HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS
SEPTEMBER 13, 2013
by Dick Powell
You never know when a good horse is going to show up and one certainly did at
Belmont on Wednesday. In the first race, an optional claimer/first-level
allowance event going a mile on the main track for fillies and mares, the
betting public could not get enough of Wedding Toast (Street Sense). She was
sent off at odds of 3-5 based on a terrific second going 6 1/2 furlongs here in
fast time in her career debut and a gate-to-wire win at Saratoga going 1 1/8
miles in an even faster time.
Wedding Toast’s BRIS Speed ratings improved from 87 to 93 as Kiaran
McLaughlin’s second time starters often do. She was turning back to a mile in
her first start against winners and was facing a field that included a few
starters that had already been stakes-placed. Like most of the recent McLaughlin
young runners, she began her career without Lasix but was adding it here as well
as Javier Castellano.
By Street Sense, she is out of a dam by Coronado’s Quest that is a
half-sister to Grade 1 stakes-winning millionaire Congaree. The Darley home-bred
drew post 1 and there was a sense of anticipation in the first race of the first
full week of racing at Belmont Park.
Wedding Toast broke a bit slow from the rail and she veered to the inside but
quickly recovered and was sent up to the lead by Castellano. She covered her
first quarter in 23.38 seconds with second choice Cue The Moon (Malibu Moon)
providing some pressure on the outside.
With a second quarter run in :23.59, Wedding Toast maintained her advantage
going into the far turn and began to inch away with a third quarter in :23.62.
She turned for home with a three-length advantage and this is where she really
got our attention. Castellano barely asked her for more and she widened her
advantage to nine lengths with a furlong to go. She kept cruising along and hit
the wire 14 1/2 lengths ahead of Galloping Giraffe (Tapit) who closed for second
over Cue The Moon.
Wedding Toast’s final quarter mile was run in 23.47 seconds with her final
time for the mile an amazing 1:34.06. Her race could have been a workout at 7
a.m. as she was not asked for much. I can’t remember the last time a horse ran a
mile with each quarter mile run in 23 and change and it’s up to your imagination
to extrapolate how far she could have carried her speed to longer distances.
Like many of the young Darley horses, she’ll probably show up in the blue
Godolphin silks next time out against graded stakes foes. Can’t wait.
There will be major stakes races coming up each weekend from now until
mid-October and you better pay attention. With today’s brave new world of more
training than racing, nearly every Breeders’ Cup entrant will only have one prep
race between now and the first weekend of November. Forget about racing into a
top performance, we only get a glimpse of a horse’s condition and more training
until racing’s big event.
This weekend, Belmont hosts the Garden City Stakes (G1) at Belmont for
three-year-old fillies on the inner turf course going nine furlongs. Woodbine
will host a bunch of turf stakes races this weekend highlighted by Sunday’s
Woodbine Mile (G1), which will see reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan
(Wiseman’s Ferry).
Saturday’s card at Woodbine includes the Natalma Stakes (G2), two-year-old
fillies going a mile on the turf, and the Summer Stakes (G2), two-year-olds
going a mile on the turf. Sunday’s races include not only the Woodbine Mile but
the Northern Dancer Stakes (G1), older horses going 1 1/2 miles on the turf.
The Woodbine Mile, which has attracted a full starting gate in the past, has
only six starters with Wise Dan scaring off much of the competition. Johnny
Velazquez will fly up from New York for the mount.
Shocking news as I write this that Mentor Cane (Mizzen Mast) broke down and
had to be euthanized after fracturing a right hind pastern on the Belmont main
track. The lightly-raced three-year-old colt had just run second in the King’s
Bishop Stakes (G1) at Saratoga last out where he battled for the lead and opened
up a big lead before being caught.
Also on Thursday morning, Skiddles N Bob (Sharp Humor) fractured a sesamoid
on the Belmont training track and had to be euthanized as well.