Get ready for some fireworks
by Post.Time
Since today is the Fourth of July let’s see if we can find some real firecracker picks, including two from Belmont Park and a few from the Pleasanton Fair.
BELMONT PARK
10th race – 123rd running of the Suburban Handicap, a Grade 2 route going 1 ¼ miles on the main track. $400,000 purse.
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Asiatic Boy (second $3.50, $2.70. 2. It’s A Bird. (seventh) 3. Ready’s Echo (fifth). 4. Dry Martini (first $23.60, $8.30, $5.10.
BELMONT PARK
8TH race – 92nd running of The Dwyer, a Grade 2 route with a purse of $200,000, going 1 1/16 miles.
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Warrior’s Reward (third $2.10). 2. Kensei (first $15.40, $6.80, $4.10). 3. Masala (fifth). 4.American Dance (fourth).
PLEASANTON FAIR
11th race – 48th running of the Everett Nevin Handicap, a 5 ½-furlong test for 2-year-olds with a purse of $50,000.
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Ritzville (eighth). 2. Sweet Tigger (third $3.20). 3. Excessive Passion (first $5, $3.80, $2.80). 4. Erin’s Cajun ($11.80, $5.40).
PLEASANTON FAIR
8th race – $30,000 allowance for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and up with a purse of $30,000. A six-furlong sprint on the dirt.
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Smooch Me (second $9.40, $6.20). 2. Midnight Margarita (first $6.20, $3.80, $3.40). 3. Robertos Country ($7.80). 4. Pinkerbelle (seventh). If you boxed the exacta and trifecta here’s your returns. Ex – $17.80. Tri – $139.60).
PLEASANTON FAIR
Sixth race a Special Maiden Weight for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs, with a $29,000 purse.
NICK’S PICK’S – 1. Exclusive Game (second $3.80, $2.80). 2. Port of Entry (first $7.20, $3.40, $2.60). 3. Suzettes Friend (third $3.20). 4. Markmelauras (fourth). If you boxed the exacta, trifecta and superfecta here are you returns. Ex. – $13.60). Tri – $35.20). (Super – $81.40).
PLEASANTON FAIR
3rd race – a $25,000 claimer for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/16 miles on the dirt.
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Royal Heraldry (second $4.40, $3.60). 2. Chars Problem (fourth). 3. Doubloon City & Pretorian Falls coupled (seventh and fifth). 4. Little Bug (first $6.20, $3.80, $2.40).
PLEASANTON FAIR.
1st race – 350 yards (Mules)
NICK’S PICKS – 1. Bar JF Red Ticket (first $2.40, $2.20, $2.10). 2. Red Rooster second $4.20, $3.). 3 Bar JF Easy Money (fifth). 4. Hez A-Okay (third $3.2). The exacta returned $4.90.
DEWEY’S ANALYSIS
The fair racing season jumps into high gear this weekend at Pleasanton, always one of the top fair venues on the circuit. The Saturday card features the Everett Nevin Alameda County Stakes for 2-year-olds. The $150,000 American Handicap will be run at Hollywood. Let’s begin with Pleasanton. I can smell the fried onions and funnel cakes.
Pleasanton – Alameda County Fair
11th – Everett Nevin Stakes
6-furlongs – $50,000
If Excessive Passion runs to his works, the Jeff Bonde runner has a great shot. And, Bonde is the local boy, as well. At 5-1 on the morning line, Excessive Passion is the play. I would expect him to get bet down, but should still offer some value with Sweet Tigger and Ritzville in the race. Excessive Passion has just one race in his resume, but off that performance it appears he has the ability to close ground with a quick turn of foot. Two-year-olds are unpredictable, but it certainly looks like Bonde has a nice one. Bonde’s other runner, Ministers Power, will also show improvement. Excessive Yodeler – if he goes – will be the speed, along with Count the Joy and his stable mate Raptor Force. Great Wheels also has speed.
The Value Play: Excessive Passion (first $5, $3.80, $2.80) (Sweet Tigger (thrid $3.20), Great Wheels (fourth), Ministers Power seventh)
3rd – 1 1/16-miles
$25,000 claiming
Bimbo Magic is coming off a good route turf against better. He was fanned five wide on the second turn and still ran a creditable third to Novato, who had a dream trip. Chars Problem and Doubloon City should be in a battle for the front. Made for Magic has also shown speed on occasions. Royal Heraldry ships in from Hollywood. Little Bug will be the crowd favorite and will stretching out from a decent 5-furlong sprint. Little Bug looks to be the sort that can rate, and certainly stands a chance, but with Russell Baze riding and a big holiday crowd, he will not offer much value. Let’s beat him with a 6-1 shot in Bimbo Magic.
