Southwest Stakes PPs
 

A bit surprising to see no Baffert entry in the Southwest with its $500K purse and his phenomenal run with juvenile first time starters during the summer and fall of 2018.

Then again, the first DRF Derby Watch is woefully devoid of verified talent. Not only is a sloppy track debut winner (Hidden Scroll) rated as high as 3rd (did Pulpit or Curlin rank that high in their respective years?), but a colt like Omaha Beach who took 5 starts to break his maiden and had to cut back to sprint to do it has a spot in the top 20.

With Blenheim's closer look at the less than inspiring training patterns of Baffert's--by all accounts--much the best duo of Game Winner and Improbable, this is looking more and more like a weak group and its hard to imagine anything will emerge this late in the game and train on through the Triple Crown unless you believe that Justify was a forerunner for a new era of racing and not a once-in-a-lifetime type of colt.

Can't get a good feel for this race. Probably go w/Pletchers charge and Jersey Agenda. Not a big fan of First Samurai progeny

Best of the best . . .
 

Competitive race.

It'll be the the best of the best from here on in . . . lookin' forward to the competition.

Gray Attempt wins the Smarty Jones and the Southwest, back to back.

:1:

If the :3: gets in good position sitting just behind the speed then he's going to trounce in the stretch. Hard not to like a Pletcher-JV combo. The colt also has Frizette in tail.

Lot of speed here, drawing the rail means the :1: has to send.

Take the off the pace runners :3:, :9: and :10:.

:4: WPS

:4::9:/:1::3::4::9::10::11:

Ex and tri.

:3::4::7::8: for me :4:could get the good trip. I'll bet him w/p

Uhhhhh what?! :6: Super Steed at 60-1

Pletcher shut out; does he have any horses w/Derby points so far? I played Super Steed his last race and he looked terrible. Wasn't playing today

I think he has a couple with a few points, King for a Day and So Alive, but they only have one or two I believe.

thanks CJ; his maiden winner on the OP undercard, Intrepid Heart, may be the real deal.

He has a couple that could still fire... Overdeliver and Outshnine

I try to understand why a horse who runs his first MSW at Oaklawn, with a bunch of other unraced maidens, is suddenly a "rising star"

I guess if moquett, or Cox, or somebody else had him, like the many other MSWs that race every day, would he still be a rising star? :lol:

---In that race was anther unraced maiden Tapit (proud nation)
---Speed App, a maiden who has been unable to break his maiden now in 7 tries.
---Grenation who also can't break his maiden at Remington OR Oaklawn
---Better Charge It, another one who can't break his maiden in 5 tries now
---Tut's Revenge, on his third try still can't break his maiden

>>>> and just more of the same so I won't go on.

Fanbois of the super trainers crack me up sometimes. If Pletcher didn't come with the horse, nobody would have ever even noticed the race.

^^^ OTH, he could be Curlin, who Helen Pitts brought to race for his first time as a 3 year old, he ran so well Jackson bought him right then and there, took him away from his conditioner and gave him to Asmussen, and he went on to win the Rebel and then on to the TC races. ;)