekend for stakes races! It's amazing how things can change in one snap. Down at Gulfstream, Paddy O' Prado who was a maiden won the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes on turf. At Santa Anita, Make Music for Me finally broke his maiden when he won the Pasadena Stakes on turf. Next race for him will be the Santa Anita Derby (I think the goal was really to break his maiden has he has enough graded stakes earnings to get into the Derby field).

Meahwhile Music's stablemate Alphie's Bet upset the field in the Sham, and Crisp upsetting Blind Luck in the Santa Anita Oaks. Proviso won the Kilore, a nose over her former stablemate Fluke. This was the first win for Bill Mott for Judmonte who took over most of the US stock from Humberto Ascanio after the death of Bobby Frankel. The big winner of the weekend for Cal trainers was Bob Baffert, he won the Azeri at Oaklawn with Freedom Star and the Big Cap with Misremembered. The Wood may have found it's favorite this weekend, when the Awesome Act won the Gotham. If he does well in the Wood, I expect him to be transfered to a US trainer. Win Willy won the Razorback over Spotsgone, Gone Astray and Prom Shoes. He'll be one of the favorites for the Oaklawn Handicap, which right now looks like it's going to be a weak addition. However, things can change over the next few weeks, and I'll be interested in where everyone ends up.

Sadly, Big Truck who upset War Pass in the 2008 Tampa Bay Derby broke down and was euthanized. There have been a few rumors that may or not may not be true about the health of Truck, but for purposes of this blog, I'm not going to get into the details here. Here is that Tampa Bay Derby win,



This is a big week coming up, lots of Derby prep talk. Plus, a certin filly whose name begins with R and a certin mare whose name begins with Z make their 2010 debuts in Louisana and California respectivly.