The Value Play: Bimbo Magic (eighth) (Little Bug (first $6.20, $3.80. $2.40), Royal Heraldry (second $4.40, $3.60), Chars Problem (fourth)
Pleasanton Spot Play: 6th – Simply Dazzling (10-1 morning line). (Fifth)
Pleasanton pick-three:
7th – Clever Caitlyn (First)
8th – Robertos Country, Midnight Margarita (first), U R All That I Am, Smooch Me, Pinkerbelle.
9th – Doalittleraindance, Reel Danger, Toll Road, Really a Miss. (Charm Doll won and paid $43.40 tioto win)
$20.00 play
Hollywood
8th – American Handicap
1 1/8-miles – $150,000
If Monterey Jazz opts for the Grade I Triple Bend Handicap on Sunday, the controlling speed is Storm Military. If Ronald McAnally send out Monterey Jazz in here, the pace scenario changes dramatically. I’m assuming Monterey Jazz will run Sunday. Whatsthescript, even as the probable favorite, does offer a bit of value, and I think he’s the winner. Trainer John Sadler thought he would win the Shoemaker Mile on May 25th, only to have Whatsthescript miss by a 1/2-length to Thorn Bird. I expect Whatsthescript to set closer to the pace than usual and run down Storm Military in the stretch.
The Value Play: Whatsthescript (third $2.20) (Storm Military (sixth), Artiste Royal (second $5.40, $3), Buenos Dias (fourth)
JACKSON IS GATHERING NO MOSS
In a special to ESPN.com, horse racing writer Bill Finley speaks out on getting Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra together.
The chances that Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta will meet dwindled with the announcement that Zenyatta would race next in the Aug. 9 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar. Owner Jess Jackson never likes to tell anyone where he is going to run his horses until he makes an eleventh-hour announcement, but Rachel Alexandra’s next start certainly won’t be in the Del Mar race because it will be run over the dreaded “plastic.” So, another month and another opportunity will go by without these two superstars meeting, and the sport is the worse for it.
Who’s to blame? You can start with Jess Jackson.
His aversion to synthetic surfaces is ridiculous, particularly when it comes to Rachel Alexandra, who won on Polytrack at Keeneland. He should be pointing her toward the Breeders’ Cup, where she would likely meet Zenyatta. Instead, Jackson has dug his heels in and has said his filly will not run over a synthetic surface, never mind that the Breeders’ Cup is the defining championship event in racing, absolutely where a great horse like Rachel Alexandra belongs and the best and most logical spot for a Zenyatta-Rachel Alexandra showdown.
The best guess is that Jackson’s hatred for synthetic surfaces is based primarily on one race, Curlin’s disappointing performance in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic over the “plastic” Pro-Ride track at Santa Anita. Was the track to blame for Curlin’s mediocre effort? I’ve never thought it was. Though he won the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup in his two prior starts, Curlin was not the same horse in the fall that he had been earlier in the year. There was nothing electrifying about his two wins in New York and, by the time he got to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup, he looked like a horse who was tailing off.
Even if Curlin did hate the synthetic track, that doesn’t mean that Jackson should never run any of his top horses on the surface ever again. Curlin didn’t like the grass, either. Why not, then, vow that he will never again run a horse on a turf course?
Even more mystifying is Jackson’s contention that he is somehow protecting Rachel Alexandra by running her on dirt only.
“I just don’t want to risk her,” he said. “And you may think it’s not a risk, but I saw what Curlin did and how he struggled. And I’ve seen four or five other horses that I’ve raced at Keeneland and on plastic, and they struggle.”
Every study so far has shown that synthetic tracks are safer than dirt tracks. There’s zero credibility to his claim that he’s limiting the risks to Rachel Alexandra by keeping her off the synthetic tracks.
With a horse who has never run on a synthetic track, you can at least make the argument that surface is an unknown and, therefore, something to avoid. But that’s not the case with Rachel Alexandra. When still owned by Dolphus Morrison, she trounced eight others last October in an allowance race at Keeneland. Clearly, she can handle synthetic tracks.
Jackson has the most to lose here. If Zenyatta runs the table and wins a Breeders’ Cup race, there would be no justification for handing Rachel Alexandra Horse of the Year after she ducked the other filly in the year-ending championship event.
But Jackson is only one player in this mess. Jerry Moss, the co-owner of Zenyatta, has been a little too careful with his filly, as well. She has raced outside of California just once during an 11-race career that includes one boring win after another over the same group of horses.
Moss has a chance to step up here, take the high road and be the hero. Forget about pampering Zenyatta and go after Rachel Alexandra. Make the case that since Jackson won’t come to them, they’re going to leave town to challenge Rachel Alexandra because it’s the right thing to do. After winning the Clement Hirsch in another yawner, declare to the whole world that you’re coming to Belmont for the Sept. 12 Ruffian and dare Jackson to take you on. If Jackson ducks you, he will be lambasted as the biggest chicken in the game.
