HOL: Fri/Sat/Sun Stakes
 

5th (2:30) Generous S. (G3)

1 Mile (Turf) | Open | 2 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $100,000

1 Robscarvic (IRE) Blanc B 117 L
2 Gone Grand Flores D R 117 L
3 Indian Sun Solis A 117 L
4 D. Double You Valenzuela P A 115 L
5 Yes It's a Cat Pedroza M A 117 L
6 Spinning Sound (IRE) Bejarano R 117
7 Coastal Eddy Valdivia J Jr 115 L
8 Make Them Break Nakatani C S 117 L
9 The Leopard Gomez G K 117 L
10 Meer Kat (IRE) Espinoza V 117



HOL 9th (4:30) Citation H. (G1)

1 1/16 Miles (Turf) | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $400,000

1 Palace Episode Valdivia J Jr 114 L
2 Independent George Nakatani C S 115 L
3 Lang Field Court J K 114 L
4 Visa Parade (ARG) Rosario J 114 L
5 Willow O Wisp Garcia M 116 L
6 Silent Name (JPN) Blanc B 117 L
7 Zann Gomez G K 115 L
8 Proudinsky (GER) Bejarano R 114 L
9 Crested (GB) Baze M C 114 L

Sat: HOL (Miesque/Turf Express)
 

5th (2:32) Miesque S. (G3)

1 Mile (Turf) | Fillies | 2 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $100,000

1 La Mina Baze M C 119 L
2 Miss Versatile (IRE) Valenzuela P A 115 Blk-Off L
3 Excitement (IRE) Espinoza V 117
4 Royale Action (FR) Solis A 117
5 Golden Doc A Pedroza M A 117 L
6 Bathed in Blue Gryder A T 117 Blk-Off L
7 Set Play Nakatani C S 117 L
8 Macellya (FR) Blanc B 117
9 Sea Chanter Smith M E 122 L
10 Runforthemoneybaby Baze T C 122 L
11 Sweeter Still (IRE) Garcia M 115
12 Carnival Queen (GB) Flores D R 117 Blk-On



9th (4:35) Hollywood Turf Express H. (G3)

6 Furlongs (Turf) | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $150,000

1 Unusual Suspect Baze T C 114 L
2 Council Member Baze M C 116 L
3 El Manuel (CHI) Flores D R 114 L
4 Quietly Mine Nakatani C S 116 L
5 Bonfante Garcia M 117 L
6 Night Chapter (GB) Blanc B 118 L
7 Desert Code Gryder A T 116 L
8 T. D. Vance Espinoza V 118 L
9 Moth Ball (GB) Smith M E 114 L
10 Fast Parade Valenzuela P A 122 L

Sunday
 

5th (2:32) Matriarch S. (G1)

1 Mile (Turf) | Fillies and Mares | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $500,000

1 Lady of Venice (FR) Leparoux J R 123 L
2 Wait a While Gomez G K 123 L
3 Precious Kitten Bejarano R 123 L
4 Dance Away Capote Garcia Alan 123 L
5 Live Life (FR) Valdivia J Jr 123 L
6 Naissance Royale (IRE) Nakatani C S 123 L



8th (4:05) Hollywood Derby (G1)

1 1/4 Miles (Turf) | Open | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $500,000

1 Warning Zone Valdivia J Jr 122 L
2 Twilight Meteor Gomez G K 122 L
3 Daytona (IRE) Smith M E 122 L
4 Patch of Blue Solis A 122 L
5 Bold Hawk Samyn J L 122 L
6 Worldly (GB) Espinoza V 122 L
7 Augment Flores D R 122 L
8 Nobiz Like Shobiz Castellano J J 122 L
9 Ten a Penny Baze M C 122 L
10 Mostacolli Mort Baze T C 122 L
11 Medici Code (GB) Pedroza M A 122 L

I like Twilight Meteor here. I also think Daytona is the underlay.

