Del Mar Wed (8/7)

[rrbauer]

R1
Cabaret Dancer (2-1) Nice improving 3YO in good hands.

R2
La Bella Reina (5/2) Homebred drops for the money. Outfit has very little patience with their common stock. Run ‘em and win is their motto. Continental Wine (3-1) showed speed in debut and drops from MSW, adds blinks for hot barn.

R3
Stokin Coal (6-1) could get brave here and has a sizzling work since raced. Good Ol’ Uncle Joe (5/2) is a puzzler. Not sure this one is right physically. Couple others in here might improve, but the two mentioned are the ones to beat.

R4
Julio, Julio, Julio. Windy’s Halo (3-1) is a game old geld in the hands of a game old gent for an owner that loves to bet a lot and brag a lot.

R5
Warn Me Again (5-2) drops for the money--has no speed. Spectacular Chance & Mecanico are the ones to catch.

R6
Toughie. Throwing out the two obvious ones (#1 & #5) still leaves a lot to do. I dunno! P

R7
Slew the Red got an absolute pedestrian trip last time and failed big time. Little Ghazi [b] and [b]Dance Dreamer (Frankel/Turf) are both tough. I’ll use all 3 in my late double.

R8
Something wrong with Bush Triumph . Only time on lead was on turf. Two best figs on turf. Plenty of MSW turfers at HOL this year and she shows up here at the bottom of the barrel, on the dirt, and not working very well (compared to last year at DMR). I’m going with the improving 3YO’s, Gaslamp Girl & Sky’s Comet along with the one that has a recent 2nd over the track, Morochaza .

[rrbauer]

R1
Cabaret Dancer raced in the 3-path to the stretch and got floated out, but wasn’t good enough (3rd). Bet-down Snoopy Cat (a huge filly!) got the trip, cut the corner between horses into the stretch and won easily. Rainman’s Request made the running on the rail and kept it close late.

R2
La Bella Reina broke flat-footed, rushed up inside to contend, put away Continental Wine at the 3/8 and Trevor called her “10 in front” at the 1/16th. No contest! Hendricks looked relieved when no red claim tag showed up. BTW I noticed that the streaming video off the DMR web site was about 1 ½ minutes behind the live telecast on TVG today….just a head’s up if you’re relying on the website stream for your coverage….could easily get shut out. Double paid $18 for a deuce.

R3
Stokin Coal actually broke to the lead but Almeida opted to let Joe go on to an uncontested lead on the rail. By the time Coal kicked it in he was 4 lengths behind and couldn’t make up any of that. Although Joe won easy he didn’t look that comfortable at the finish. Exacta paid $19.60 for a deuce.

R4
Windy’s Halo tracked in the 3&4 paths to the stretch, but Big Shakespeare got the rail and did what the speed/rail combo has been doing all day and beat Halo on the square. Halo had to check top of the lane when Lafitt did the Cordero drift, but it didn’t affect the outcome. 7-way shake to claim Halo.

R5
Runninwithscissors came out of the clouds (4-path FT/TOS) to get up at 22-1. Neither of my “catch me” horses fired. Warn Me Again (6-path FT/TOS) the fav with no speed came along for 3rd. Needless to say my P4 had a short life!

R6
M/L Fav Bluesthestandard (off at 5-1) didn’t get the lead, but got the rail trip and got the last-jump head bob over Kinetic Bend (3-1) who battled Always Game (2-1 fav) for the lead and got clear in mid-stretch but couldn’t hold off Blues. I used all 3 to kick off a P3 with my listed contenders in the last 2. (Varying # tickets and amounts.)

R7
Little Ghazi [b] had a lollypop lead after ½ but let [b]Homeland take over, then had to chase late and it cost him 2nd. Dance Dreamer (4/5) tracked and came out wide TOS and ran them both down. That man Frankel again!

R8
Gaslamp Girl got the lead on the rail and took them to the stretch where she lugged in badly. Bush Triumph got a perfect tracking trip, came out far turn to challenge and was erratic in the stretch. Aetha tracked outside to the turn, took the lead and was clear thru the stretch. I beat the fav but I didn’t win the money. RIP-P3! Artistic success, yes. Financial success, no!

Get 'em tomorrow!

[keilan]

rrbauer

Congratulations on many nice selections and the post commentary on your picks.

Guys like you are the real deal and I just wanted to say thanks for posting here and continued good fortune to you.

[rrbauer]

Thanks for the kind words.

Another post script to Wednesday. If you get a chance, watch the replay of the 6th race for a clue as to how good the rail was from a jockey's perspective. P Val drawn outside, pops the gate, clears the field and makes a bee line to the rail. It should stay good on Thursday, but could change on Friday. More on that later.