If these two owners don’t want to try their exceptional fillies against each other, then for God’s sake enter them against the boys. Enough of these mamsy pamsy races against the girls. I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again… what ever happened to the idea ”My horse can beat yours” which started this wonderful sport.
SWEETNORTHERNSAINT ENTERED TIN WADSWORTH
Daily Racing Form’s Joe DeVivo reports that for the second time in three years, Finger Lakes has managed to lure a Kentucky Derby horse to western New York for the Wadsworth Memorial Handicap.
Sweetnorthernsaint, the beaten favorite in the 2006 Derby won by Barbaro, will try to follow in the footsteps of Funny Cide when he takes on nine older horses in Saturday’s $50,000 Wadsworth at 1 1/8 miles.
Here is the 2006 Kentucky Derby in case you missed it. Just click on the URL below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3o65WOHhUQ
The Wadsworth (race 
is the co-feature on a card that also includes the $50,000 Niagara, a six-furlong sprint restricted to New York-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Two years ago, 2003 Derby winner Funny Cide made the final start of his career when he captured the Wadsworth. On Saturday, Sweetnorthernsaint, runner-up in the 2006 Preakness after finishing seventh as the 5-1 favorite in that year’s Derby, will try to snap a six-race losing streak.
Now 6, Sweetnorthernsaint showed signs of life when he made his first start since coming to trainer Steve Klesaris’s barn, missing by a neck in a high-priced optional claimer at Belmont Park. The Beyer Speed Figure of 95 he earned was his best since he got a 93 for winning an overnight stakes at Calder last August.
Sweetnorthernsaint’s most dangerous opponents appear to be Tommasi and Senior.
Tommasi, a 7-year-old based at Saratoga with H. James Bond, was third in last year’s Wadsworth after finishing fourth behind Funny Cide in 2007. He relishes racing at nine furlongs, as evidenced by his win and close third in a pair of stakes restricted to New York-breds last summer at Saratoga.
Senior is returning to dirt after finishing far back in Grade 1 and Grade 2 stakes on turf. He may need a wet track to perform at his best, however. Senior is 0 for 6 on fast dirt and posted his career-best Beyer of 99 going 1 1/8 miles over a sloppy track in the H.E. Johnson Memorial Handicap at Laurel Park in March.
Songstressofdubai and Kalulu, both easy winners in their career debuts locally, are the two most intriguing fillies in the Niagara (race 7). Both are adding Lasix for their first start against winners.
The fastest Beyers on dirt belong to Sezzana and Gold for the Queen. Sezzana earned a 69 for her head win over first-level allowance foes in an off-the-turf race at Belmont. That’s the same figure Gold for the Queen got twice in a row facing restricted company at Belmont. She disappointed at 8-5 racing over a sloppy track in her first start locally.
LOCAL WATCH:
In today’s third race at the Pleasanton Fair, Santa Rosa trainer Steve Specht saddles Chars Problem for owner Frankfurt Stable. Luis Martines will ride in this 1 1/16 mile test.
Specht is looking for his third consecutive win of the meet.
LOCAL WATCH UPDATE:
Specht’ Chars Problem finished fourth in a $25,000 claimer going 1 1/6 miles on the dirt.
Dewey Forget contributed to this report
Press Democrat horse racing handicaper Bill Nichols shares his opinions on past and upcoming races. Bill will also include articles from numerous sites so you won’t have to spend the time searching out the news yourself. So please respond with your own opinions about the posted comments, either for or against, and offer your own questions so others can share their opinions.
GOOD PLAN–I like your plan for how to set up a race involving Zenyattta and Rachel Alexandra. If one owner challenges another owner, it increases the likelihood a race can be made. Reminds me of the now-famous challenge made by Seabiscuit’s owner, Charles Howard, to War Admiral’s owner. The resulting match race was a classic, with few equals. Maybe we can see a race in which the two females are entered–not a match race, certainly, but as entries with other good females. I can’t wait!
by Raffaele
Bill, you’re column is spot on. Zenyatta’s handler’s are starting to look for only the right spots with the apparent plan to try and nurse the filly’s unbeaten streak with as few challenges as possible. I would have liked to see her try the Hollywood Gold Cup instead of her most recent race. I’ve stated numerous times my displeasure of Mr. Jackson. His excuse for Curlin last year in not handling the synthetic surface was laughable. Curlin made a huge move around the turn and looked to be handling the track quite well until he hit an imaginary wall in the stretch. I would like to see Zenyatta head east to face Rachel in the Ruffian since Jackson will not head west. It’s a gamble on Zenyatta’s handlers, but they could make it uncomfortable for Mr. Jackson if they come east and he wouldn’t be there to face them. What’s the matter, McFly? Chicken?
by nova4ess