If you like him you must love Riptide. They are in different galaxies. I thought Cloud Nine's last race was extremely mediocre.

Jerkens is very good off of long breaks, and even though this one is super long, the horse still probably has a few good races in him with only 14 career starts. Plus, although I said it was a very good field before, there isn't anyone I can really get excited over at a price. Riptide appears slow, Cloud Nine is running for the third time in four weeks, Gravitational and Big Wig are coming off of considerable layoffs and were slow last year, Riz Sauvage is decent, but beat nothing in his two recent wins, Holiday Trip is a hanger.. Who's your alternative to Continental Reins and Moral Compass?

Lava Cat hasn't run since November.

You know I'm not definitively giving out who I would bet in here. I've said enough.

Edited to Cloud Nine. PM me then. I'm curious.

in the 7th pp 3 formal king and 2 bel vaggio look like tons best

that went well......

How many did he win by? . . i didn't see it. . .

Nice race, considering that he didn't break all that well, but the time was pretty slow. I think it was only like two-fifths quicker than $30,000 claiming fillies ran in the first.

3/4 of a length.

Grazie

Boy, I thought he was decidedly unimpressive.

Yeah, he wasn't super, and the figure probably won't be big, but given that it was a prep for the Woody Stephens, I thought he ran fine.

Not sure that is pletchers m.o. though, they usually fire first out, not the type of barn that needs a race to get going.

He had a very good trip and worked extremely hard for a victory over moderate horses. I'm not sure who will be in the Woody Stephens but right now he looks up against it.

Maybe Todd is bringing him along slowly, but I agree with the poster that the barns usual MO is to have them cranked for a first start.

Very possible, but I'll wait to see how he runs in the Woody Stephens before I totally judge this race.

That makes no sense to me.

:rolleyes: OK. If he runs better in the Woody Stephens, I'll be more inclined to say that his unspectacular effort was because he needed the race. If he runs the same or worse, I'll lean toward the opposite determination. That's about the best I can explain it.

OK. Unfortunately, since I am guessing the Woody Stephens will be a race your are involved in financially ( at least in multi-race bets ), you may have to make at least some sort of determination beforehand.