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[boys at tosconova]

noble indy

another light raced horse that has improved with every start. i will be a little less judgemental of him finishing 3rd to bravazzo and lone sailor in third lifetime start in a G2 because of the nice win with blinks in the la derby. horse also beat mississippi in an allow in 142 in his 2nd start. in any other derby this horse would be getting more buzz. horse should be in shouting distance as well. i won't talk you out of using him underneath as a longshot play with some teeth. don't know where to place him here, but his future does look bright


quip

quip is nice horse. third race off the bench and maybe there's more improvement coming? doesn't look likely going further imo. i hated the way he caved to magnum moon but what i didnt like more is that solomini and combatant almost closed in on him even though they didn't go fast early. good news is that he'll be forwardly placed and he ddn't have to run hard in the ark, as he already had a spot in the derby locked up. bad news is that he looks like he;ll be outfiinishsed by several. still anytime you have some tactical speed and/or in position you can hang around..at least for a while.




enticed

as i joked in the vino post. sure enticed his nice horse but this is the KD. not the wood or gotham. rossi went right by him and i can;t say i'm comepletely surprised he did. enticed just looks like he's a notch below. he should be up in the front of the middle of the pack so he might be in position. but in position for what? he looks like he'll be outfinished by many regardless



vino rossi

extra, extra, read all about it. haskins has this horse at #1 for two straight weeks.. it's amazing what a big throrograph # and sharp workouts can cloud a seasoned pro. imagine if the horse had a flowing mane and silkience conditioned coat...oh boy.....

let's face facts here. i pointed out before that this horse could have taken the tapwrit career path. but he didn't even do that. i thought this horse was poised for a big effort in the TB derby. i admit, i loved the horse, i thought he would win there. but he raced pretty poorly for the most part. this after being acclimated to the TB track in the previous race and a decent/nice 3rd place finish to flameaway 142 change.

i believe the truth is we all overvalued the horse. and after the dud in the TB derby, pletcher finds the easiest prep on the board in the wood. holy crap....that field was awful. you really couldn't pick any horse other than vino and enticed. even roman's 147 maiden winner took money not to mention restoring hope. people were also looking at cheap allowance horse off 3 months...lol

sure enough, he rumbles by enticed to win. but he didn;t even have to get better to do this. he just had to be better than the horses in the race, which he was. christ....... enticed isn't even that fast. i would go so far and say he's slower than chit vs the otherb top 3yr olds.....

right now you put him with the mid pack closers and hope the distance suits him more, and hope the closers behind him aren't better, which they may/may not be. even if he his he'll have to pass some great horses in front of him in the derby not named enticed. all i know is that i've played many wood horses dating back 10 years better than this horse and always got one of wonka's bad eggs in the derby. him winning the wood will not influence me in the slightest.





my boy jack

every year there's a big one run closer with nice races., and every year people play them. would i blame people for playing this one? no, he looks like one of the better closers. but that doesn't mean he'll reach. the horse is always coming though. took care of business in the lex to get in, wasn't overly impressive but he won. if it's an off track and you get a fast pace you can start to drool quite a bit, until then you're only allowed to dream and a likely 5th place finish at best


free drop billy

another one of your closers, and highly accomplised as a two yr old. i thought he might run a little bit better in the BG but needed a spooked sporting chance to get put up to third. he might be in just a little better psotion than some of the other closers in the derby, depending on post. still, i see a sub bar gotham against enticed who i don't like at all. which followed a nice 2nd place finish vs audible. nevertheless, he still might be coming late 4th off the bench for romans. you should get a huge price on him.



hofburg

i'm sure he''ll be on the list of many that wants a longshot, or wants to include a longshot. three raced limited data horse makes people like him even more becuse you don't know how good he is. throw in the fact that all you read is "he wouldn't be in here if he was good" mott angle. the promise and the unknown is better the known when it comes to capping, but it's easy to overboard a little. the fact is he had a ideal set up in ten fla derby to get 2nd. outside of audible, the 3 other figures were up close in fast fractions and catlick boy bled. it was still a nice race, and hofburg still had to run it, and while he still may get better he's just another closer that will be trying to pick up the pieces. i can't honestly say he's better than the other closers right now. but some bettors will be playing him like he is because all the angles allow for hope and to dream a little bigger.


lone sailor

say no to the closers and your wallet will love you. only really bad race was when he had the rail in the lecomte and was up close early and his first maiden start. his last race, the LA derby was his best, so he has that going for him. he shot the gap on the rail, and he breifly stalled there as the 99-1 shot starting backing up, but i don;t think it really effected him. in all actuality the horse didn't come of the rail until the stretch in honest fractions. and when he hit the stretch he was wavering left and right late and could not put away noble indy even after he cleared him. so there you have it. he had close to a perfect trip as you're ever going to get for a closer. and from the looks of it, i don't think the horses wants the distance. he does has some competitive race at two vs some of these. but most of those are fringe players.

promises fulfilled

the one thing they didn't need to do they did in the fla derby. did they have a choice? from the looks of it prolly not. now PF is in the derby off of this awful hard driven race. he was getting better up until the FLA derby as well. he caught good magic at the right time and had a walk in in the park in the FOY. it was still a nice race regardles sof the early fractions, but suspect because of it as well. it's always nice and be in position, but right now you have a speed horse that just isn't good enough or fast enough to beat these. i don't even know if he can mess up the good horses if he does leave and push again.

bravazzo

nice accomplished horse that ran a turd of a race in the LA derby. beat noble indy two back at 20-1. i really don't know wat else to say about him. doesn;t look like he wants to be inside at all, and i'm sure he's not as bad as his last race, but can you even chance it, or even expect a big run. the reality of the situation is that it looks like he bounced after barely upsetting win in soft fractions over 40-1 snapper sinclair in the risen star. boom, roasted.


firenze fire

don't want to invest too much time talking about this one. has some good races at two beating several in here. good magic, solomini, fdp, enticed. but the age change hasn't been kind to him. gotham and wood were servely lacking, not to mention not that strong of horses were in both. couple that with a horse that just doesn;t seem to go long and you have a big longshot.


gronkowski

a turf miler? i thought the days of this type of goof off was behind us? oh no,..let's take the european champ..or european horse wtfthat means?. other drawbacks is that he might be too cheap and slow. good news or bad news however you see it you'll get to see rob gronkowski and maybe tom brady hamming it up in the walk over. maybe they can instruct the horse for a better offensive game plan