I think the distance may prove tough to get for Daytona. I will still have a nice WP and a saver Show bet and keyed in all 3 spots of the triple. I've been monitiring him for some time now and was super salty that he burnt me last out by winning at atmoshpheric odds. It won't ever happen again.
Unusual Suspect is a story for another day, unbelievable....

I like Bold Hawk.

you too? that beat was one of the toughest i've ever had. i'm still steaming today.

Me three! The slowest horse closing from dead last in a 6 furlong turf race... a bit troubling.

I sent Scavs a jargonized rant of a PM on this matter earlier today. Long story short. I only had 8 $ in my account. Put 4$ to WP. Threw around the idea of stopping by the OTB, which was directly on my way to work . I was going to put 10 more to WP and a 5$ saver show bet. There was no way I was going to let him beat me again, esp at odds like that. Don't you know, the nice guy that I am, I chose to overpass the OTB and head straight to work where I had planned to buy my coworkers dinner. I only had about 30 snaps in my wallet. Drove by the OTB and contemplated pulling in and placing the bet. Chose against it, LMFAO. I called to get the results after the race and my body went partially numb. It was a sick feeling. I think I'm getting sick re-hashing it, lol...

Good thing I at least had the 8 big ones on him.

Let me hear it JIm, it couldnt have been as bad as my story. Or is it??

Bold Hawk
 

BOLD HAWK gets 10 furlongs on Hollywood lawn today and defeats heavily bet Nobiz Like Shobiz and popular Daytona & Twilight Meteor.

Plus, Mostacolli Mort clunks in superfecta...

Looks like everyone else is on Bold Hawk, too. . . I'm expecting about 3-1. . . Second choice behind Slobiz. . .

BAAABOOOOOOMMMM!!!

Hope you had em Scavs! That's our BOY!!!!

Could Biz have been any wider? 3 & 4 wide all the way around..

Daytona is undedeated in the US as long as Solis is not the jockey.

Bold Hawk is a maybe the best of these though. He looks really good.

That was a very interesting ride by Castelano - took No Biz wide the entire trip and brings him in to get shut down in traffic going into the stretch run

EDIT: was going through some notes and remembered a thread started a week or two ago about this type of turf style - Steve added that "Velasquez told Tagg after getting off Nobiz post-BC Mile, that the colt was uncomfortable down inside and he couldn't get run until he got him in the clear on the outside entering the backstretch"..

So I guess the early running style most likely was a result of jockey instructions. Peculular the way No Biz was drawn into the mix, behind a wall of fading speed horses that were already coming back when he still had a clear path outside

I HATE JEAN LUC SUCKMYN. . . Maybe he should've learned his lesson from last time and not gotten BH boxed in this time. . . He's a big horse that needs to stretch his legs and he was moving best at the end. . .

who won?

well said, this is a horse in need of a top jock. I suspect he'll get one in the near future. no more samyn-on-the-green.

1 Daytona / 2 Medici Code / 3 Bold Hawk

Jim- Do you agree with me that he was the best horse in that race or am I just blinded by the fact that I had a big bet on Bold Hawk?

I agree that BH was the best horse in the race and he buries this field on just about any other turf course than the one it was run on. I also think that Samyn is just about the worst jockey out there. What exactly did Samyn do wrong, in your opinion?

i just watched the replay again to be sure, yes I think he was the best.
he had to backpedal for a long time before getting room to run, and once he had room he had the most finish of anybody.

Great Call.

Can't believe I missed Nobiz's bet-against race.

Like Jim said- he was sitting about sixth or seventh on the rail for most of the race then at the turn got passed by a few horses and was boxed in. . . By the time he found room he had a lot of ground to make up. . . So Samyn tries to swing wide- oops, no room. . . then he tries to come up the rail- nope, and he finally angles Bold Hawk away from the rail for clear running room with virtually no time left to make up the lost ground. . . This horse need to make an outside move to really get going and Samyn never gave him a chance to do that until it was much too late. . .

