War Pass (102 BSF Sunday)
 

His race was moved to Sunday.

That's a shame...it would have brought a little life to what is a rather ho-hum Saturday card with an N3X race masquerading as a Grade I.

NT

What do you mean by it was moved to wednesday. Did the original race not fill and they put it back as an extra for Sunday, or is there another race Zito have in mind?

I actually meant exactly what I said. There's no other story. The race for Saturday was moved to Sunday.....Fountain of Youth day.

That's cool. Better for the weekend crowd to get a look at the 2yo champ.

It was scheduled for a weekend day anyhow.

You're correct. Curious to why they did not use the race for saturday and put it back on the overnight for Sunday. The office is probably looking for a few more palms to grease to get the race to go.

The race as scheduled for Saturday did not fill. GP had only two other entries besides War Pass as of the start of today's 8th race. Zito was prepared to enter another from his stable, but it was evidently a runner from LaPenta that would have been coupled with War Pass and not given GP the desired 4 separate betting interests. The race was moved because it did not fill and they will evidently try again to round up enough runners to make this go. The scene at GP was not a happy one late this afternoon.

I remember when Sunday Break was entered in an allowance race as a prep for the Wood. Drysdale didn't even let anyone know the horse was on the grounds so that the race would fill. Considering everyone and his mother knew this race was War Pass' debut spot, I can't believe they got any other entries.

That's not the version I heard. Considering Gulfstream routinely doesn't have their overnight out until very late in the day I imagine they often have trouble filling cards.

I was at GP and got the word from management there. Every other track in the east already had their entries out and GP was still scrambling to find more runners for this particular race. Besides War Pass, there was an entry from Walder and one other. There don't appear to be many horsemen who want to do favors for this racing office.

Had it been Race 10 on Saturday as originally planned, it would have been an easy single in the Magna 5. :)

Do they allow cross-entering in races on the same day at GP?
I wonder if anyone planning on going in the FOY would scratch if they got the far outside post and went in this race instead (if they met the conditions of the Allowance race, of course).

10th (5:44)

1 Mile | Open | 3 Year Olds Allowance | Purse: $60,000

Post # Horse Jockey Weight Claim Price Equip. Med.
1 Jet Run Petro N Jr 108 L
2 Chadwell Chavez J F 118 L
3 Web Gem Bravo J 118 L
4 Ultimate Authority Velazquez J R 118 L
5 War Pass Velasquez C 118 L
6 Dylan's Choice Dominguez E 108 L

I don't know. I'm so impressed with Denis of Cork that I might have to change my derby pick.

= bernardini vs zippy chippy.........

I have no derby pick yet. I saw Pyro at FG but he's always chased War Pass, so let's see how WP fares this weekend.
Who knows, this could be the year that another theory goes down, gelding, 2yo champ.....what's next, no 2yo foundation?

At this point if I had a decent 3yo (funny thought huh?) I'd rather pay to play and run in the G2 FOY for $300k on the same day. Who the hell wants to run against War Pass for their share of $60k.
That's a pretty high allowance purse, maybe they were out rolling old ladies from the slot rooms to get extra change to raise the purse?

The horses he's running against can barely compete in high priced claimers....this should be interesting lol.

Post Time Odds? 1-20? At best? Or does somebody talk themselves into Web Gem and bring it up to a juicy 1-9?

I'll talk myself into Jet Run. After all, he IS the full brother to Water Cannon. :p

ummm, maybe take the 2 longest odds and bet them underneath War Pass for an ex.

Oh quit it... you know that Dylan's Choice will walk all over this field. :D

With a 10# weight advantage you might be right.

Given that Web Gem was owned by LaPenta until a day or two ago and clearly his "sale" was simply to facilitate filling this race for War Pass, I won't be using this one on my ticket.

Show bet

:rolleyes:

I hope you realize I was kidding.

I figured, but didn't want to be laughed at when Dylan's Choice was still trying to finish this race on Monday morning.

:rolleyes:

I am sure that this is probably old news that I somehow missed, but why exactly does Zito want to run him in this spot instead of an actual race? What point does this serve?

You know, there was once a time where horses prepped in easy spots and every race wasn't a competitive stake race. There's no reason to seek out a difficult spot at this point. He will have plenty of those opportunities down the road.

I guess it doesn't really matter either way, but it seems at this point that there would be plenty of 3yo stakes races for this colt that would not qualify as either difficult or competetitve.

When i was a kid in so. cal i remember hopping a bus to Santa Anita on a rainy weekday to watch Affirmed in an "allowance" race for his 3yo debut.

It's his first start in what may well be a very demanding year. He has the advantage of being under no pressure whatsoever of having to prove himself.

Seattle Slew did the same thing.

I get that, and I get that it has been done in the past.
I guess I just don't exactly understand the point to it.
It seems to me like if Zito had announced weeks in advance that he was targeting a pretty low-level stakes race with this colt, most of the mid-level 3yos would probably have avoided that race and he could have landed himself in another very easy spot with a bigger purse than what he is seeing here.
Again, I know it doesn't really matter either way, I just don't see any real disadvantage to running in a stakes race instead.

Problem is, where can you find such a race around one turn? With the Holy Bull being turned into a Preakness prep and the Hutcheson and Swale moved really early in the racing calendar there is no such race anymore.