I just took a long look at the replay, trying to reconcile what I saw with my attached chart of the race. WHile, outside is the best place to be coming home on the turf, I think that Samyn did the best he could in the stretch under the circumstances. There was no way he was getting outside from where he entered the stretch ---there was a wall of horses there. Where he possibly blew the race was on the turn, when the 11 blew by him and he was stuck behind a horse that was backing up on the rail and had to then follow the 11, who got the garden trip up the rail entering and to the wire. This is typical Samyn chickenshit riding: the inside on the turn on the turf is even more alien to him than it is to Johnny V. Then again, a good deal of this is racing luck.

This is what sucks about the game (especially on the turf): you bet with conviction against the even money shot, getting more than fair odds, and can't even get a clear run in the race.

i think this sums it up pretty well. sometimes its about making sure you don't run into bad luck like he did when he got shuffled back on the turn.

i'm impressed with that horse though. he looks to me like he has real good stamina.

Better watch the replay again. Ground saving trip, never lost momentum when the 1 horse (Warning Zone) was backing up, cut the corner home ala Street Sense, finished well - just wasn't good enough. From the 1/4 pole to the finish, following the same path, he made up 1 length on Medici Code - not enough to catch him - let alone the winner.

Watch the head-on. . .

Take a close look at the chart I've attached for the race. While I agree that visually he doesn't appear to gain on the 2nd horse once he gets clear very late, he, in fact, gains 1 1/4 lengths from the stretch call to the wire. He also, more importantly, loses 2 lengths worth of position on the turn, when the 10 goes from about 1 length behind him to over 2 lengths ahead (this is between the 6F and 1M split) because his jock is more aggressive than Samyn. Moreover, unlike the 11, who had a clear run from the turn to the wire, and is the one that cuts the corner entering the stretch, BH has at least a second's worth of waiting time in the early stretch. By the time he gets clear, the race is over. NOBODY would gain on the top 2 at that point. He ran a 22.72 last quarter and would probably have run faster, if he had a clear run early stretch. Too bad HOL doesn't have a stretch time so that we can see whether he was slowing down or accelerating the last 1/8th.

Of course, differing opinions/interpretations is what makes this game so interesting.

It seems that in California turf racing, when one of the best horses has an easy lead and has won wire-to-wire before = he can be very tough to beat.
I don't know if the turf is a little more firm out there , or if it's the track configuration or something else like training style and medication.

I don't know that any jockey could have won the race with BH, but debatable for second. Hell, it is debatable for the win as well, I just wouldn't argue "for".
At least the horse was running at the end and can continue to carry form forward. It looked like the top three kind of synched-up strides in the last 4 strides, and then BH kind of got a half stride ahead where his lead was out front and the others were back , which is an encouraging finishing detail as well.

I am still not impressed with BH as a really special one. He seems very good and very consistent. I see quality but not brilliance. And I wouldn't call that a Grade1 Turf race. In California if you think the dynamics are a little different, maybe that was close to a "California" Grade1. Bold Hawk did stand out a lot as more of a true turf distance horse than the others. Would love to see this guy continue his form into the 11 and 12 furlong distances.

The best horse in that race led them throughout and held on for the win. Plain and simple.

just a thought;
One thing about Bold Hawk is he is very large, and I was thinking today that this may be a detriment, especially for turf racing. Sometimes these really big horses with long strides seem to need everything to go their way, and because of their long stride don't have the quick acceleration you need for the stretch. In his last two races he gets into a drive late and makes up ground but its not with that quick burst that you often see from the best turfers.

I think that may be a function of his trips in his last two. . . He's got a turn of foot- watch his maiden breaker. . .

Pretty much sums it up -- and I didn't have the winner. I played Medici on top of Daytona - figuring Daytona would get caught.

I don't think I would pick Daytona outside of California.

Once Precious Kitten won, it was a sign of how the track was playing.

About your Unusual Suspect story...